When Absence adds Soul to your soul,
you will get morsels from Absence,
and you will chew them with pleasure.
Neither kitchen nor cook will appear.
But, plate after plate of sweets will be served to you.
The Rubailer (2016), Rubai 1, page 455.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (ApprxPubWinter2024), Rubai 1067, Volume 3.
O frowning Friend,
How much are You asking for vinegar?
You sell it as sugar when you trade with a sugar-lipped one.
You take sugar in exchange for your vinegar. Continue reading “Out of His Mind (11/19/2023)”
My life has become nothing but longing.
O Beloved, what beauty, what charm is that?
I don’t clap my hands unless You are the musician.
I don’t drink wine unless You are the cupbearer.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 4, page 490.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (ApprxPubWinter2024), Rubai 1057, Volume 3.
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.
One day, your heart will take you
to the One who has caught your heart.
One day, your soul will take you to the Beloved.
Don’t let go of the hem of the robe of your pain.
One day, your pain will take you to the remedy.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 1, page 494
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx.pub.fall2023), Rubai 1056, Volume 2.
O my Cupbearer who adds souls to Soul,
for God’s sake, offer up a river’s full.
Pour that red wine into my drunken head. Continue reading “Open a Door for Me (10/22/2023)”
I am the wind. You are a leaf.
When I blow, how could you remain still?
If I give you an order, how could you ignore it?
Since I have thrown a stone and broken your jar,
aren’t you worth hundreds of oceans, hundreds of pearls?
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 4, page 484.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Rubai 1036, Volume 3.
“Immortality of the soul” is only a rumor coming from the sages.
There is no better end for Love’s presence
than Love itself. Continue reading “Love’s Charm is Different (10/8/2023)”
If you turn around Saturn,
you become Saturn.
If you turn around a saint, you become a saint.
If you turn around the mine of Truth, you become a ruby.
If you turn around the Beloved,
you become the Essence of Love.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 4, page 481.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, the Ergin Translations (apprx.pub.fall2023), Rubai 1031, Volume 2.
Is there no music, no merrymaking for this lover
to help him attain his desire, to get his troubles to settle down?
In the morning, because of his separation,
he was frightened by daily troubles.
But at night, he found mercy from His moon. Continue reading “You Have Me in Return (9/24/2023)”