See the Bloody Tears (1/12/2025)

See the Bloody Tears (1/12/2025)

See the bloody tears, the hundreds of torn shirts caused by Your grief.

Listen to all the yelling and screaming.

Look at the blood of my lungs,

smeared all over my face, my back, my front. Continue reading “See the Bloody Tears (1/12/2025)”

The Time of Union Has Come (10/6/2024)

The Time of Union Has Come (10/6/2024)

Assume I am a thorn, a bad one.

But, the thorn and rose go together.

When a jeweler weighs gold,

he puts barley as a weight on the other side of the scale. Continue reading “The Time of Union Has Come (10/6/2024)”

You Have Me in Return (9/24/2023)

You Have Me in Return (9/24/2023)

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)”

“You” (4/30/2023)

“You” (4/30/2023)

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.

About Death (9/19/2021)

About Death (9/19/2021)

Your soul is a guest of your body for only a couple of days.

Yet, you have become so attached to this Earth

that you don’t want to listen when I talk about death.

Your soul is longing for that mansion –

that “death before death.”*

Unfortunately, your body’s donkey

has fallen asleep in the middle of the road.

*Total destruction of the self before the death of the body.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 80.

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (approx. pub. date 3/2022), Rubai 108, Volume 1.

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)