O moon-faced One,
how long will you stay away?
How long will you be wandering around?
It doesn’t matter if one is an idol or shaman;
we are all Your prey. Continue reading “Love is Only for the Small (5/7/2023)”
O moon-faced One,
how long will you stay away?
How long will you be wandering around?
It doesn’t matter if one is an idol or shaman;
we are all Your prey. Continue reading “Love is Only for the Small (5/7/2023)”
If all I have made are mistakes and You are my only right, that is enough for me.
You are the only meaning of my ruined, wrecked life.
At the time of my leaving this world,
if they ask me, “What did you do?”
I will answer, “You.” And, that is enough for me.
Rubaiyat (2016), Rubai 3, page 454.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx.pub. fall 2023), Rubai 967, Volume 3.
The Beloved is holding my harness,
pulling me like a camel again.
His business is to pull the one who chooses to be pulled.
Mine is to carry the load. Continue reading “My Patience Will Win (4/23/2023)”
show Yourself, so that Eid sees the real Eid.
O my invisible moon-faced One, show Yourself.
Pull the ear of the moon.
O my existence, my Absence,
O my rage and my contentment, Continue reading “My Foundation, My Essence (4/2/2023)”
My God, I wish I knew the intention of my Beloved.
He has taken my heart. My decision has disappeared.
My escape route has been blocked. Continue reading “My God, I Wish I Knew (3/19/2023)”
Someday this branch full of flowers will bear fruit.
Someday this falcon of desire will catch its prey.
Today His image appears and disappears.
But, the time will come when it will stay.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 4, page 440.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx.pub. 11/2023), Rubai 937.
I came to grab you by the ear and drag you away.
I came to leave you without a heart, without a self.
I came to put you inside of My heart.
O rose sapling, I came to embrace you like a beautiful spring,
to scatter you here and there and everywhere.
I came to charm you in this palace,
to raise you above the sky like the prayers of lovers. Continue reading “I Won’t Leave You in the Middle of the Road (1/8/2023)”
You are a copy of the Divine Book.
You are the mirror of the Sultan’s art, beauty and power.
There is nothing in the universe beyond you.
Whatever you want, ask yourself to give it to you.
Whatever you are looking for, search for it within you.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 441.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx.pub.7/2023), Rubai 924, volume 2.
In a group meeting with Hasan Shushud back in the 1970’s, Jonathan Boulting related that this was one of the bits of wisdom Shushud shared, with the caveat that his English might need some reconsideration: GRIEF: Our contract with Eternity. Mr. Shushud spoke often about our inborn nostalgia, our longing “to go home,” our separation from our Essence… the source of true grief. Nevit Ergin referred constantly in his translations of Rumi’s poetry to “His sorrow.” When some begin the practice of fasting, they are able to begin to taste that sorrow, and it is one of the greatest gifts. Our self doesn’t want to feel it, which is its impetus for surrounding itself with an infinite number of distractions. As for the contract, it might be more of a promise that we made and need to keep. As Rumi says, “The purpose of Existence is to reach Absence.”
The fragrance of the rose garden and orchard is coming.
The fragrance of that tender-hearted Beloved is coming.
My Beloved has scattered so many pearls
that the sea is now up to my waist. Continue reading “From Beyond Love (12/25/2022)”