How Can You Look for the Unknown? (3/17/2024)

How Can You Look for the Unknown? (3/17/2024)

O heart, what kind of stories, what kind of adventures

are you looking for?

O heart, if you are looking for Me,

don’t you know that I am with you?

If you haven’t seen Me,

how can you look for the unknown, the unseen?

If you have seen Me, why are you still looking?

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 4, page 433.

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, the Ergin Translations (pub.2024), Volume 3, Rubai 1100.

How Could I Ever Forget? (3/3/2024)

How Could I Ever Forget? (3/3/2024)

O One who reminded me last night,

reminded me of that moment of exuberance,

reminded me of the forgotten treasure!

How could I ever forget such a blessing?

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 1, page 424.

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx.pub.2024), Volume 3, rubai 1090.

Not Out There (2/4/2024)

Not Out There (2/4/2024)

Sometimes you get tired of living with His sorrow

and so you reject life.

Sometimes you tell His story with the ache in your heart.

Why are you turning so dizzily around the world?

The One whom you search for

is not out there, but inside of you.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 471.

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Rubai 1077, Volume 3 (apprx.pub.spring2024).

Worth Less Than a Small Coin (12/10/2023)

Worth Less Than a Small Coin (12/10/2023)

Leave to others the endless job

of the improvement of this Earth.

This whole world

is worth less than a ruined caravanserai,*

less than a small coin,

less even than a grain of barley.

*A roadside inn along a caravan route.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 441.

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (pubwinter2024), Rubai 1079, Volume 3.

You are an Endless Treasure (11/5/2023)

You are an Endless Treasure (11/5/2023)

I wonder if your eyes are sleepy or evasive.

No, I swear, you are trying to deceive God.

 

You close your eyes like a merchant

who reaches his gold once he falls asleep.

 

You have extended a chain, setting up endless traps.

You tightly restrain some, while you loosen the bondage of others.

 

As a good deed, you kill your innocent lovers

and pray in front of your martyrs’ graves.

 

Sometimes, like a cupbearer, you take the mind away from the head.

Sometimes, like a musician, you fill that head with melodies.

 

You play the ney of separation.

You play Iraq’s ney, making Buselik similar to Hicaz.*

 

You make the hearts and souls of poor ones

and the wounded hearts of captive ones

treasures of supplication

just with the alms of your beauty.

 

You tear the curtain of the firmament.

You are coy with the coyness of the Sultan.

You live with the great splendor of Eyaz,,**

stealing the crowns of sultans.

 

You are my love.

Does Love have any shape or form?

You dress in this shape. You are just joking.

 

You are an endless treasure.

No sultan’s seal could be put on such a treasure.

Even if a seal were put on one side,

you would quickly cut through it.

 

Submerge into this wealth and be silent.

How long will you be screaming,

clinging to hope and greed

while you sit next to this treasure?

*Iraq/ Buselik/ Hicaz  Tunes of Near Eastern music.

**Eyaz  The name of the slave of Gazne’s Mahmut, used symbolically to mean auspicious.

Divan-i Kebir, Volume 21, Ghazal 114, verses 1236-1246, pages 253-254.

About Old Age (9/17/2023)

About Old Age (9/17/2023)

Sometimes You rip the curtain.

Sometimes You repair it.

Sometimes You get along with me.

Sometimes You break me apart and burn me.

I am learning about youth in my old age.

O people of the world, I can advise you about old age.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 481.

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (approx.pub.fall2023), Rubai 1030, Volume 3.

Your Being is the Curtain (8/20/2023)

Your Being is the Curtain (8/20/2023)

If you become God’s prey, you will be freed from sorrows.

If you run after your desires, you will be a slave to yourself.

You should know this very well:

your being is the curtain which conceals God from you.

Do not stay with you, or you will get hurt all the time.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 474.

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx.pub.fall2023), Rubai 1018, Volume 3.

Don’t Break the Jar (8/13/2023)

Don’t Break the Jar (8/13/2023)

O sugar lipped one, don’t break the jar.

O stonehearted one, don’t break the jar.

 

If you become His drunk,

you will drink wine from His hand.

But, His breath is very dangerous.

Don’t break the jar. Continue reading “Don’t Break the Jar (8/13/2023)”