Seek Refuge in the Locks of Shamsi Tabriz!
by Rumi
Oh heart, place no honey in the mouth of the ill!
Speak not of entrancing eyes in the assembly of the blind!
Although God is nearer to His servant than his
jugular vein (Koran L 16),
he is far from those who are far from Him.
Occupy yourself with your own inward self!
Then like moons the concealed maidens will
come out in theophany from behind their veils!
Although in this work you will be lost to
yourself and the world,
outside of yourself and the world you
will be famous.
If you are the moon of union, give a sign of
your union!
Tell of the arms, the silver breasts, and the faces
of the houris!
And if you are yellow gold from separation's
heartache,
where is separation's burning brand?
Only the coins of the wretched are so dull and tarnished.
Since you have no love, at least perform the
duties of servanthood,
for God will never neglect the wages of the wage earners.
Know that love for god is Solomon's seal
how should Solomon's income be related to the wages of ants?
Throw away the garments of thought and
cogitation, for the sun only shines upon the naked!
Seek refuge in the locks of Shams-i Tabrizi, for
they rain down musk and will protect you from tyrants.
- Ghazal, Divani Shamsi Tabriz, (Ode 2073)
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983
I'm Light Within His Light
I circled awhile
with each of the intelligences,
the nine fathers
that control the levels
of spirit-growth.
I revolved for years with the stars
through each astrological sign.
I disappeared into
the kingdom of nearness.
I saw what I have seen,
receiving nourishment
as a child lives in the womb.
Personalities are born once,
a mystic many times.
Wearing the body-robe,
I've been busy in the market,
weighing and arguing prices.
Sometimes I have torn the robe off
with my own hands and thrown it away.
I've spent long nights in monasteries,
and I have slept with those
who claim to believe nothing
on the porches of pagodas,
just traveling through.
When someone feels jealous,
I am inside the hurt
and the need to possess.
When anyone is sick,
I feel feverish and dizzy.
I am cloud and rain being released,
and then the meadow as it soaks it in.
I wash the rains of mortality
from the cloth around a dervish.
I am the rose of eternity,
not made of water or fire
or the wandering wind,
or even earth.
I pay with those.
I am not Shams of Tabriz,
but a light within his light.
If you see me, be careful.
Tell no one what you've seen.
-- Ghazal (Ode) 331
Version by Coleman Barks
"Say I Am You" Maypop, 1994
Though And I
"Happy the moment when we are seated in the palace, thou and I,
With two forms and with two figures but with one soul, thou and I.
The colors of the grove and the voice of the birds will bestow immortality
At the time when we come into the garden, thou and I.
The stars of heaven will come to gaze upon us;
We shall show them the moon itself, thou and I.
Thou and I, individuals no more, shall be mingled in ecstasy,
Joyful and secure from foolish babble, thou and I.
All the bright-plumed birds of heaven will devour their hearts with envy
In the place where we shall laugh in such a fashion, thou and I.
This is the greatest wonder, that thou and I, sitting here in the same nook,
Are at this moment both in Iraq and Khorasan, thou and I.
-Divan-e Shams-i Tabriz
"If you have newly become a lover"
Out of jealousy, Love makes the lover appearlike everyone's enemy. Once it has made people reject him, heturns to It.He who is worthy of the creatures is not worthyfor Love -- only the whore's soul marries a hundred husbands.Since the lover is not suited for "others," letthem all reject him -- then the King of Love will make him Hissitting companion.When the creatures drive him from themselves,he cuts himself off from their company; he accustoms hisoutward and inward to sweet-natured Love.But when the creatures accept him, his minddrags him in their direction and his heart turns furtively thisway and that toward anyone's love.When Love sees this It says, "My tresses havethrown a shadow, so the lover smells there the fragrance ofmusk and ambergris.I will make these two scents the enemy of hismind and brain -- he will have to abandon both.Though the lover has sniffed the musk inremembrance of Me, only a beginner on the Path wanders likea child saying, 'Where? Where?'Once he has left childhood, he will open theeye of knowledge -- why should he run to and fro on the riverbank looking for water?"If you have newly become a lover, take thebitter medicine and drink it, so that Shirin may make yousweeter than Khusraw's honey.*Perhaps Shams-I Tabrizi will intoxicate youfrom beyond the two worlds and remove you fromyourself!-- Ghazal (Ode) 742Translation by William C. Chittick"The Sufi Path of Love"SUNY Press, Albany, 1983* King Khusraw and Shirin are a pair of lovers oftencelebrated in Persian verse. Khusraw I or "royal" honeywas a famous kind of exquisite honey. Shirin, whosename literally means "sweet," of course represents theBeloved.
"Don’t set your heart on bones"
Little by little God takes away human beauty:little by little the sapling withers.Go, recite "To whomever We give a length of days,We also cause them to decline."*Seek the spirit;don't set your heart on bones.~~~~~~~~~~~Andak-e andak mi setânad ân jamâlandak-e andak khoshk mi gardad nehâlRaw "nu`ammiruhu nunakkis'hu" be-khvândel talab kon del ma-neh bar estekhvân-- Mathnawi, II:714-715Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski"Rumi: Daylight"Threshold Books, 1994, Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyل Monastra
* Quran 36:68
"Without you my heart is shattered"
~^ ^ ^ ^ ^I am a sculptorI carve new shapes and forms each daybut when I see you they all melt.I am a painterI create images and bring them to lifebut when I see you they all vanish.Who are you my Friendthe promised lover or the deceitful enemy?You ruin everything I build.My soul has sprung from yours andit carries the scent of your perfume.But without you my heart is shattered,please, come back or let me leavethis lonely world.
-- Ghazal (Ode) 1462"Rumi: Hidden Music"Translated by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam MafiHarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
"Hundreds of thousands of trials"
~^ ^ ^ ^ ^There are hundreds of thousands of trials for anyone who claims,"I am the commander of the gate."If the vulgar don't put him to the test,the adepts of the way will demand the token of his sincerity.When a roughneck pretends to be a tailor,the king will throw down a piece of satin in front of him.~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~Sad hazârân emtehânast ay pedarhar keg guyad "Man shodam sarhang-e dar"Gar na-dânad `âmmeh u-râ ze emtehânpokhtegân-e râh juyandesh neshânChon konad da`vâ khayyâti khasiafgand dar pish-e u shah atlasi-- Mathnawi III: 682-684Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"Threshold Books, 1996(Persian transliteration courtesy of YahyÙ Monastra)The
"Out of my own control"
Today, Sunlight offers Ghazal (Ode) 1688, from the Divan-e Shams, in the version which Coleman Barks derived from the Arberry translation, and in translation by A.J. Arberry:^ ^ ^ ^ ^"I Am Not This"I am not this. Your beauty closesmy eyes, and I am falling intothat. You cut the umbilical withthis love that's been with me sincebirth. My mother saw your mountainreflected in my face, you that liftcoverings, you that bring death. Weagreed on this before creation. I'vebeen so hidden. Ask my body who Iam. It says "solid ground." Ask mysoul. "Dizzy as the wind." Neither,I stand here facing Shams of Tabriz.-- Version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin "The Glance"Viking-Penguin, 1999~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~I have got out of my own control, I have fallen into uncon-sciousness; in my utter unconsciousness how joyful I am withmyself! The darling sewed up my eyes so that I might not see otherthan him, so that suddenly I opened my eyes on his face.My soul fought with me saying, "Do not pain me"; I said,"Take your divorce." She said, "Grant it"; I granted it.When my mother saw on my cheek the brand of your love shecut my umbilical cord on that, the moment I was born.*If I travel to heaven and read the Tablet of the Unseen, O youwho are my soul's salvation, without you how I am ruined!*When you cast aside the veil the dead became alive; the lightof your face reminded me of the Covenant of Alast.* When I became lost, O soul, through love of the king of theperis, hidden from self and creatures, I am as if peri-born myself.I said to the Tabriz of Shams-e Din, "O body, what are you?"Body said, "Earth"; Soul said, "I am distraught like the wind."-- Translation by A. J. Arberry"Mystical Poems of Rumi 2" The University of Chicago Press, 1991* "the moment I was born" -- To experience divine love is a spiritual regeneration or birth for a Sufi. This is why the soul in the world is compared to the embryo in the womb, and when it becomes a babejust born into a new world. Cf. Math. notes, 1: 19, 3180. Rumi says that such a love was inborn in him and from the beginning he embarked on his Sufi mission. "On that" refers to that love. It was a common superstition that if, while cutting the umbilical cord, one made a wish, the child would attain it.* "Lawh-e gayb" (the Unseen Tablet) seems to be the same as "lawh-e mahfuz (the Preserved tablet, Quran 85:22) which refers to the Quran. It is said to have been in heaven before its revelation. The Sufis interpret it as the First Intelligence (aql-e avval) or Logos or the Active Intellect (aql-e fa'al). See Sajjadi, "Farshang-erfani", 405, and Nicholson's note on Math. 1:296.* Covenant of Alast: "Alastu bi rabbikum?", "Am I not your Lord?" (Quran 7:171). Thus God addressed the future generations of men (according to the Sufis their souls). They answered "Yes", and acknowledged God's right to judge their actions and to punish their sins.
courtesy:http://tinyurl.
The Red Rose
The red rose, which tears its cloak to shreds -- Ifor one know its motive.The willow has let down its branches in straightrows to make up for all the ritual prayers it has missed.The lily with its sword and the jasmine with itsshield are preparing themselves for the holy war.The poor nightingale--how he suffers! He sighsat the rose's display.
Each of the lovely brides in the garden says,"The rose is glancing at me."The nightingale replies, "The rose makes thoseamorous gestures for my sake, headless and footless me!"The plane-tree has lifted up its hands inlamentation--shall I tell you what supplications he makes?Who put the hat on the bud's head? Who bentthe violet over double?Although autumn was very cruel, behold thefaithfulness of spring!Whatever autumn took in pillage, spring hascome and replaced.I speak of roses, nightingales and the beauties ofthe garden as a pretext -- why do I do it?For the sake of Love's Jealousy -- at any rate, Iam describing God's graces.The pride of Tabriz and the world, Shams al-Din, has again shown me favor.-- Ghazal (Ode) 1000Translation by William C. Chittick"The Sufi Path of Love"SUNY Press, Albany, 1983The media:http://tinyurl.com/38ex3s
Importance of Guide and Teacher
If anybody goes traveling without a guide,every two day's journeybecomes a journey of a hundred years.The one who takes up a professionwithout having had a teacherbecomes a laughing-stock,no matter where he lives.Except perhaps for a single occurrence,in all the world, is a descendant of Adamever born without parents?The one who earns gains wealth;it's a rare event to find a buried treasure.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Har keh dar râh bi qelâvozi ravadhar do ruzi râh-e sad sâleh shavadHar keh girad pisheh-ye bi ustârish-khandi shod be-shahr o rustâJoz keh nâder bâshad andar khâfeqaynâdami sar bar zanad bi vâledayn?Mâl u yâbad keh kasi mi konadnâderi bâshad keh ganji bar zanad
-- Mathnawi III: 588; 590-592 Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"Threshold Books, 1996
courtesy: Sunlight e-group
by Rumi
Oh heart, place no honey in the mouth of the ill!
Speak not of entrancing eyes in the assembly of the blind!
Although God is nearer to His servant than his
jugular vein (Koran L 16),
he is far from those who are far from Him.
Occupy yourself with your own inward self!
Then like moons the concealed maidens will
come out in theophany from behind their veils!
Although in this work you will be lost to
yourself and the world,
outside of yourself and the world you
will be famous.
If you are the moon of union, give a sign of
your union!
Tell of the arms, the silver breasts, and the faces
of the houris!
And if you are yellow gold from separation's
heartache,
where is separation's burning brand?
Only the coins of the wretched are so dull and tarnished.
Since you have no love, at least perform the
duties of servanthood,
for God will never neglect the wages of the wage earners.
Know that love for god is Solomon's seal
how should Solomon's income be related to the wages of ants?
Throw away the garments of thought and
cogitation, for the sun only shines upon the naked!
Seek refuge in the locks of Shams-i Tabrizi, for
they rain down musk and will protect you from tyrants.
- Ghazal, Divani Shamsi Tabriz, (Ode 2073)
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983
I'm Light Within His Light
I circled awhile
with each of the intelligences,
the nine fathers
that control the levels
of spirit-growth.
I revolved for years with the stars
through each astrological sign.
I disappeared into
the kingdom of nearness.
I saw what I have seen,
receiving nourishment
as a child lives in the womb.
Personalities are born once,
a mystic many times.
Wearing the body-robe,
I've been busy in the market,
weighing and arguing prices.
Sometimes I have torn the robe off
with my own hands and thrown it away.
I've spent long nights in monasteries,
and I have slept with those
who claim to believe nothing
on the porches of pagodas,
just traveling through.
When someone feels jealous,
I am inside the hurt
and the need to possess.
When anyone is sick,
I feel feverish and dizzy.
I am cloud and rain being released,
and then the meadow as it soaks it in.
I wash the rains of mortality
from the cloth around a dervish.
I am the rose of eternity,
not made of water or fire
or the wandering wind,
or even earth.
I pay with those.
I am not Shams of Tabriz,
but a light within his light.
If you see me, be careful.
Tell no one what you've seen.
-- Ghazal (Ode) 331
Version by Coleman Barks
"Say I Am You" Maypop, 1994
Though And I
"Happy the moment when we are seated in the palace, thou and I,
With two forms and with two figures but with one soul, thou and I.
The colors of the grove and the voice of the birds will bestow immortality
At the time when we come into the garden, thou and I.
The stars of heaven will come to gaze upon us;
We shall show them the moon itself, thou and I.
Thou and I, individuals no more, shall be mingled in ecstasy,
Joyful and secure from foolish babble, thou and I.
All the bright-plumed birds of heaven will devour their hearts with envy
In the place where we shall laugh in such a fashion, thou and I.
This is the greatest wonder, that thou and I, sitting here in the same nook,
Are at this moment both in Iraq and Khorasan, thou and I.
-Divan-e Shams-i Tabriz
"If you have newly become a lover"
Out of jealousy, Love makes the lover appearlike everyone's enemy. Once it has made people reject him, heturns to It.He who is worthy of the creatures is not worthyfor Love -- only the whore's soul marries a hundred husbands.Since the lover is not suited for "others," letthem all reject him -- then the King of Love will make him Hissitting companion.When the creatures drive him from themselves,he cuts himself off from their company; he accustoms hisoutward and inward to sweet-natured Love.But when the creatures accept him, his minddrags him in their direction and his heart turns furtively thisway and that toward anyone's love.When Love sees this It says, "My tresses havethrown a shadow, so the lover smells there the fragrance ofmusk and ambergris.I will make these two scents the enemy of hismind and brain -- he will have to abandon both.Though the lover has sniffed the musk inremembrance of Me, only a beginner on the Path wanders likea child saying, 'Where? Where?'Once he has left childhood, he will open theeye of knowledge -- why should he run to and fro on the riverbank looking for water?"If you have newly become a lover, take thebitter medicine and drink it, so that Shirin may make yousweeter than Khusraw's honey.*Perhaps Shams-I Tabrizi will intoxicate youfrom beyond the two worlds and remove you fromyourself!-- Ghazal (Ode) 742Translation by William C. Chittick"The Sufi Path of Love"SUNY Press, Albany, 1983* King Khusraw and Shirin are a pair of lovers oftencelebrated in Persian verse. Khusraw I or "royal" honeywas a famous kind of exquisite honey. Shirin, whosename literally means "sweet," of course represents theBeloved.
"Don’t set your heart on bones"
Little by little God takes away human beauty:little by little the sapling withers.Go, recite "To whomever We give a length of days,We also cause them to decline."*Seek the spirit;don't set your heart on bones.~~~~~~~~~~~Andak-e andak mi setânad ân jamâlandak-e andak khoshk mi gardad nehâlRaw "nu`ammiruhu nunakkis'hu" be-khvândel talab kon del ma-neh bar estekhvân-- Mathnawi, II:714-715Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski"Rumi: Daylight"Threshold Books, 1994, Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyل Monastra
* Quran 36:68
"Without you my heart is shattered"
~^ ^ ^ ^ ^I am a sculptorI carve new shapes and forms each daybut when I see you they all melt.I am a painterI create images and bring them to lifebut when I see you they all vanish.Who are you my Friendthe promised lover or the deceitful enemy?You ruin everything I build.My soul has sprung from yours andit carries the scent of your perfume.But without you my heart is shattered,please, come back or let me leavethis lonely world.
-- Ghazal (Ode) 1462"Rumi: Hidden Music"Translated by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam MafiHarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
"Hundreds of thousands of trials"
~^ ^ ^ ^ ^There are hundreds of thousands of trials for anyone who claims,"I am the commander of the gate."If the vulgar don't put him to the test,the adepts of the way will demand the token of his sincerity.When a roughneck pretends to be a tailor,the king will throw down a piece of satin in front of him.~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~Sad hazârân emtehânast ay pedarhar keg guyad "Man shodam sarhang-e dar"Gar na-dânad `âmmeh u-râ ze emtehânpokhtegân-e râh juyandesh neshânChon konad da`vâ khayyâti khasiafgand dar pish-e u shah atlasi-- Mathnawi III: 682-684Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"Threshold Books, 1996(Persian transliteration courtesy of YahyÙ Monastra)The
"Out of my own control"
Today, Sunlight offers Ghazal (Ode) 1688, from the Divan-e Shams, in the version which Coleman Barks derived from the Arberry translation, and in translation by A.J. Arberry:^ ^ ^ ^ ^"I Am Not This"I am not this. Your beauty closesmy eyes, and I am falling intothat. You cut the umbilical withthis love that's been with me sincebirth. My mother saw your mountainreflected in my face, you that liftcoverings, you that bring death. Weagreed on this before creation. I'vebeen so hidden. Ask my body who Iam. It says "solid ground." Ask mysoul. "Dizzy as the wind." Neither,I stand here facing Shams of Tabriz.-- Version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin "The Glance"Viking-Penguin, 1999~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~I have got out of my own control, I have fallen into uncon-sciousness; in my utter unconsciousness how joyful I am withmyself! The darling sewed up my eyes so that I might not see otherthan him, so that suddenly I opened my eyes on his face.My soul fought with me saying, "Do not pain me"; I said,"Take your divorce." She said, "Grant it"; I granted it.When my mother saw on my cheek the brand of your love shecut my umbilical cord on that, the moment I was born.*If I travel to heaven and read the Tablet of the Unseen, O youwho are my soul's salvation, without you how I am ruined!*When you cast aside the veil the dead became alive; the lightof your face reminded me of the Covenant of Alast.* When I became lost, O soul, through love of the king of theperis, hidden from self and creatures, I am as if peri-born myself.I said to the Tabriz of Shams-e Din, "O body, what are you?"Body said, "Earth"; Soul said, "I am distraught like the wind."-- Translation by A. J. Arberry"Mystical Poems of Rumi 2" The University of Chicago Press, 1991* "the moment I was born" -- To experience divine love is a spiritual regeneration or birth for a Sufi. This is why the soul in the world is compared to the embryo in the womb, and when it becomes a babejust born into a new world. Cf. Math. notes, 1: 19, 3180. Rumi says that such a love was inborn in him and from the beginning he embarked on his Sufi mission. "On that" refers to that love. It was a common superstition that if, while cutting the umbilical cord, one made a wish, the child would attain it.* "Lawh-e gayb" (the Unseen Tablet) seems to be the same as "lawh-e mahfuz (the Preserved tablet, Quran 85:22) which refers to the Quran. It is said to have been in heaven before its revelation. The Sufis interpret it as the First Intelligence (aql-e avval) or Logos or the Active Intellect (aql-e fa'al). See Sajjadi, "Farshang-erfani", 405, and Nicholson's note on Math. 1:296.* Covenant of Alast: "Alastu bi rabbikum?", "Am I not your Lord?" (Quran 7:171). Thus God addressed the future generations of men (according to the Sufis their souls). They answered "Yes", and acknowledged God's right to judge their actions and to punish their sins.
courtesy:http://tinyurl.
The Red Rose
The red rose, which tears its cloak to shreds -- Ifor one know its motive.The willow has let down its branches in straightrows to make up for all the ritual prayers it has missed.The lily with its sword and the jasmine with itsshield are preparing themselves for the holy war.The poor nightingale--how he suffers! He sighsat the rose's display.
Each of the lovely brides in the garden says,"The rose is glancing at me."The nightingale replies, "The rose makes thoseamorous gestures for my sake, headless and footless me!"The plane-tree has lifted up its hands inlamentation--shall I tell you what supplications he makes?Who put the hat on the bud's head? Who bentthe violet over double?Although autumn was very cruel, behold thefaithfulness of spring!Whatever autumn took in pillage, spring hascome and replaced.I speak of roses, nightingales and the beauties ofthe garden as a pretext -- why do I do it?For the sake of Love's Jealousy -- at any rate, Iam describing God's graces.The pride of Tabriz and the world, Shams al-Din, has again shown me favor.-- Ghazal (Ode) 1000Translation by William C. Chittick"The Sufi Path of Love"SUNY Press, Albany, 1983The media:http://tinyurl.com/38ex3s
Importance of Guide and Teacher
If anybody goes traveling without a guide,every two day's journeybecomes a journey of a hundred years.The one who takes up a professionwithout having had a teacherbecomes a laughing-stock,no matter where he lives.Except perhaps for a single occurrence,in all the world, is a descendant of Adamever born without parents?The one who earns gains wealth;it's a rare event to find a buried treasure.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Har keh dar râh bi qelâvozi ravadhar do ruzi râh-e sad sâleh shavadHar keh girad pisheh-ye bi ustârish-khandi shod be-shahr o rustâJoz keh nâder bâshad andar khâfeqaynâdami sar bar zanad bi vâledayn?Mâl u yâbad keh kasi mi konadnâderi bâshad keh ganji bar zanad
-- Mathnawi III: 588; 590-592 Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"Threshold Books, 1996
courtesy: Sunlight e-group
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