Those who have already died.....By Rumi

Lovers, who die knowingly,
die like sugar
before their Beloved.

On the day of Alast
they drank the Water of Life --
so they cannot die like others.

Since they have been resurrected in Love,
they do not die like these people in the crowd.

Through his Gentleness they have passed
beyond the angels--
far be it from them to die like humans!

Do you suppose that lions die like dogs,
far from His Presence?

When lovers die in their journey,
the spirit's King runs out to meet them.

When they die at the feet of that Moon,
they all light up like the sun.

The lovers who are each others' spirit,
die in their mutual love.

The water of Love soothes their aching livers,
they all come and die in that heartache.

Each is an unparalleled orphan pearl --
they do not die next to mothers and fathers.

Lovers fly to the spheres,
deniers die in the depths of the Blaze.

Lovers open the eye that sees the Unseen,
the rest all die blind and deaf.

In fear the lovers never used to sleep at night--
now they all die without dread or danger.

Those who worshiped fodder here were all cows --
they die like asses.
Those who sought that vision today die happy
and laughing in vision's midst.

The king places them next to His Gentleness--
they do not die in the lowliness
and insignificance you see.

Those who seek to acquire the virtue of
Great Love die like Great Lovers

Far from them is death and annihilation!
But I have sung this ghazal
supposing they were to die.

~ Rumi
(Those who have already died)
-- Ghazal (Ode) 972
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983
Art by Henry Asencio

I must launch out my boat....by Rabindranath Tagore

I must launch out my boat.
The languid hours pass by on the shore
Alas for me !

The spring has done its flowering and taken leave.
And now with the burden of faded futile flowers
I wait and linger.

The waves have become clamorous,
and upon the bank in the shady lane
the yellow leaves flutter and fall.

What emptiness do you gaze upon !
Do you not feel a thrill passing through the air
with the notes of the far-away song
floating from the other shore ?

~ Rabindranath Tagore

Look at Love.....by Rumi

http://donna-proctor.artistwebsites.com/featured/the-color-of-love-i-donna-proctor.html

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
from Rumi: Fountain of Fire,
Translated by Nader Khalili
Art "The Color Of Love" by Donna Proctor

A THIEF IN THE NIGHT.....BY RUMI

Suddenly
(yet somehow unexpected)
he arrived
the guest...
the heart trembling
"Who's there?"
and soul responding
"The Moon..."

came into the house
and we lunatics
ran into the street
stared up
looking
for the moon.


Then-inside the house-
he cried out
"Here I am!"
and we
beyond earshot
running around
calling him...

crying for him
for the drunken nightingale
locked lamenting
in our garden
while we
mourning ring doves
murmured "Where
where?"

As if at midnight
the sleepers bolt upright
in their beds
hearing a thief
break into the house
in the darkness
they stumble about
crying "Help!
A thief! A thief!"

but the burglar himself
mingles in the confusion
echoing their cries:
"...a thief!"
till one cry
melts with the others.

And He is with you
with you
in your search
when you seek Him
look for Him
in your looking
closer to you
than yourself
to yourself:

Why run outside?
Melt like snow.
wash yourself
with yourself:
urged by Love
tongues sprout
from the soul
like stamens
from the lily...

But learn
this custom
from the flower:
silence
your tongue.

~ Rumi
Diwan-e Shams,
v.V.ED. FURUZANFAR, P., 2172
(translated by Peter Lamborn Wilson)
The Rumi Collection, edited by Kabir Helminski

Doors in Metal....by Rumi

Tell me, O Love,
Who is more elegant,
You or this vast garden of yours?

Shine, O moon,
You are an inspiration
to all who look upon the night sky.

Sour will turn to sweet,
Blasphemy will turn to truth,
Thorn bushes will turn to jonquil,
A hundred bodies will spring to life
with one breath of yours.

You place doors in the sky.
You place wings on the human heart.
You enchant every mind
and bewilder both worlds.

O Beloved,
your face is sweet and rosy red,
how rosy red.

O Beloved,
yours is the pleasure of this world
and the way to the next.

The threshed corn assumes your color;
All truth becomes one
under the stamping of your foot.
Every note of my song
longs to ring
with the sweetness of your voice.

Without you, the markets would be empty,
The gardens and the vineyards
would wash away in the rain.

You show trees how to sway in the wind.
You show wet branches how to weep.

The leaves and fruits get drunk
on your life-giving water.
If the vast gardens wished for one thing
During the eternal Spring
it would be for leaves, flying forever,
in this flower-wind of yours.

The lights of heaven and the moving planets
Think little of any star
that dares to shine
in this vast galaxy of yours.

O, what a promise you have made!
To serve joy instead of bread
to any soul who becomes a guest of yours. . . .
I went somewhere and I returned.
In a moment, as in a dream,
I was at the beginning and the end;
This elephant of a soul
saw the open plains of yours.

From all my plans I gained nothing.
In the end my heart broke its chains,
grabbed my soul,
and dragged it into your presence.
There I see no pettiness, no pain.
Every moment a new life enters,
born from the flowing compassion of yours.

O, the mountain looks small
beside your grandeur.
And the heart seems rude
beside your love . . .

You are holding every door wide open.
Doors in metal, in mountains, in stone!
Yet my heart crawls around like an ant
looking for its tiny hole.

I may sing till the end of time
Trying to describe your face
but I’ll always sound mute.
How can a person talk straight
when he is in love?
How can a person walk straight
when he is drowning
in this wine-filled ocean of yours?

~ Rumi
( Doors in Metal )
– Ghazal 2138
Version by Jonathan Star, based on a translation by
Shahram Shiva
“A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi”
Bantam Books, 1992
Art by Hannamonika

Whatever love wants, it gets, not next year, now...by Rumi

As everything changes overnight,
I praise the breaking of promises.
Whatever love wants, it gets,
not next year, now !

I swear by the one who never says tomorrow,
as the circle of the moon refuses to sell installments of light
It gives all it has, whatever that is at the moment.

How do fables conclude, and who will explain them?
Every story is ours. That is who we are,
from beginning to no-matter-how it ends.

Should I use the pronoun we?
the friend walks by, and bricks in the wall feel conscious.
Infertile women give birth. Beauty embodies itself.

Those who know the taste of a meal
are those who sit at the table and eat.

Lover and friend are one being,
and separate beings too,
as the polisher melts in the mirror’s face.

~ Rumi
From: Rumi ” Everything and Everyone Else"
Translated by Coleman Barks

you and I.......by Rumi

Happy is the moment, when we sit together,
With two forms, two faces, yet one soul,
you and I.

The flowers will bloom forever,
The birds will sing their eternal song,
The moment we enter the garden,
you and I.

The stars of heaven will come out to watch us,
And we will show them
the light of a full moon –
you and I.

No more thought of “you” and “I.”
Just the bliss of union –
Joyous, alive, free of care, you and I.

All the bright-winged birds of heaven
Will swoop down to drink of our sweet water –
The tears of our laughter, you and I.

What a miracle of fate, us sitting here.
Even at the opposite ends of the earth
We would still be together, you and I.

We have one form in this world,
another in the next.
To us belongs an eternal heaven,
the endless delight of you and I.

~ Rumi
– Version by Jonathan Star
(From a translation by Shahram Shiva)
“A Garden Beyond Paradise:
The Mystical Poetry of Rumi”
Bantam Books, 1992
Art by Anthea Slade