I stopped over at a tavern one day.
There, I started to tear my patched-up body-cloak into pieces.
While everyone else was busy with their own affairs,
I was busy destroying my self, trying to find Me.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 3, page 326.
A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (tentative pub. date 12/1/21), Vol. 2 of 4, Rubai 691.
You cut me off like an umbilical cord in the name of drunkenness.
Even then, O Cupbearer, why did You leave me?
You create such Love with every breath.
O One who makes everything appear,
why are You not apparent? Continue reading “Focus Your Eyes on Absence (7/4/2021)”
Once this Love arrived, all other loves disappeared.
Because of my longing for You,
I was burned and turned into ashes.
My ashes scattered and disappeared.
Then, they came back, forming thousands of shapes again.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 3, page 220.
A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translation, Volume 1 (pub. Nov. 2021), Rubai 430.
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)”
When I was drinking wine in Your tavern one day,
I ripped off this cloak of mine, this cloak made of clay.
In Your now-ruined tavern,
I saw the harmony in its workings
and in the workings of the universe.
There was such balance of creation and destruction.
I was amazed.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 326.
A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (November 2021), Rubai 692 (Volume 2)
All anger comes from pride.
If you don’t fall into contempt, go, purify in humility.
Give up the self. Be dust. Continue reading “Anger (6/6/2021)”
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.
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)”
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)
O Sun who rides the horse of the sky!
O Beauty who uses deception to turn Himself into a star!
Sometimes, You appear like the heart sitting in the middle of the house.
At other times You come and sit in a corner. Continue reading “What a Crafty, Deceitful One (5/9/2021)”