My soul wants to leap...by Rumi

If you bake bread with the wheat
that grows on my grave
you’ll become drunk with joy and
even the oven will recite ecstatic poems.

If you come to pay your respects
even my gravestone will invite you to dance
so don’t come without your drum.

Don’t be sad.
You have come to Gods feast.
Even death cannot stop my yearning
for the sweet kiss of my love.

Tear my shroud and wear it as a shirt,
the door will open and you’ll hear
the music of your soul fill the air.

I am created from the ecstasy of love and
when I die, my essence will be released
like the scent of crushed rose petals.

My soul wants to leap and join
the towering soul of Beloved (Shams).

~ Rumi
– Ghazal (Ode) 683
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
“Rumi: Hidden Music”
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001

I SWEAR MY DEAREST..

As you are, so I am....

As you are, so I am;
there is certainly no difference
between us.

As Whiteness inheres in Milk,
as burning in fire, my Fair Lady,
As smell in earth,
so do I inhere in You always.

I have been constructed
by someone
out of half your body;

Therefore there is no difference
between us,
and my heart is in you.

Just as my Self (Atman),
heart, and life
has been placed in you,

So has your Self,
heart, and life
been placed in me.


(From Krishna to Radha and reply by Radha..)
Art by Jitendra r Sharma

I wish I knew what you wanted....by Rumi

I wish I knew what you wanted.
You block the road and won’t give me rest.


You pull my lead-rope one way, then the other.
You act cold, my darling!

Will this night of talking ever end?
Why am I still embarrassed and timid about you?


You are thousands. 
Your are one.
Quiet, 
but articulate.

Your name is Spring.
Your name is wine.
Your name is nausea
that comes from wine!

You are my doubting
and the lightpoints
in my eyes.

You are every image, and yet
I’m homesick for you.

Can I get there?
Where the deer pounces on the lion,
where the one I’m after’s
after me?

This drum and these words keep pounding!
Let them both smash through their coverings
into silence.

~ Rumi


Art "Playing a Congolese" ... Kristin Mosher

I wish I knew what you wanted...by Rumi

I wish I knew what you wanted.
You block the road and won't give me rest.
You pull my lead-rope one way, then the other.
You act cold, my darling!
Do you hear what I say?

Will this night of talking ever end?
Why am I still embarrassed and timid
about you? You are thousands.
You are one.
Quiet, but most articulate.

Your name is Spring.
Your name is wine.
Your name is the nausea
that comes from wine!

You are my doubting
and the lightpoints
in my eyes.

You are every image, and yet
I'm homesick for you.

Can I get there?
Where the deer pounces on the lion,
where the one I'm after's
after me?

This drum and these words keep pounding!
Let them both smash through their coverings
into silence.

~ Rumi
-- Version by Coleman Barks,
   from a translation by A.J. Arberry,
  "Like This", Maypop, 1990

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 the 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..!

~ Rumi
-- Ghazal 2381, from Rumi's "Diwan-e Shams"
Translation by Nader Khalili
"Rumi, Fountain of Fire"
Cal-Earth Press, 1995

I SWEAR MY DEAR ....BY RUMI

I SWEAR MY DEAR
no one in the entire world
is as precious as you are

look at that mirror
take a good look at yourself
who else is there above and beyond you

now give yourself a kiss
and with sweet whispers
fill your ears to the brim

watch for all that beauty
reflecting from you
and sing a love song to your existence

you can never overdo
praising your own soul
you can never over-pamper your heart

you are both
the lover and the Beloved
the sugar and the sugar cane

who else but you
please tell me who else
can ever take your place

now give yourself a smile
what is the worth of a diamond
if it doesn't smile

how can i ever put a price
on the diamond that you are
you are the entire treasure of the house

you and your shadow
are forever present in this world
you're that glorious bird of paradise.

~ Rumi
"RUMI, Fountain of Fire", ghazal number 2148,
translated 19 January 1991 by Nader Khalili,
Cal-Earth Press, 1994