O one who enjoys the tunes of doubt and suspicion,
all these are the imaginations of your confused heart.
You are nothing,
and nothing could never be displayed to your eyes
as a something
better than this.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 4, rubai 1433, page 30.
O cupbearer of the soul,
go to the One who has a beautiful voice.
He is the eternal melody.
Listen to it, O falcon.
Your heart beats to the sound of His drum.
That Sultan is waiting for you.
Now is the time to fly back to Him,
the time for you to return.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 4, rubai 1429, page 28.
I listen to the melodies of Your sorrow in my soul.
In fact, aren’t all souls just tiny bits of Your sorrow?
They keep turning and shining by the light of Your sorrow,
in the air of their longing for You.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 4, rubai 1425, page 26.
I keep running with the hope of finding the Beloved,
because my life has come almost to its end,
and I am still dreaming.
Assuming I will eventually find the Beloved,
how can I find the time which has already passed?
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 4, rubai 1404, page 15.
The wine which is forbidden to the body
is served freely to the soul of the one
who is free from attachments to this world.
Pour us more, O Cupbearer. Never say, “This is the end.”
Who knows where our beginning is? Or, our end?
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 4, rubai 1401, page 14.
Troubles for me are cooking
in my Beloved’s kitchen of grief.
Every moment hundreds of different meals of sorrow
are being served to my table.
The scent of a burning heart
surrounds my table all the time.
I wonder. Where is this scent coming from?
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 3, rubai 1387, page 240.
Upon leaving Your house, I start weeping and wailing,
like a candle shedding tears because of the flame.
But, in order to gain something,
we must learn to weep and wail like a harp.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 3, rubai 1386, page 239.
Since I can no longer bear the heaviness of my heart,
I might as well give my heart to my longing for You.
What can I do with a heart
which doesn’t burn with the sorrow of Love?
What is its use to me? What should I save it for?
The Rubiayat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 3, rubai 1382, page 237.
The secret of Truth cannot be understood
by asking questions, gathering information,
or spending all your wealth and belongings.
If you haven’t cried for fifty years with bloody tears,
if you haven’t burned your heart out,
you will not find the way from words to ecstasy.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 3, rubai 1377, page 235.
The mind may give you what you think is evidence.
Love gives you the Beloved, the Friend.
What comes from the mind is nothing but dirty water.
What comes from the Beloved is the Water of Life.
You may ascend to the sky
with all the signs of a lover’s journey,
all the evidence which your mind so freely gives.
But in the sky, you will find no signs, no tricks, no traces.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 3, rubai 1376, page 234.