Where are you, O God’s martyrs,
O ones who looked for trouble in the Karbala* desert?
Where are you, O impatient lovers,
O ones who fly faster than the birds in the sky? Continue reading “Where Are You? (2/20/2022)”
Where are you, O God’s martyrs,
O ones who looked for trouble in the Karbala* desert?
Where are you, O impatient lovers,
O ones who fly faster than the birds in the sky? Continue reading “Where Are You? (2/20/2022)”
O One who kneaded my hands and feet from mud
and gave senses and mind to my body,
O Moon, enlighten my eyes and heart.
Take me into Your arms.
My soul, which chews Your sugar, is crying and wailing for You.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 3, page 355.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (approx. pub. 5/2022), Rubai 762, 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)”
The mind is a roadblock on the journey, O son.
The road is wide open.
Untie this bond. Tear it, O son. Continue reading “This is Expected of You (9/12/2021)”
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.
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)”
I wasn’t as insane as I am now.
I wasn’t out of my mind like this before.
I used to be prudent and wise once,
not crazy and insane like I am now. Continue reading “I am the Treasure (2/28/2021)”
What kind of work bench do You have in that heart?
What idols are You carving in that heart?
Spring has come. It is seed time.
Who knows what You are sowing in that heart?
Outside, You are covered with curtains of secrecy.
But, You are wide open in the middle of that heart.
The person who searches gets his feet stuck in the mud.
But, You scratch his head in that heart.
If a heart were not bigger and greater than the skies,
You wouldn’t ride the Moon in that heart.
If a heart were not such a big city,
no Sultan could fit in, move around in that heart.
O my Soul, the heart is an amazing forest.
You are the master of hunting in that heart.
There are thousands of waves which move in the sea of heart.
You harvest pearls in that heart.
I have kept silent,
because even if one tries to describe its qualities,
no mind can comprehend the heart.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 18, Ghazal 103, verses 1024-1032, pages 3-4.
Tonight, the cupbearer is serving wine
not by the glass, but by the pitcher.
He has plundered every heart and seized all faith.
He has served so much wine
that a flood has taken away the house of the mind.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 4, page 159.
The mind may give you what you think is evidence.
Love gives you the Beloved, the Friend.
What comes from the mind is dirty water.
What comes from the Beloved is the Water of Life.
You may ascend to the sky with all the signs of a lover’s journey,
all the evidence which your mind so freely gives.
But in the sky, you will find no signs, no tricks, no traces.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi (2021), Rubai 1376 (Volume 3).