RUMI Poem - Cry Out in Your Weakness

Every moment a voice from out of this world calls on our soul to wake up and rise..by Rumi

Every moment
a voice from out of this world
calls on our soul to wake up and rise

This soul of ours is like a flame
with more smoke than light
blackening our vision
letting no light through

Lessen the smoke and
more light brightens your house
the house you dwell in now
and the abode
you'll eventually move to

Now my precious soul
how long are you going to
waste yourself
in this wandering journey

Can't you hear the voice
can't you use your swifter wings
and answer the call..!

~ Rumi
Ghazal 26,
from the Diwan-e Shams
Translation by Nader Khalili
"Rumi, Fountain of Fire"
Cal-Earth Press, 1994

When it comes to earning food,
why has the fear of eternal disappointment
not waylaid you ?

You'll say, 
"Though I face the fear of disappointment,
fear increases when I'm idle.
My hope increases when I work;
when I'm idle, I risk more."

Why does the fear of loss
restrain you when it comes to faith ?

Haven't you seen how gainfully employed
the prophets and saints are ?

Haven't you seen what mines of treasure
have opened to them
from frequenting the shop of Spirit !

~ Rumi
Mathnawi III: 3096-3101
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996

It is a sign of intimate friendship...by Rumi

It is a sign 
of intimate friendship

when speech flows 
freely from the heart

Without intimacy,
the flow is blocked.

When the heart
has seen the sweetheart
how can it remain bitter ?

When a nightingale
has seen the rose

How can it keep
from singing ?

~ Rumi
Mathnawi VI:2638-2639
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
“Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance”
Threshold Books, 1996

Art by Frederick Morgan

Each Note...by Rumi

Advice doesn't help lovers!
They're not the kind of mountain stream
you can build a dam across.

An intellectual doesn't know
what the drunk is feeling !

Don't try to figure
what those lost inside love
will do next!

Someone in charge
would give up all his power,
if he caught one whiff of the wine-musk
from the room where the lovers
are doing who-knows-what !

One of them tries
to dig a hole through a mountain.
One flees from academic honors.
One laughs at famous mustaches!

Life freezes if it doesn't get a taste
of this almond cake.

The stars come up spinning
every night, bewildered in love.

They'd grow tired
with that revolving, if they weren't.

They'd say,
"How long do we have to do this!"

God picks up the reed-flute world and blows.
Each note is a need coming through one of us,
a passion, a longing-pain.

Remember the lips
where the wind-breath originated,
and let your note be clear.

Don't try to end it.
Be your note.
I'll show you how it's enough.

Go up on the roof at night
in this city of the soul.

Let everyone climb on their roofs
and sing their notes!

Sing loud..!

~ Rumi
Version by Coleman Barks
"The Essential Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

Art by Ilisa M Millermoon

Oh friend, if you are a lover, be like a candle: Melt all night long, burn joyfully till morning !...by Rumi

In truth, Love for the Illuminator of hearts 
Keeps Lovers awake all night without food and sleep.

Oh friend, if you are a lover, be like a candle:
Melt all night long, burn joyfully till morning !

He who is like cold weather in autumn is no Lover
In autumn's midst the lover's heart is burning summer.

Dear friend, if you have a love you want to proclaim,
then shout like a lover! Shout! Shout!

But if you are chained by sensuality, make no claims to Love
enter the spiritual retreat and burn away your chains!

Oh simple man, how can a lover be joined to sensuality?
How could Love eat from the same trough as his ass?

If you want to catch the fragrance of these symbols,
then turn your eyes away from everything but Beloved !

But if you cannot see that he is greater than the two worlds,
you are still a wretch drowned in the ocean of heedlessness.

So go before the teachers of conventional knowledge
busy yourself with jurisprudence
and become a master of the science of
"This is permitted and that is forbidden."

My spirit has passed beyond childhood in love for Beloved
Love for him is not mixed with raisins and nuts.

My intellect has left me and my verses are incomplete
that is why my bow has no more designs and wrappings.

Oh Dear, sleep and abandon speech!
No leopard will ever catch that lion!

~ Rumi
Ghazal (Ode) 1196
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

Art by Larry Butterworth

In that , O Dear , lies the secret of the unity that is Beloved . ~ Sultan Bahu

When the Beloved revealed himself to me
I lost myself in him.

Now there is 
neither nearness nor union.

There is no longer a journey to undertake
no longer a destination to reach.

Love , attachment , my body and soul
and even the very limits of time and space
have all dropped from my consciousness.

My separate self
is merged in the whole

In that , O Dear , lies the secret
of the unity that is Beloved .

~ Sultan Bahu

Art by Angelina Vick