If a man or woman flails about, he not only
Smashes his house,
He burns the whole world down.
translated by Robert Bly
13th Century Persian poetry
Muslih-uddin Sa’di Shirazi on value
If every drop of dew were to become a pearl
The bazar would be full of them as of ass-shells.
translated by Edward Rehatsek
from The Golestan by Sa’di
I held in my hand a perfumed piece of clay
that came to me from a beloved’s hand.
I asked it, “Are you musk or ambergris?
Like fine wine, your smell intoxicates me.”
“I was,” it said, “a loathsome lump of clay
till someone set me down beside a rose.
Then my companion’s scent seeped into me.
Otherwise, I am only the earth I am.”
courtesy of my friend Richard Newman
The New Rule by Rumi
It’s the old rule that drunks have to argue
and get into fights.
The lover is just as bad. He falls into a hole.
But down in the hole he finds something shining,
worth more than any amount of money or power.
Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street.
I took it as a sign to start singing,
falling up into the bowl of sky.
The bowl breaks. Everywhere is falling everywhere.
Nothing else to do.
Here’s the new rule: break the wineglass,
and fall toward the glassblower’s breath.
translated by Coleman Barks
Rumi on thinking vs living
Having the idea is not living
the reality, of anything.
translated by Coleman Barks
This is such a day by Rumi
This is such a day, the sun is dazzling twice as before
A day beyond all days, unlike all others–say no more. . .
Lovers, I have great news for you from the heavens above
This day of love brings songs and flowers in a downpour.
translated by Talat S. Halman
Rumi on pronoun use
At one time when life was real, your soul was one with my soul:
All we were, open or secret, was part of the same whole.
If “you” and “I” are pronouns I use, they are only terms–
In truth, there can be no separate you or I at all.
translated by Talat S. Halman
an invitation by Rumi
Come, come, you will never find a friend like me.
Where is a beloved like me in all the world?
Come, don’t waste your life running back and forth.
You are like a dry valley, I am the rain.
You are a city laid to waste, I am the architect.
Come!
translated by Talat S. Halman
what love is by Rumi
Love is the water of eternal life, cures every woe;
Gardens where lovers reunite drive away all sorrow.
They say there is a window that opens from heart to heart;
If there are no walls, there is no need for any window.
translated by Talat S. Halman
on insomnia by Rumi
When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep.
Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.
translated by Robert Bly
