Rumi-Just for me

You belong to me to me to me

 
جان منی جان منی جان من
You are my life my life my life essence
آن منی آن منی آن من
You belong to me to me to me alone
شاه منی لایق سودای من
You are my king, we deserve to mingle
قند منی لایق دندان من
You are my sweet sugar cube, deserving only of my teeth
نور منی باش در این چشم من
You are my light, remain here in my eyes
چشم من و چشمه حیوان من
My eyes and the very life giving fountain of my life
گل چو تو را دید به سوسن بگفت
When the flower saw you,
told the rose
سرو من آمد به گلستان من
The greatest of flowers has come to my garden
از دو پراکنده تو چونی بگو
Tell me why we are apart
Why are you not here with me?
زلف تو حال پریشان من
I grow sad when I don’t see the curves of your beautiful hair
ای رسن زلف تو پابند من
Your locks lock my feet
چاه زنخدان تو زندان من
As if trapped inside that famous well
دست فشان مست کجا میروی
Take my hand, where are you off to?
پیش من آ ای گل خندان من
My smiling flower, come to me !

 

Translation: Ali Arsanjani; from http://rumi-poetry.blogspot.com/

 

Compare with the right Rev. Al Green:

Hafez’s falcons

 

From the Nightingale in the garden, ask the news.  for I
Hear his lament that forth from the cage comes
Friends!  The true Beloved desires the prey of Hafez’s heart:
For the prey of a little fly, a great falcon comes.

Translation: H. Wilberforce Clarke

 

Original:

خبر بلبل این باغ بپرسید که من

ناله‌ای می‌شنوم کز قفسی می‌آید
                    یار دارد سر صید دل حافظ یاران
شاهبازی به شکار مگسی می‌آید

 

 

O royal falcon of keen vision, perched in Heaven’s tree,
your nest is not this corner filled with suffering.
They whistle to recall you to the battlements of heaven.
I don’t understand what has ensnared you here.

Original:

             که ای بلندنظر شاهباز سدره نشین
نشیمن تو نه این کنج محنت آبادست
           تو را ز کنگره عرش می‌زنند صفیر
ندانمت که در این دامگه چه افتادست

What sugar there is in this town, that the Falcons of the Way
became satisfied with the station of a mere fly

 

Original:

                 چه شکرهاست در این شهر که قانع شده‌اند
 شاهبازان طریقت به مقام مگسی

The Alif

Listen: Hafez ghazal

 

I speak frankly and that makes me happy:
I am the slave of love, I am free of both worlds.
I am a bird from heaven’s garden. How do I describe that separation,
my fall into this snare of accidents?

 

I was an angel and highest paradise was my place.
Adam brought me to this monastery in the city of ruin.
The hours’ caress, the pool and shade trees of paradise
were forgotten in the breeze from your alleyway.

 

There is nothing on the tablet of my heart but my love’s tall alif.
What can I do? My master taught me no other letter.
No astrologer knew the constellations of my fate.
O lord, when I was born of mother earth which stars were rising?

 

Ever since I became a slave at the door of love’s tavern
sorrows come to me each moment with congratulations.
The pupil of my eye drains the blood from my heart.
I deserve it. Why did I give my heart to the darling of others?
Wipe the tears from Hafiz’s face with soft curls
or else this endless torrent will uproot me.

 

Translation: Elizabeth Gray, The Green Sea of Heaven, p. 130

Original:
             فاش می‌گویم و از گفته خود دلـشادم
بـنده عشقـم و از هر دو جهان آزادم
طایر گلشن قدسم چه دهـم شرح فراق
کـه در این دامگه حادثه چون افـتادم
مـن ملک بودم و فردوس برین جایم بود
آدم آورد در این دیر خراب آبادم
سایه طوبی و دلجویی حور و لـب حوض
بـه هوای سر کوی تو برفـت از یادم
نیسـت بر لوح دلم جز الف قامت دوست
چـه کـنـم حرف دگر یاد نداد استادم
کوکـب بخـت مرا هیچ منجم نشناخت
یا رب از مادر گیتی به چـه طالـع زادم
تا شدم حلقه به گوش در میخانه عشق
هر دم آید غمی از نو بـه مـبارک بادم
می خورد خون دلم مردمک دیده سزاست
کـه چرا دل به جگرگوشـه مردم دادم
پاک کن چهره حافظ به سر زلف ز اشـک
ور نـه این سیل دمادم بـبرد بـنیادم

Lovers never die

Hafez:

                    هرگز نمیرد آن که دلش زنده شد به عشق

ثبت است بر جریده عالم دوام ما

He whose heart has been revived by love will never die
Our eternity has been written in the record of the world

 

Me:

Lips scalded by love’s tongues of flame
Can never taste death’s bitter pain

 

Hafez:

بگشای تربتم را بعد از وفات و بنگر

کز آتش درونم دود از کفن برآید

 

When I am dead, open my grave and see
The cloud of smoke that rises round thy feet:
In my dead heart the fire still burns for thee;
Yea, the smoke rises from my winding-sheet!

 

Translation: Gertrude Bell

Compasses

 

Abu Sa’īd Abu’l Khayr

(10th-11th C)

 Translation:
You and I, my love, are a pair of compasses
though divided in twain, in body we are one
We circle on a point, anon like compasses
at the end we bring our heads together as one.

 

Translation: Reza Ourdoubadian. The Poems of Abu Sa’id Abu’l Kheyr. Ibex, 2010

Original:
جانا من و تو نمونه پرگريم
سر گر چه دو كردهايم يك تن داريم
بر نقطه روانيم كنون خون پرگار
در آخر كار سر بهم باز آريم

 

 

Hafez

(14th-11th C)

Translation:

For years, we pawned our book for wine
The wealth of the tavern was our lesson and prayer

 

See my Master’s grace with us drunks
His eye saw goodness in whatever we did

 

The book of my knowledge, you washed it all away with wine
I saw the heavens  searching for a heart that was wise

 

Seek that beauty from the idols, O knowing heart
Said the one who knew the art of the wandering gaze

 

My heart, like a compass, spun round in all directions
I’m lost in that circle, with foot firmly on the ground

 

From the pain of love, the minstrel improvised sad songs
so sad that bloody tears fell from the eyes of the worldly-wise

 

My heart bloomed with joy, like a flower by the stream
under the shadow of the cypress tree of my beloved

 

My rosy Master, would hear no evil about his blue-robed disciples
otherwise, what stories there would have been!

 

Hafez’s counterfeit heart was not spent
because this trader sees all hidden flaws

 

Original:

            سال‌ها دفتر ما در گرو صهبا بود
رونق میکده از درس و دعای ما بود
             نیکی پیر مغان بین که چو ما بدمستان
هر چه کردیم به چشم کرمش زیبا بود
             دفتر دانش ما جمله بشویید به می
که فلک دیدم و در قصد دل دانا بود
             از بتان آن طلب ار حسن شناسی ای دل
کاین کسی گفت که در علم نظر بینا بود
              دل چو پرگار به هر سو دورانی می‌کرد
و اندر آن دایره سرگشته پابرجا بود
              مطرب از درد محبت عملی می‌پرداخت
که حکیمان جهان را مژه خون پالا بود
              می‌شکفتم ز طرب زان که چو گل بر لب جوی
بر سرم سایه آن سرو سهی بالا بود
              پیر گلرنگ من اندر حق ازرق پوشان
رخصت خبث نداد ار نه حکایت‌ها بود
              قلب اندوده حافظ بر او خرج نشد
کاین معامل به همه عیب نهان بینا بود

 

John Donne
(16th-17th C)
“A Valediction Forbidding Mourning”

 

AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
“Now his breath goes,” and some say, “No.”

So let us melt, and make no noise,                                       5
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
‘Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ;                              10
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers’ love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, ’cause it doth remove                                     15
The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.                           20

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so                                          25
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’ other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,                                30
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th’ other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,                                    35
And makes me end where I begun.


Source:
Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I.
E. K. Chambers, ed.
London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 51-52.

 

Camarón and Persian Poetry- “Nothing is Eternal” and “The Cicada”

 

Sarmad

The universe
is a kaleidoscope:
now hopelessness, now hope
now spring, now fall.
Forget its ups and downs:
do not vex yourself:
The remedy for pain
is the pain.

 

Translation by Peter Lamborn Wilson and Nasrollah Pourjavady

 

 

Translation:

Punishment replaces punishment
and one pain removes another
a nail takes out another nail
and one love replaces another

Nothing, Nothing,  is forever

It’s a castle of pain,
with towers of suffering
that you yourself built
when you said “I’m sorry…”

Nothing, Nothing, is forever

and gives it you no pain!
I only feel more the wounds
that I have in my heart

Nothing, Nothing,  is forever

O moon that shines on the seas, the dark seas
Aren’t you tired moon?
Turning to the same world?
O moon, stay with me and don’t go!
Because they say you sometimes delay the dawn, the dawn
The moon no longer wears her black silk veil
Looks down no longer in her blue mirror
The sun broke the moon’s heart
and she follows from afar, still gazing at one another

I think of that afternoon,
when I wanted to kill,
Avenge myself for my cowardice!
Why not kill myself, if I were already dead in my life…?

Nothing, Nothing, is forever

Iron will never be for my body
ay moon when I see you,
it’s a silence in a thousand pieces
ay when I die of sighs
I would like to hold you in my hands
and wrap you in my cloak
until the new day has arrived,
ay and never stop loving you!

O moon that shines on the sea, the dark seas
Aren’t you tired moon?
Turning to the same world?
O moon, stay with me and don’t go!
Because they say you sometimes delay the dawn, the dawn
The moon no longer wears his black silk veil
No longer look down in his blue mirror
The sun broke the moon’s heart
and he follows from afar, still gazing

Original:

Quita una pena, otra pena
y un dolor, otro dolor
un clavo saca otro clavo
y un amor quita otro amor

NA,NA,NA ES ETERNO!

es un castillo de pena,
con torres de sufrimiento
tu misma los fabricaste
cuando dijiste lo siento

NA,NA,NA ES ETERNO!

y a ti no te da dolor!
no me apretes mas las llagas
que tengo en mi corazonç

NA,NA,NA ES ETERNO!

Luna q brillas los mares, los mares oscuros
ay luna tu no estas cansá
de girar al mismo mundo?
ay luna kedate conmigo y aun not e vayas!
pq dicen q aveces se tarda el alba,se tarda el alba
ya no viste la luna su velo de seda negro
ya no baja a mirarse en su azul espejo
el sol le dio a la luna un desengaño
se siguen de lejos,se siguen mirando

Yo pienso en aquella tarde,
cuando me quise matar,
me avergonze de mi cobardia!
pa q matarme?si yo staba muerto en mi via

NA,NA,NA ES ETERNO!

mi cuerpo hierro para nunca
ay luna cuando te miro
es un silencio en mil pedazos
ay cuando muerto de suspiro
me gustaria con mis manos abrazarte
y con mi manto cobijarte
q llegara el nuevo dia,
ay no dejar de amarte!

Luna que brillas los mares,los mares oscuros
ay luna tu no estas cansá
de girar al mismo mundo?
ay luna kedate conmigo y aun not e vayas!
pq dicen q aveces se tarda el alba,se tarda el alba
ya no viste la luna su velo de seda negro
ya no baja a mirarse en su azul espejo
el sol le dio a la luna un desengaño
se siguen de lejos,se siguen mirando

Hafez

 

 

Translation:

WHAT is wrought in the forge of the living and life–
All things are nought! Ho! fill me the bowl,
For nought is the gear of the world and the strife!
One passion has quickened the heart and the soul,
The Beloved’s presence alone they have sought–
Love at least exists; yet if Love were not,
Heart and soul would sink to the common lot–
All things are nought!

Like an empty cup is the fate of each,
That each must fill from Life’s mighty flood;
Nought thy toil, though to Paradise gate thou reach,
If Another has filled up thy cup with blood;
Neither shade from the sweet-fruited trees could be bought
By thy praying-oh Cypress of Truth, dost not see
That Sidreh and Tuba were nought, and to thee
All then were nought!

The span of thy life is as five little days,
Brief hours and swift in this halting-place;
Rest softly, ah rest! while the Shadow delays,
For Time’s self is nought and the dial’s face.
On the lip of Oblivion we linger, and short
Is the way from the Lip to the Mouth where we pass
While the moment is thine, fill, oh Saki, the glass
Ere all is nought!

Consider the rose that breaks into flower,
Neither repines though she fade and die–
The powers of the world endure for an hour,
But nought shall remain of their majesty.
Be not too sure of your crown, you who thought
That virtue was easy and recompense yours;
From the monastery to the wine-tavern doors
The way is nought

What though I, too, have tasted the salt of my tears,
Though I, too, have burnt in the fires of grief,
Shall I cry aloud to unheeding ears?
Mourn and be silent! nought brings relief.
Thou, Hafiz, art praised for the songs thou hast wrought,
But bearing a stained or an honoured name,
The lovers of wine shall make light of thy fame–
All things are nought!

Translation: Gertrude Bell

 

Original:

حاصل کارگه کون و مکان این همه نیست
                         باده پیش آر که اسباب جهان این همه نیست
از دل و جان شرف صحبت جانان غرض است
                  غرض این است وگرنه دل و جان این همه نیست
منت سدره و طوبی ز پی سایه مکش
                که چو خوش بنگری ای سرو روان این همه نیست
دولت آن است که بی خون دل آید به کنار
                     ور نه با سعی و عمل باغ جنان این همه نیست
پنج روزی که در این مرحله مهلت داری
                      خوش بیاسای زمانی که زمان این همه نیست
بر لب بحر فنا منتظریم ای ساقی
                   فرصتی دان که ز لب تا به دهان این همه نیست
زاهد ایمن مشو از بازی غیرت زنهار
                     که ره از صومعه تا دیر مغان این همه نیست
دردمندی من سوخته زار و نزار
                         ظاهرا حاجت تقریر و بیان این همه نیست
نام حافظ رقم نیک پذیرفت ولی
                        پیش رندان رقم سود و زیان این همه نیست

 

We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute of eternity.
We are pain and what cures pain both.
We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.
I want to hold you close like a lute so we can cry out with loving.
You would rather throw stones at a mirror?
 I am your mirror, and here are the stones.
 -Rumi

 

 

 

 

Translation:

What bad luck I have
to have met you
how happy I lived,
your love is my punishment.
I’m leaving this land
I have already renounced my soul
Singing the whole way,
Just to not hear your name,
I’m going to the Moors.

 

O moon that shines on the sea, the dark seas
Aren’t you tired moon?
Turning to the same world?
O moon, stay with me and don’t go!
Because they say you sometimes delay the dawn, the dawn

 

Pozo Blanco Road
had a tavern
with white wine.
Give me another sip,
come down,
I haven’t tasted anything.

 

Then I was born a carnation
pa the days rejoiced with me
and now that I have all three,
what a wonder is mine.
That the garden of my house
will never lack  joy.
Don’t sing cicada
silence your chirping,
For I carry a pain in my soul,
A dagger that strikes me
knowing that when I sing
my luck expires sighing
Under the shade of a tree
and the beat of my guitar
This happy song,
because the road has ended
and do not want to die dreaming,
oh, like the cicada died.

 

Life, life, life is,
is a setback,
life is life.
Oh life is, life is …

Original:

Que mala suerte la mía,
de haber tropezao contigo,
lo a gustito que yo vivía,
tu cariño es mi castigo.

Me voy de estos terrenos
que ya he renunciaíto primita mía
pa toíta la vía,
sólo por no escuchar tú nombre,
que yo me voy a la morería.

Ay, luna que brilla en los mares,
en los mares oscuros,
luna, tú no estás cansá
de girar el mismo mundo,
ay, luna quédate conmigo,

ya no te vayas,
porque dicen que a veces
se tarda el alba.

Camino de Pozo Blanco
había una tabernita
con vino blanco.
Échame otro buchito,
vengo najando,
no ha catao ná.

Después me nació un clavel
pa alegrarme a mí los días,
y ahora que tengo a los tres,
que maravilla la mía.
Que en el jardín de mi casa
nunca falte la alegría.

Ya no cantes cigarra,
apaga tu sonsonete,
que llevo una pena en el alma,
que como un puñal se me mete
sabiendo que cuando canto
suspirando va mi suerte.

Bajo la sombra de un árbol
y al compás de mi guitarra
canto alegre este huapango,
porque la vía se acaba
y no quiero morir soñando,
ay, como muere la cigarra.

Ábreme la puerta
que vengo najando,
y los gachés, primita de mi alma,
sí a mí me ven
me la van buscando.

La vida, la vida, la vida es,
es un contratiempo,
la vida, la vida es.

Ay la vida es, la vida es…

 

Omar Khayyam / Edward Fitzgerald

XII.
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, — and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness —
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

 

XLIV.
And lately, by the Tavern Door agape,
Came stealing through the Dusk an Angel Shape
Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder; and
He bid me taste of it; and ’twas — the Grape!
XLV.
The Grape that can with Logic absolute
The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute:
The subtle Alchemest that in a Trice
Life’s leaden Metal into Gold transmute.

 

XLVIII.
For in and out, above, about, below,
‘Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,
Play’d in a Box whose Candle is the Sun,
Round which we Phantom Figures come and go.

XVI.
The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes — or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face
Lighting a little Hour or two — is gone.

 

LVIII.
‘Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.

 

LXXXIX.
Ah, Moon of my Delight who know’st no wane,
The Moon of Heav’n is rising once again:
How oft hereafter rising shall she look
Through this same Garden after me — in vain!

 

LXXXI.
Ah, with the Grape my fading Life provide,
And wash my Body whence the Life has died,
And in a Windingsheet of Vine-leaf wrapt,
So bury me by some sweet Garden-side.

 

“Translations” by E. Fitzgerald. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

 

 

Rumi and Hafez: Love’s Language

Rumi:

Translation:

When the tent-pavilion was pitched for Solomon, the birds came before him to pay their respects.  They found him speaking their language and familiar with them; one by one, they sped with eager souls into his presence. All the birds, having ceased from twittering, became more articulate with Solomon than your own brother:

Having the same tongue is kinship and affinity,
With those with whom no intimacy exists, a man is in prison.
There are many Hindus and Turks with the same tongue,
And oh, many a pair of Turks, strangers to each other.
Hence the tongue of intimacy is something else,
It is better to be of one heart than of one tongue.
Without speech, without oath, without register,
A hundred thousand interpreters from the heart arise.

 

from:

Seyyed Hossein Nasr
The Pilgrimage of Life and the Wisdom of Rumi
(Oakton, VA: The Foundation for Traditional Studies, 2007), pp. 96-97

 

Original:

چون سلیمان را سراپرده زدند
جمله مرغانش به خدمت آمدند
هم‌زبان و محرم خود یافتند
پیش او یک یک بجان بشتافتند
جمله مرغان ترک کرده چیک چیک
با سلیمان گشته افصح من اخیک
همزبانی خویشی و پیوندی است
مرد با نامحرمان چون بندی است

 

همزبانی خویشی و پیوندی است
مرد با نامحرمان چون بندی است
ای بسا هندو و ترک همزبان
ای بسا دو ترک چون بیگانگان
پس زبان محرمی خود دیگرست
همدلی از همزبانی بهترست
غیرنطق و غیر ایما و سجل
صد هزاران ترجمان خیزد ز دل
جمله مرغان هر یکی اسرار خود
از هنر وز دانش و از کار خود

 

 

Hafez:

 

Translation:

Morning breeze of joy, by that way that you know
Go to to that one’s street and tell her at that time you know

 

You are the messenger of the mysteries of khalwa, and I am watching your road
Ride humbly, not haughtily, in that way that you know

 

You could say that my dear soul fell from my hand
For God’s sake, give me, from that soul-nourishing ruby (your mouth), that which you know

 

I wrote these few words in such a way that no one understood
you too, read them kindly in that way that you know.

 

The image of your blade (smile) is like water to a thirsty man
you took your prisoner, so slay in that way that you know

 

How can I not fasten my hope to your embroidered belt?
My dear, there is a subtlety in that waist, as you well know

 

Hafez, Turkish and Arabic are one in this work
tell love’s tale in any language that you know

 

Original:

نسیم صبح سعادت بدان نشان که تو دانی                  گذر به کوی فلان کن در آن زمان که تو دانی

تو پیک خلوت رازی و دیده بر سر راهت                 به مردمی نه به فرمان چنان بران که تو دانی

بگو که جان عزیزم ز دست رفت  خدا را                         ز لعل روح‌فزایش ببخش آن که تو دانی

من این حروف نوشتم چنان‌که غیر ندانست               تو هم ز روی کرامت چنان بخوان که تو دانی

خیال تیغ تو با ما حدیث تشنه و آب است                    اسیر خویش گرفتی، بکش چنان که تو دانی

امید در کمر زرکشت چگونه ببندم                              دقیقه‌ ای‌ ست نگارا در آن میان که تو دانی

یکی‌ست ترکی و تازی در این معامله حافظ                  حدیث عشق بیان کن بدان زبان که تو دانی

 

Some more quotes/interpretations from Rumi and Hafez for which I haven’t found the original:

 

Hafez

Look at This Beauty

 

The beauty of this poem is beyond words.
Do you need a guide to experience the heat of the sun?

Blessed is the brush of the painter who paints
Such beautiful pictures for his virgin bride.

Look at this beauty. There is no reason for what you see.
Experience its grace. Even in nature there is nothing so fine.

Either this poem is a miracle, or some sort of magic trick.
Guided either by Gabriel or the Invisible Voice, inside.

No one, not even Hafiz, can describe with words the Great Mystery.
No one knows in which shell the priceless pearl does hide.

– Translation by Thomas Rain Crowe
 From: Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved 100 Poems of Hafiz   – Shambhala 2001

 

Rumi

 

“At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come and press its face against mine. Breathe into me. Close the language-door and open the love-window. The moon won’t use the door, only the window.”

 

“Love is that that never sleeps, nor even rests, nor stays for long with those that do. Love is language that cannot be said, or heard.”

 

“Silence is the language of God,
all else is poor translation.”

 

“There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen.”:

 

 

 

 

Hafez-Your beauty, like my love

بگرفت کار حسنت چون عشق من کمالی

 

Translation:

 

Your beauty, like my love, grew into perfection
Be happy, for these two will not decline

 

Neither imagination nor intellect can picture
a reality more beautiful than this image

 

I would have fulfilled my life’s fortune
if ever union with you was my lot

 

When I am with you, one year is a day
When I’m without you, one moment’s a year

 

How can I see the image of your face in sleep my dear,
If my eyes see nothing of sleep but an image?

 

Have mercy on my heart, for the sun of your lovely face
Made my body like the crescent moon

 

Hafez, if you want union with the friend, don’t complain
You have to bear the separation more than this

 

 

 Original:

بگرفت كار حسنت چون عشق من كمالي _____ خوش باش زانكه نبود اين هر دو را  زوالي‏

در وهم مي‏نگنجد كاندر تصور عقل _____ آيد به هيچ معني زين خوبتر مثالي‏

چون من خيال رويت جانا به خواب بينم؟ _____ كز خواب مي‏نبيند چشمم به جز خيالي‏

شد خط عمر حاصل گر زانكه با تو ما را _____ هرگز به عمر روزي روزي شود وصالي‏

آن دم كه با تو باشم يك سال هست روزي _____ وآن دم كه بي‏تو باشم يك لحظه هست سالي‏

رحم آر بر دل من كز مهر روي خوبت _____ شد شخص ناتوانم باريك چون هلالي‏

حافظ مكن شكايت گر وصل دوست خواهي _____ زين بيشتر ببايد بر هجرت احتمالي‏

Rumi-I am the hoopoe…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Translation:

Show your face, for the orchard and rosegarden are my desire;
open your lips, for abundant sugar is my desire.
Sun of beauty, come forth one moment out of the cloud, for
that glittering, glowing countenance is my desire.
Out of your air I heard the sound of the falcon-drum; I
returned, for the sultan’s forearm is my desire.
You said capriciously, “Trouble me no more; be gone!” That
saying of yours, “Trouble me no more,” is my desire.
And your repulse, “Be gone, the king is not at home,” and
those mighty airs and brusqueness of the doorkeeper, are my desire.
In the hand of every one who exists there are filings of beauty;
that quarry of elegance and that mine are my desire.
This bread and water of heavens wheel are like a treacherous
torrent; I am a fish, a leviathan, Oman* is my desire.
Like Jacob I am crying alas, alas*; the fair visage of Joseph of
Canaan is my desire.
By God, without you the city is a prison for me; I wander
abroad, mountain and desert are my desire.
My heart is weary of these weak-spirited fellow-travellers; the
Lion of God* and Rustam-i Dastan are my desire.
My soul is sick of Pharaoh and his tyranny; that light of the
countenance of Moses son of Imran is my desire.
I am aweary of these tearful people so full of complaining;
that ranting and roaring of the drunkards is my desire.
I am more eloquent than the nightingale, but because of
vulgar envy a seal is on my tongue, and lamentation is my desire.
Last night the shaikh went all about the city, lamp in hand,
crying, “I am weary of beast and devil, a man is my desire.”
They said, “He is not to be found, we too have searched.” He
answered, “He who is not to be found is my desire.”
Though I am penniless, I will not accept a small carnelian, for
that rare, precious carnelian is my desire.
Hidden from every eye, and all things seen are from Him—
that hidden One manifest in works is my desire.
My state has gone beyond every desire and yearning; from
mine and place to the elements is my desire.
My ear heard the tale of faith and became drunk; where is the
portion of sight? The form of faith is my desire.
In one hand the winecup, in the other the Beloved’s curl—to
dance so in the midst of the arena is my desire.”
That guitar says, “I am dead of expectation; the hand and
bosom and pick of Uthman* are my desire.”
I am at once Love’s guitar, and Love is my guitar-player;
those favours of the strumming of the All-merciful are my desire.
Cunning minstrel, number the rest of this ode after this fashion,
for it is after this fashion I desire.
Show your face from the east, Sun of the Pride of Tabriz; I am
the hoopoe, the presence of Solomon is my desire.

 

 

* Oman, the southern part of the Persian Gulf, symbolizes the
Divine Ocean.
* “Like Jacob, etc.” — Koran 12:84
* The “Lion of God” was Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and fourth caliph.
Rustam was the famous Iranian champion.
* Uthman: Sharaf al-Din-i Qavval the minstrel, see Aflaki 222, etc.

 

modified from the translation by A.J. Arberry
Mystical Poems of Rumi, 1
University of Chicago Press, March 1974

Original:

بنمای رخ که باغ و گلستانم آرزوست
بگشای لب که قند فراوانم آرزوست
ای آفتاب حسن برون آ دمی ز ابر
کان چهره مشعشع تابانم آرزوست
بشنیدم از هوای تو آواز طبل باز
باز آمدم که ساعد سلطانم آرزوست
گفتی ز ناز بیش مرنجان مرا برو
آن گفتنت که بیش مرنجانم آرزوست
وان دفع گفتنت که برو شه به خانه نیست
وان ناز و باز و تندی دربانم آرزوست
در دست هر کی هست ز خوبی قراضههاست
آن معدن ملاحت و آن کانم آرزوست
این نان و آب چرخ چو سیلست بیوفا
من ماهیم نهنگم عمانم آرزوست
یعقوب وار وااسفاها همیزنم
دیدار خوب یوسف کنعانم آرزوست
والله که شهر بیتو مرا حبس میشود
آوارگی و کوه و بیابانم آرزوست
زین همرهان سست عناصر دلم گرفت
شیر خدا و رستم دستانم آرزوست
جانم ملول گشت ز فرعون و ظلم او
آن نور روی موسی عمرانم آرزوست
زین خلق پرشکایت گریان شدم ملول
آنهای هوی و نعره مستانم آرزوست
گویاترم ز بلبل اما ز رشک عام
مهرست بر دهانم و افغانم آرزوست
دی شیخ با چراغ همیگشت گرد شهر
کز دیو و دد ملولم و انسانم آرزوست
گفتند یافت مینشود جستهایم ما
گفت آنک یافت مینشود آنم آرزوست
هر چند مفلسم نپذیرم عقیق خرد
کان عقیق نادر ارزانم آرزوست
پنهان ز دیدهها و همه دیدهها از اوست
آن آشکار صنعت پنهانم آرزوست
خود کار من گذشت ز هر آرزو و آز
از کان و از مکان پی ارکانم آرزوست
گوشم شنید قصه ایمان و مست شد
کو قسم چشم صورت ایمانم آرزوست
یک دست جام باده و یک دست جعد یار
رقصی چنین میانه میدانم آرزوست
میگوید آن رباب که مردم ز انتظار
دست و کنار و زخمه عثمانم آرزوست
من هم رباب عشقم و عشقم ربابیست
وان لطفهای زخمه رحمانم آرزوست
باقی این غزل را ای مطرب ظریف
زین سان همیشمار که زین سانم آرزوست
بنمای شمس مفخر تبریز رو ز شرق
من هدهدم حضور سلیمانم آرزوست

Carminho and Rumi-Pain

A Voz

 

 

Translation:

Sometimes there is a voice that rises
Higher than the world and higher than us
And makes my eyes weep, when it sings
In the tears that silence my voice

It plunges my senses and time
To the farthest point of who I am
And embraces that place, so gray
That lurks beneath the mist there

And calls out in my breast when I feel
The nearness of a sad face, of a love
Higher than the world and higher than people
The voice is not a voice, it is called pain

Original:

Às vezes há una voz que se levanta
Mais alta do que o Mundo e do que nós
E faz chover-me os olhos, quando canta
Num pranto que emudece a minha voz

Afunda-me os sentidos e o tempo
Ao ponto mais distante do que sou
E abraça aquele lugar que, tão cinzento,
Se esconde sob a névoa que ficou

E grita-mo no peito quando sente
Chegar a face triste de um amor
Mais alta do que o mundo e do que a gente
A voz já não é voz chama-se dor.

Lyrics and Translation from lyricstranslate.com

 

 

Hunger gives pleasure, not fresh sweetmeats
        hunger makes barley bread better than sugar. . . .
Pain renews old medicines and lops off
        the branch of every indifference.
Pains are an alchemy that renews—
     who can be bored when pain appears?
Beware, do not sigh coldly in boredom—
     seek pain, seek pain, pain, pain!

 

-Rūmī
(Mathnawi 6:4403-4304)

 

 Love is the cure, for your pain
will keep giving birth to more pain
until your eyes constantly exhale love
as effortlessly as your body yields its scent.

 

-Rūmī