Reading Rumi

Focus Your Eyes on Absence (7/4/2021)

Focus Your Eyes on Absence (7/4/2021)

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)”

Because of My Longing (6/27/2021)

Because of My Longing (6/27/2021)

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.

I was Amazed (6/13/2021)

I was Amazed (6/13/2021)

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)

From Existence to Nothingness (5/30/2021)

From Existence to Nothingness (5/30/2021)

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.

Your Only Dress can be the Light of the Heart (5/23/2021)

Your Only Dress Can Be the Light of the Heart (5/23/2021)

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)”

Empty Words (5/16/2021)

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)

I Am Your Remedy (5/2/2021)

I Am Your Remedy (5/2/2021)

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