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Category: Rumi

  • When I die…

    By Rumi

    When I die
    when my coffin
    is being taken out
    you must never think
    i am missing this world

    don’t shed any tears
    don’t lament or
    feel sorry
    i’m not falling
    into a monster’s abyss

    when you see
    my corpse is being carried
    don’t cry for my leaving
    i’m not leaving
    i’m arriving at eternal love

    when you leave me
    in the grave
    don’t say goodbye
    remember a grave is
    only a curtain
    for the paradise behind

    you’ll only see me
    descending into a grave
    now watch me rise
    how can there be an end
    when the sun sets or
    the moon goes down

    it looks like the end
    it seems like a sunset
    but in reality it is a dawn
    when the grave locks you up
    that is when your soul is freed

    have you ever seen
    a seed fallen to earth
    not rise with a new life
    why should you doubt the rise
    of a seed named human

    have you ever seen
    a bucket lowered into a well
    coming back empty
    why lament for a soul
    when it can come back
    like Joseph from the well

    when for the last time
    you close your mouth
    your words and soul
    will belong to the world of
    no place no time

    RUMI, ghazal number 911,
    translated May 18, 1992,
    by Nader Khalili

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  • Time to go Home

    By Rumi

    Late and starting to rain,
    it’s time to go home.
    We’ve wandered long enough
    in empty buildings.
    I know it’s tempting to stay
    and meet those new people.
    I know it’s even more sensible
    to spend the night here with them,
    but I want to go home.

    We’ve seen enough beautiful places
    with signs on them saying
    This is God’s House.That’s seeing the
    grain like the ants do,
    without the work of harvesting.
    Let’s leave grazing to cows and go
    where we know what everyone really intends,
    where we can walk around without clothes on.

    From: Open Secret Coleman Barks

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  • There is a candle in your heart…

    By Rumi

    There is a candle in your heart,
    ready to be kindled.
    There is a void in your soul,
    ready to be filled.
    You feel it, don’t you?
    You feel the separation
    from the Beloved.
    Invite Him to fill you up,
    embrace the fire.
    Remind those who tell you otherwise that
    Love
    comes to you of its own accord,
    and the yearning for it
    cannot be learned in any school.

    From: Hush Don’t Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi
    Translated by Sharam Shiva

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  • The time has come…

    By Rumi

    the time has come
    to break all my promises
    tear apart all chains
    and cast away all advice

    disassemble the heavens
    link by link
    and break at once
    all lovers’ ties
    with the sword of death

    put cotton inside
    both my ears
    and close them to
    all words of wisdom

    crash the door and
    enter the chamber
    where all sweet
    things are hidden

    how long can i
    beg and bargain
    for the things of this world
    while love is waiting

    how long before
    i can rise beyond
    how i am and
    what i am

    Ghazal 1591 Translated by Nader Khalili

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  • The Story of My Life

    By Rumi

    i was ready to tell
    the story of my life
    but the ripple of tears
    and the agony of my heart
    wouldn’t let me

    i began to stutter
    saying a word here and there
    and all along i felt
    as tender as a crystal
    ready to be shattered

    in this stormy sea
    we call life
    all the big ships
    come apart
    board by board

    how can i survive
    riding a lonely
    little boat
    with no oars
    and no arms

    my boat did finally break
    by the waves
    and i broke free
    as i tied myself
    to a single board

    though the panic is gone
    i am now offended
    why should i be so helpless
    rising with one wave
    and falling with the next

    i don’t know
    if i am
    nonexistence
    while i exist
    but i know for sure
    when i am
    i am not
    but
    when i am not
    then i am

    now how can i be
    a skeptic
    about the
    resurrection and
    coming to life again

    since in this world
    i have many times
    like my own imagination
    died and
    been born again

    that is why
    after a long agonizing life
    as a hunter
    i finally let go and got
    hunted down and became free

    Ghazal 1419 Translated by Nader Khalili

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  • The Lovers

    By Rumi

    The Lovers
    will drink wine night and day.
    They will drink until they can
    tear away the veils of intellect and
    melt away the layers of shame and modesty.
    When in Love,
    body, mind, heart and soul don’t even exist.
    Become this,
    fall in Love,
    and you will not be separated again.

    From: Hush Don’t Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi
    Translated by Sharam Shiva

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  • The Force of Friendship

    By Rumi

    A sea-cow, a dugong, finds a special pearl
    and brings it up on land at night. By the light it gives off
    the dugong can graze on hyacinths and lilies.

    The excrement of the dugong is precious ambergris
    because it eats such beauty. Anyone who feeds on Majesty
    becomes eloquent. The bee, from mystic inspiration,
    fills its rooms with honey.

    So the dugong grazes at night in the pearl-glow.
    Presently, a merchant comes and drops black loam
    over the pearl, then hides behind a tree to watch.

    The dugong surges about the meadow like a blind bull.
    Twenty times it rushes at nothing, passing the mound
    where the pearl is.

    So Satan couldn’t see
    the spirit-center inside Adam.

    God says, Descend,
    and a huge pearl from Aden gets buried under dirt.
    The merchant knows,
    but the dugong doesn’t.

    Every clay-pile with a pearl inside
    loves to be near any other clay-pile with a pearl,
    but those without pearls cannot stand to be near
    the hidden companionship.

    Remember the mouse on the riverbank?
    There’s a love-string stretching into the water
    hoping for the frog.

    Suddenly a raven grips the mouse
    and flies off. The frog too, from the riverbottom,
    with one foot entangled in the invisible string,
    follows, suspended in the air.
    Amazed faces ask,
    “When did a raven ever go underwater
    and catch a frog?”
    The frog answers,
    “This is the force of Friendship.”
    What draws friends together
    does not conform to Laws of Nature.
    Form doesn’t know about spiritual closeness.
    If a grain of barley approaches a grain of wheat,
    an ant must be carrying it. A black ant on black felt.
    You can’t see it, but if grains go toward each other,
    it’s there.

    A hand shifts our birdcages around.
    Some are brought closer. Some move apart.
    Do not try to reason it out. Be conscious
    of who draws you and who not.

    Gabriel was always there with Jesus, lifting him
    above the dark-blue vault, the night-fortress world,
    just as the raven of longing carries the flying frog.

    Rumi Mathnawi, VI, 2922-2973
    From This Longing by Coleman Barks and John Moyne

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