It’s better to be a fool with Love than to be a wise scholar,
better to become dirt on the road than to be a moon in the sky.
Become one with good and bad, young and old.
Be a pawn, then a vizier, then later, a king.
Rubailer (2016), rubai 4, page 391.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx.pub. 7/2023), rubai 894, volume 2.
Man makes plans and takes appropriate measures,
but he doesn’t know his fate.
Once God enters the scene,
all his plans and measures disappear.
Man thinks, but his sight is limited.
He uses all his cunning, but he is far from being Godly.
If he is successful when he takes two steps, he takes two more.
He has no idea in what direction God will pull him next.
.
Don’t be ostentatious.
Yearn for the kingdom of Love.
Love is the One to save you from the angel of death.
Be silent. Choose a place. Settle down.
Wherever you choose, that King will set you up there.
You can be sure that all the people you see
are in the prison of death.
A prisoner cannot get you out of jail.
Enough!
How long are you going to flirt with the blind?
How long are you going to yell at the deaf?
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 20, Ghazal 25, verses 267-273, pages 51-52.
Is there a lip from which the smell of soul isn’t coming right now?
Is there a particle of the heart in which a trace of Him doesn’t reside?
If there are no provisions coming from that famous table,
why is every particle chewing cud like a camel? Continue reading “Not Even a Small Part of This Comes from the Sky (11/21/2021)”
The mind is a roadblock on the journey, O son.
The road is wide open.
Untie this bond. Tear it, O son. Continue reading “This is Expected of You (9/12/2021)”
If you fall in Love with me,
I will make you utterly confused.
Don’t construct anything,
because in the end, I will destroy you. Continue reading “Be Silent. I Will Read (6/20/2021)”
You are such a moon that You don’t fit in the sky.
You are such water that You cannot be contained in a river.
You are such a pearl that You exceed the oceans.
You are such a mountain that You cannot fit in any valley. Continue reading “Your Only Dress can be the Light of the Heart (5/23/2021)”
I am not the kind of lion which fights with the enemy.
I fight with my self. That’s enough for me.
I have become dirt for Love’s feet, but am settled in the knowledge
that I will rise from the ground like a rose, like an iris. Continue reading “I Will Rise (2/14/2021)”
Who is the doctor of the disease which has no cure?
Who is our company for this endless journey?
If this is reason, what is craziness?
If this is Love, who is the Beloved? Continue reading “The Lesson of Silence (9/6/2020)”
Every night, the specter of my Beauty praises the attributes of my Essence
and talks about the Absence of my Essence which proves my Existence.
The Sultan of chess of the seven stars sends a sign
from His ayn*-like eye and cim-like ear which checkmates me.
If I were to pick an apple from that tree and split it in half,
such an amazing Beauty would be born.
Grapes would cover the whole world.
Wine would overflow all around my gardens.
If I took the Quran in my hand and, in confusion, it slipped from my hand,
His face would become ten verses of the Quran
and His lips would turn into a verse for me.
The world is Mount Sinai. I am Moses.
I am out of my self. I have gone beyond my self.
The world keeps shaking, but the only one who knows
is the one who walks that road where I paid my dues.
The soul’s sun rose and said, “O lazy ones, get up.
When I reflect on the mountain, even my smallest particles keep moving.”
Be silent.
I have cried and yelled so much that hundreds of centuries will pass
and the world will still turn along with my songs and screams.
*ayn and cim Letters of the Arabic alphabet.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 15, Ghazal 40, verses 459-465, pages 90-91.
Just now, ruby-colored tears have started seeping from my eyes.
A sign has appeared from Love, yet a trace of Love’s dust never appears. Continue reading “A Sign Has Appeared from Love (3/8/2020)”