Allspirit

Category: Sufism

  • One Whisper of the Beloved

    By Rumi

    Lovers share a sacred decree –
    to seek the Beloved.
    They roll head over heels,
    rushing toward the Beautiful One
    like a torrent of water.

    In truth, everyone is a shadow of the Beloved –
    Our seeking is His seeking,
    Our words are His words.

    At times we flow toward the Beloved
    like a dancing stream.
    At times we are still water
    held in His pitcher.
    At times we boil in a pot
    turning to vapor –
    that is the job of the Beloved.

    He breathes into my ear
    until my soul
    takes on His fragrance.
    He is the soul of my soul –
    How can I escape?
    But why would any soul in this world
    want to escape from the Beloved?

    He will melt your pride
    making you thin as a strand of hair,
    Yet do not trade, even for both worlds,
    One strand of His hair.

    We search for Him here and there
    while looking right at Him.
    Sitting by His side we ask,
    “O Beloved, where is the Beloved?”

    Enough with such questions! –
    Let silence take you to the core of life.

    All your talk is worthless
    When compared to one whisper
    of the Beloved.

    Ode 442 translated by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva
    A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi

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  • My Dear Friend

    By Rumi

    My dear friend
    never lose hope
    when the Beloved
    sends you away.

    If you’re abandoned
    if you’re left hopeless
    tomorrow for sure
    you’ll be called again.

    If the door is shut
    right in your face
    keep waiting with patience
    don’t leave right away.

    Seeing your patience
    your love will soon
    summon you with grace
    raise you like a champion.

    And if all the roads
    end up in dead ends
    you’ll be shown the secret paths
    no one will comprehend.

    The beloved I know
    will give with no qualms
    to a puny ant
    the kingdom of Solomon.

    My heart has journeyed
    many times around the world
    but has never found
    and will never find
    such a Beloved again.

    ah I better keep silence
    I know this endless love
    will surely arrive
    for you and you and you.

    Translated by Nader Khalili

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  • Lovers Think

    By Rumi

    Lovers think they are looking for each other,
    but there is only one search: wandering
    This world is wandering that, both inside one
    transparent sky. In here
    there is no dogma and no heresy.
    The miracle of Jesus is himself, not what he said or did
    about the future, Forget the future.
    I’d worship someone who could do that.
    On the way you may want to look back, or not,
    but if you can say “There’s nothing ahead”,
    there will be nothing there.
    Stretch your arms and take hold the cloth of your clothes
    with both hands. The cure for pain is in the pain.
    Good and bad are mixed. If you don’t have both,
    you don’t belong with us.
    When one of us gets lost, is not here, he must be inside us.
    There’s no place like that anywhere in the world.

    From The Essential Rumi

    Coleman Barks with John Moyne

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  • Fleeing from Love

    By Rumi

    Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation?
    What do you know of Love except the name?
    Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain,
    and is gained by a hundred means of persuasion.
    Since Love is loyal, it purchases one who is loyal:
    it has no interest in a disloyal companion.
    The human being resembles a tree; its root is a covenant with God:
    that root must be cherished with all one’s might.
    A weak covenant is a rotten root, without grace or fruit.
    Though the boughs and leaves of the date palm are green,
    greenness brings no benefit if the root is corrupt.
    If a branch is without green leaves, yet has a good root,
    a hundred leaves will put forth their hands in the end.

    From: Jewels of Remembrance, Trans. Camille and Kabir Helminski

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  • Look at Love…

    By Rumi

    Look at Love…
    how it tangles
    with the one fallen in love

    look at spirit
    how it fuses with earth
    giving it new life

    why are you so busy
    with this or that or good or bad
    pay attention to how things blend

    why talk about all
    the known and the unknown
    see how unknown merges into the known

    why think separately
    of this life and the next
    when one is born from the last

    look at your heart and tongue
    one feels but deaf and dumb
    the other speaks in words and signs

    look at water and fire
    earth and wind
    enemies and friends all at once

    the wolf and the lamb
    the lion and the deer
    far away yet together

    look at the unity of this
    spring and winter
    manifested in the equinox

    you too must mingle my friends
    since the earth and the sky
    are mingled just for you and me

    be like sugarcane
    sweet yet silent
    don’t get mixed up with bitter words

    my beloved grows
    right out of my own heart
    how much more union can there be
    translated by Nader Khalili

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  • Longing for the Birds of Solomon

    By Rumi

    Is this stuff poetry? It’s what birds sing in cages.
    Where are the words spoken by the birds of Solomon?

    How would you know their cries, if you heard them,
    When you haven’t seen Solomon even for two seconds?

    Solomon’s bird lifts his wings, one tip touches East, one West.
    Those who hear the notes feel an intensity in their whole body.

    The bird descends from the Holy One’s bedroom door to earth.
    And from earth it flies among light back to the Great Seat.

    Without Solomon every bird is a bat in love with darkness.
    Listen, oh mischievous bat, try to become his friend. Do you want to stay
    in your cave forever?

    If you go even three feet towards Solomon’s mountain,
    Others will use that as a yardstick to measure their lives.

    Suppose your leg is gimpy, and you have to hop, what’s the difference?
    Going toward Solomon, even by limping, the leg grows whole.

    The Rumi Collection – Edited by Kabir Helminski
    Translation by Robert Bly

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  • It is your turn now

    By Rumi

    It is your turn now,
    you waited, you were patient.
    The time has come,
    for us to polish you.
    We will transform your inner pearl
    into a house of fire.
    You’re a gold mine.
    Did you know that,
    hidden in the dirt of the earth?
    It is your turn now,
    to be placed in fire.
    Let us cremate your impurities.

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

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