I have twisted and wriggled like a snake
because of someone’s charms.
I have been curled up like the hair of the Beloved.
By God, I don’t know what kind of twist that is.
All I know is that suffering annihilates me,
carrying me from existence to Nothingness.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #2, page 318.
A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translation (pub. 11/2021), Rubai 673, vol. 2.
On the way to Love, each lover must either annihilate himself
or give up his life in death.
Some say,
“Love’s goal is to drink water from the Fountain of Life.”
These are just empty words, O lover, just empty words.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #3, page 226.
A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translation (pub. 11/2021)
Endure your pain quietly. I am your remedy.
Don’t look at anyone except Me,
because I am your true friend.
Even if I kill you, don’t say, “I have been killed.”
Instead, be grateful,
because I am the compensation for your life.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #3, page 307
A Rubaiyat of Rumi/The Ergin Translation (Nov. 2021), Rubai 654
Today, I am on the outside of a circle,
as if I am standing on the outside of a door.
I have become friends with the door knocker,
and I am holding onto it, knocking fearlessly.
Once I become a true companion of vision,
I will get through that door.
I will get into that circle,
and once I get in, I will stay there forever.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 302.
I am happy,
but that happiness is not from the reed-flute.
I am warm, but that warmth is not from any water or fire.
Love has emptied me so much of my self
that when I am measured on a scale,
I am two batmans* lighter than Nothing.
*An historical unit of weight.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 298.
How long will I be satisfied by the shapes and appearances of time?
How long will I watch and smell of existence?
I am tired of the materials and creatures of the present.
It is time to see that Beauty of Beauties.
But, when I look at Him, I see my image.
When I look at my image, I see His.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #2, page 316.
Don’t think that I have run away from you
or that I have given my heart to someone else.
I am not tied to anyone or anything.
Because I am separated from my origin, I am a stranger here.
And, I am running like a torrent into the sea of the Beloved.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 315.
I rejoice when I suffer.
I flourish when I am ruined.
I look quiet and silent like the earth,
but my wailing reaches the sky like thunder.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 294.
I have been dissolved in the sea of purity like salt.
There is no belief, no heresy left in me.
Neither certainty nor doubt remains.
A shining star has appeared in my heart.
Even the seven levels of sky have disappeared into that star.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 285.
We are being carried away by our desire
to see the face of that Sultan.
We are submerged like fish in His Love,
His sea of eternal life.
Dawn has broken. Morning has come.
We are upset by these uproars, this untimely morning.
We are begging for redress from this untimely noise.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #2, page 483.