Not Like Your Halfway Happiness (10/3/2021)

Not Like Your Halfway Happiness (10/3/2021)

We have neither silk garments nor silver, but we are happy.

In trouble and fear, we are content.

We are drunk on the wine of eternal submission.

This is not like your halfway happiness.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 3, page 343

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (approx. pub. 5/2022), Rubai 732, Volume 2

See My Generosity? (8/15/2021)

See My Generosity? (8/15/2021)

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.

Secrets Shaken Out with Thunder (7/25/2021)

Secrets Shaken Out with Thunder (7/25/2021)

I became exuberant when that pearl emerged in me.

I was turned into a rough sea by that storm.

I revealed the secrets of the ocean,

secrets shaken out with thunder.

Then, I slept on the shore like an empty cloud.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 329.

A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (tent. pub. 12/1/2021), Volume 2, Rubai 696.

Trying to Find Me (7/11/2021)

Trying to Find Me (7/11/2021)

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.

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)”

From Existence to Nothingness (5/30/2021)

From Existence to Nothingness (5/30/2021)

I have twisted and wriggled like a snake

because of someone’s charms.

I have been curled up like the hair of the Beloved.

By God, I don’t know what kind of twist that is.

All I know is that suffering annihilates me,

carrying me from existence to Nothingness.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai #2, page 318.

A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translation (pub. 11/2021), Rubai 673, vol. 2.