We inherited a boat from Noah as the prize of deliverance.
It sails through storms on the sea of life.
Thoughts, images, sorrows and pleasures
are the plants which grow from this sea.
Like the heart, they have neither form nor direction.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 3, rubai 1200, page 146.
When my Essence turns into a sea of infinity,
the faces of my particles shine.
I burn like a candle on the way of Love
so that all moments can become one moment for me.
Rubailer (2026), Rubai 1, page 31
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Volume 3 Rubai 1153, page 123.
O heart, what kind of stories, what kind of adventures
are you looking for?
O heart, if you are looking for Me,
don’t you know that I am with you?
If you haven’t seen Me,
how can you look for the unknown, the unseen?
If you have seen Me, why are you still looking?
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 4, page 433.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, the Ergin Translations (pub.2024), Volume 3, Rubai 1100.
As Hodja is my witness,
I swear I will not make any vows again.
The glass of the vow is broken
as soon as I drink Love’s wine.
I swear to Your peerless beauty,
Your wine which defeats and ruins lions.
I won’t even get close to repentance.
I swear to Your sweet lips,
to Your heart which knows the secrets,
I am neither fond of this world
nor obliged to colors, to red and yellow.
I swear to Your sun-like face
and to the true value of Your words
that I am a thousand years
beyond the hot and cold of this world.
I swear to Your mind
which resembles a dark chestnut horse,
Your insignia which offers Soul,
that no one knows what kind of man I am
except You.
I swear to the blessedness of Your morning
and the uproar which comes after morning wine
that I will roll up the sky before I go.
O immortal Sultan, tell the cupbearer
that if someone comes to the assembly with a sour face,
he should serve him the sedimented wine of my sorrow.
That way, duality will disappear.
So will the difference between old and new.
Because at the sacred place of drinking,
I am separated from the crowd.
I am all by myself.
The cupbearer should offer so much wine
that that person becomes drunk, becomes a lover.
That way, he won’t be bothered
by either the echo of my voice or my cool reception.
When he becomes like that,
neither self nor envy will remain within him.
He will come to my playground pure and clean.
He will fly outside of time.
He will free himself from bait and trap.
He will turn himself into a witness
at this gambling place, without quarrel.
He will play with a clean heart like Venus.
He will submit himself to fate like dice,
saying neither, “I won,” nor “I lost.”
I will remain silent from now on.
I am neither nightingale nor parrot.
I am sugar.
I am a rose sapling.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 22, Ghazal 24, verses 216-228, pages 51-53.
I am not Me.
And, if I were to become Me for even a moment,
I would crush this world to pieces.
If I were to merge with the One who took my heart,
if I were to become Him,
like a tree, I would uproot myself from this world.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 4, page 486.
The Rubailer of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx.pub.spring2024) Volume 3, Rubai 1081.
If you were out of your self like we are,
if you were also drunk,
you would have already broken the halo around the moon,
ascended the heights of the sky and sat there. Continue reading “If You Were… You Would… (9/10/2023)”
O my Crescent of Eid,*
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)”
O one who has been check mated in the game of stars,
choose a horse. Ride toward the King.
Don’t bother with the vizier. Continue reading “Choose Fire (2/19/2023)”
My wish is God. My disciple is God.
I give my old to God. I give my new to God.
I have been laid down
under the feet of fate and accident. Continue reading “His Comfort, His Torture (12/4/2022)”
We are the mirror, and we are the face of the mirror.
We are the drunk of the glass of immortality.
We are the pain. We are the panacea.
We are the water of life. We are the water carrier.
Rubailer (2015), Rubai 1, page 413.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, (apprx. 3/23) Rubai 873, Volume 2.