You shine through my eyes......... .by Rumi

My love, you are closer to me than myself,
you shine through my eyes.

Your light is brighter than the Moon.
Step into the garden
so all the flowers, even the tall poplar
can kneel before your beauty.

Let your voice silence the lily
famous for its hundred tongues.

When you want to be kind you are
softer than the soul but when you withdraw
you can be so cold and harsh.

Dear one,
you can be wild and rebellious but
when you meet him face to face
his charm will make you docile like the earth.

Throw away your shield and bare your chest
there is no stronger protection than him.

That's why when the Lover withdraws
from the world he covers all the cracks in the wall,
so the outside light cannot come though.

He knows that only the inner light
illuminates his world...!

~ Rumi
-- Ghazal (Ode) 2798
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Hidden Music
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
Art by Belle Heywood

City of Love...by Rumi

I've travelled around
raced through every city
while i knew all along
no place could be found
like the city of love

If i could have known
to value what i owned
i would not have suffered
like a fool
the life of a vagabond

I've heard many tunes
all over the globe
all empty
as a kettledrum
except the music of love

It was the sound of
that hollow drum
that made me fall
from the heavens
to this mortal life

I used to soar
among souls
like a heart's flight
winglessly roaming and
celestially happy

I used to drink
like a flower that drinks
without lips or throat
of the wine that overflows
with laughter and joy

Suddenly
i was summoned by love
to prepare for a journey
to the temple of
suffering

I cried desperately
i begged and pleaded
and shredded my clothes
not to be sent
to this world

Just the way i fear now
going away
to the other world
i was frightened then
to make my descent

Love asked me to go
with no fear to be alone
promising to be close
everywhere i go
closer than my veins

Love threw its spell
its magic and allure
using coyness and charm
i was totally sold and
bought everything with joy

Who am i to resist
love's many tricks
and not to fall
while the whole world
takes love's bait

Love showed me
a path but then
lost me on the way
if i could have resisted
i would have found my way

I can show you my friend
surely how you can get there
but here and now
my pen has broken down
before telling you how...

~ Rumi
-- Ghazal (Ode) 1509
Translation by Nader Khalili
"Rumi, Fountain of Fire"
Burning Gate Press, Los Angeles, 1994.

Art by Leonid Afremov

I SEE THE FACE.....BY RUMI

I see the face
that was my home.

My loving says,
I will let go of
everything for that.

My soul begins to keep rhythm
as if music is playing.

My reason says,
What do you call
this cypress-energy that straightens
what was bent double?

All things change in this presence.
Armenians and Turks no longer know
which is which.

Soul keeps unfolding inward.
The body leaves the body.

A wealth you cannot imagine
flows through you.

Do not consider what strangers say.
Be secluded in your secret heart-house,
that bowl of silence.

Talking,
no matter how humble-seeming,
is really a kind of bragging.

Let silence
be the art you practice.

~ Rumi
(I SEE THE FACE)
Rumi : Bridge to the Soul
by Coleman Barks

This is the music That transcends all coming and going..! ~ Kabir

Listen to the
unstruck bells and drums!

Love is here;
plunge into its rapture!

Rains pour down without water;
Rivers are streams of light.

How could I ever express
How blessed I feel

To revel in such vast ecstasy
In my own body?

This is the music
Of soul and soul meeting,
Of the forgetting of all grief.

This is the music
That transcends all
coming and going..!

~ Kabir
Art by Belle Heywood

There are different wells within your heart ~ Hafiz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwsCRXamU-Y&feature=youtu.be

You are a song, a wished for song...by Rumi

You are a song, a wished for song.
Go through the ear to the center,

where sky is, where wind,
where silent knowing.

Put seeds and cover them.
Blades will sprout

where you do your work...!

~ RUMI
Art by Prabal Roy