what am I doing?

Do you think I know what I’m doing?
That for one breath or half-breath I belong to myself?
As much as a pen knows what it’s writing,
Or the ball can guess where it’s going next.


Rumi

Open Secret: Versions of Rumi

the later returned

When a drop quit home and later returned

It found a shell and became a pearl.

Rumi



excerpt from Rumi's Divan of Shems of Tabriz - Selected Odes, a new interpretation by James Cowan, Element Boooks, 1997

it is love

It is love that makes hearts rotate. If there weren't any love, the Earth would just freeze.

Rumi

a clod of earth

Upon Love's face gaze, that you may be considered a man.
Don't sit with cold people; their breath will chill you.

Seek from Love's face something other than beauty;
It's time you associated with a genuine friend.

A clod of earth, you'll not rise in the air
Unless you break and become mere dust.

If you don't break, he who made you will;
When death does, will you remain separate?

A fresh root makes green again a leaf that yellows;
So don't blame Love at your increasing paleness.

O friend,if you attain perfection among us,
This throne will be yours, your every desire gained.

But if you remain too long on this earth,
You will be as dice, passing from place to place.

If Shems of Tabriz, O Wild One! draws you to his side,
On your escape from gaol, you'll re-enter his orbit.


Rumi


in Rumi's Dıvan of Shems of Tabriz, a new ınterpretation by James Cowan

the man of God

The man of God remains drunk without wine,
The mand of God is replete without meat.

The man of God is distraught and confused,
The man of God is hungry and fatigued.

The man of God is a king in pauper's clothes,
The man of God is a treasure in a ruin.

The man of God is neither air nor earth,
The man of God is not fire nor water.

The man of God is a boundless ocean,
The man of God rains pearls on a clear day.

The man of God has countless moons and skies,
The man of God has unnumbered suns.

The man of God draws wisdom from truth,
The man of God learns without books.

The man of God is beyond belief and religion,
To the man of God right and wrong are the same.

The man of God has escaped from un-being,
The man of God is waited on in glory.

Wild One, the mand of God is in hiding,
You look for the man of God everywhere!


Rumi


ın Rumi's Dıvan of Shems of Tabriz, a new interpretation by James Cowan


this transcription is dedicated to Ihsan, a man of God

depart towards heaven

Ode 2180

From these depths depart towards heaven;
may your soul be happy, journey joyfully.
You have escaped from the city full of fear and trembling;
happily become a resident of the Abode of Security.
If the body’s image has gone, await the image-maker; if the
body is utterly ruined, become all soul.
If your face has become saffron pale through death, become a
dweller among tulip beds and Judas trees.
If the doors of repose have been barred to you, come, depart
by way of the roof and the ladder.
If you are alone from Friends and companions, by the help of
God become a saheb-qeran.
If you have been secluded from water and bread, like bread
become the food of the souls, and so become!

Rumi


"Mystical Poems of Rumi 2" A. J. Arberry
The University of Chicago Press, 1991

(*) The Abode of Security seems to be an allusion to heaven which is sometimes called "the abode of peace" (dar-al salam) by Rumi as against "the abode of pride" (dar-al gorur) i.e., the world..

(**) Saheb qeran is a person who is born under a happy conjunction of the planets. [lord of happy circumstance]


If you'd like to read more poems by Rumi, please refer to:
http://www.rumi.org.uk/poetry/