Poetry of Rumi

I have been reading a lot of Rumi lately, and thought I would share some enlightening poetry with you.

Please read these with the eyes of your heart, not your head.

Om Shanti

I died once but no one shed a tear,

So if I live again I will know how to be.

You pursue me with your ignorant talk

Which to me sounds so empty.

It is said that God’s light

Comes from six directions.

“From where?” asks the crowd,

Turning left and right.

If only you could look neither way for a moment.

My heart, on this path words are hollow.

At the door of Union

You have to surrender yourself.

You will never soar to the sky

Where His birds fly

Unless you give up your wings.

I said, “Show me what to do.”

He said, Die.

I said, “The water has turned into oil.”

He said, Die.

I said, “I will become a butterfly

Circling around your light.”

He said, Die.

You stepped on the ground

And the earth, pregnant with joy,

Gave birth to infinite blossoms.

The cheering spread up to heaven!

The moon glanced amazed at the stars.

Do not fear, there is always wine

If you are thirsty for love.

Do not fear, there is always water

If your lips are parched.

Do not fear your ruin, inside you

There is a treasure

Open your eyes, for this world

Is only a dream.

Sleep, my friend, but if you do

The light of Truth will slip by you unnoticed.

Asleep in the darkness of the night

You will miss the splendor of the dawn.

Where is the moon that never rises nor sets?

Is the spirit within or without?

Stop this nonsense and let us spreak straight!

The whole world is him but tell me,

Where are your eyes?

Whose feet are worthy

To enter the garden?

Whose eyes are worthy

Of the cypress and the jasmine?

The feet and eyes of a heart

That has been broken.

Yesterday the nightingale was singing

A beautiful song by the stream:

“You could make me a rose

Out of rubies, emeralds and gold

But would it have a scent?”

Light of my eyes

The nightingale has returned.

We will lose ourselves in the garden

And come out in blossom

Like the lilies and roses;

We will become water and flow

From garden to garden.

Do you know, knower,

What the night is?

It is the sanctuary of lovers.

On this glorious night

I am drunk with the moon.

The moon has fallen in love

And the night has gone mad.

I am in love with Love and Love

Is in love with me.

My body is in love with the soul

And the soul

Is in love with the body.

I opened my arms to Love

And Love embraced me

Like a lover.

The green in every tree

Is You.

The beauty of every garden

Is You.

My wealth, my work, my master

Is You.

Solitude, purity, pretence

Is You.

There is no reality

But You.

Love came rushing

Like blood in my veins

And emptied me of myself.

Now, filled with the Beloved,

I have only a name.

When my pain became the cause of my cure

My contempt changed into reverence

And my doubt into certainty.

I see that I have been the veil on my path.

Now my body has become my heart

My heart has become my soul

And my spirit, the eternal Spirit.

If only you knew

What bliss I find in being nothing,

You would never

Advise me how to live.

When the sword of nothingness

Ends my days

I will laugh at those

Who mourn my death.

There is another language beyond language,

Another place beyond heaven and hell.

Precious gems come from another mine,

The heart draws light from another source.

The water said to the dirty one, “Come here.”

The dirty one said, “I am too ashamed.”

The water replied, “How will your shame be washed away without me?”

Whether you are fast or slow, eventually you will find what you are seeking. Always devote yourself wholeheartedly to your search. Even though you may limp or be bent double, do not abandon your search, but drag yourself ever toward Him.

One day a young man knocked at a friend’s door.

“Who are you, O trusted one?” asked the friend.

He answered, “I!” The friend said, “Go away.

This is not the time for you to enter;

There is no place at my table for the raw!”

What, then, will cook the raw and so save him

But separation’s fire and exile’s flame?

The poor man left to travel a whole year

And burning, he was cooked, and so returned,

And once again drew near to the friend’s house.

He knocked at the door in great fearfulness

Lest from his lips discourteous words might fall.

His friend called out, “Who stands outside my door?”

He answered, “Tis you at the door, O friend.”

He replied, “Come in, now that you are I –

There is no room in this house for two ‘I’s!”

                                                                       

Every rose that is sweet-scented is telling of the secrets of the Universal.

It was a fair orchard, full of trees and fruit

And vines and greenery. A Sufi there

Sat with eyes closed, his head upon his knee,

Sunk deep in mystical meditation.

“Why,” asked another, “do you not behold

These signs of God the Merciful displayed

Around you, which He bids us contemplate?”

“The signs,” he answered, “I behold within;

Without is nothing but symbols of the signs.”

What is all beauty in the world? The image,

Like quivering boughs reflected in a stream,

Of that eternal Orchard which abides

Unwithered in human hearts.

How could the foam-flecked waves move without a current? How could dust rise into the air without wind? Since you have seen the dust – namely the form – perceive the wind. The wind is invisible; we only see its effect on external forms, and it is in external forms that we can see the divine spirit, the wind of God. Dissolve your body in vision and pass into sight, pass into sight, into sight!

The world is a prison and we are the prisoners:

Dig a hole in the prison wall and let yourself out!

One morning a woman asked her lover, as a test, “Do you love me more than you love yourself?” He replied, “I love you so much that I am full of you from head to toe. There is nothing left of my own existence except my name.” If you love God, you will feel toward Him as that lover felt toward his beloved.