Once I was a child and followed teachers.
Next, I was content watching the faces of my friends.
But, see what happened at the end of my story:
I came like a cloud and left with the wind.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 351.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, (apprx. pub. 5/2022), Rubai 754, Volume 2.
How can you know the design of the Designer,
the paint of the Painter?
You are mere form and flesh.
How could you possibly know Soul? Continue reading “Mere Form and Flesh (10/10/2021)”
We keep turning like the sky in our longing for the Moon.
Only God knows our business.
Considering all the things which are happening in this world,
we wonder how smart people can keep their minds in their heads.
Yet, they wonder about our exuberance.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 335.
The Rubais of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (pub. approx. 5/22), Rubai 721, volume 2.
Why are you sorry if you lose your profit, your capital?
Here I am. See My generosity?
Don’t fall into despair.
If the world disappears
and the sea becomes a drop of dew, who cares?
If it passes out and drops to the ground,
that doesn’t mean it has left My hand.
The world is a fish. Absence is an ocean.
There are so many fights in the heart of the fish.
But, I fish without a line.
Even if a fish disappears, I will still catch it.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 15, Ghazal 98, verses 1116-1118, page 221.
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.
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)”
Don’t think that I have run away from you
or that I have given my heart to someone else.
I am not tied to anyone or anything.
Because I am separated from my origin, I am a stranger here.
And, I am running like a torrent into the sea of the Beloved.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 315.
Have you ever known a wine which has no hangover?
Have you ever picked a rose which has no thorns? Continue reading “Have You Ever…? (6/14/2020)”
A human is made by mixing opposite materials.
His shape is drawn on the table of sorrow.
His clay is carved by grief.
Sometimes he is an angel, sometimes a devil.
How could such qualities be mixed?
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 242, page 168, #3.
Not everyone looks for You.
Nor do You ask that everyone does.
Not every mill wheel turns by the water coming from Your river.
Drawing a strong, tight bow is not for everyone.
For that, one has to be a hero.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #2, page 77.