Crying and Wailing (11/14/2021)

Crying and Wailing (11/14/2021)

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.

Only God Knows (9/5/2021)

Only God Knows (9/5/2021)

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.

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)”

In That Heart (11/15/2020)

Heart (11/15/2020)

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.

No Signs, No Tricks, No Traces (9/27/2020)

No Signs, No Tricks, No Traces (9/27/2020)

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).