Rumi-Your hair is Laylat al-Qadr

 


Translation:
It’s morning and there’s wine so we’re going to stand on the sky
We’re going to go beyond Taurus to the constellation of the moon
We’re not looking for a fight, and have nothing to say about others
For it’s time for union, and with that we’ll be glad
Your face is a garden of roses, and your lip a land of sugar
We all become like sweet flowers in the shadow of these two
The sun of your sweet face is as boundless as the sun’s beams
So we have to stay up with you all night just like the moon
Your hair is the Night of Destiny, your face is a new day (Nawruz)
We’re between her day and night, just like the dawn
We don’t know this face, because you appeared in that one
But if you appear in another way, we’ll come by another way
You are the sun of the world and we are but hidden specks of dust
Shine on these specks, so that we can be seen
When the sun is lost and bedazzled by your face
It’s no wonder that we specks of dust are all love-dazed
I said, “When you come, you will open 200 doors.”
They said, “This is true, but only if we come…”
I said, “Just as the sea does not come to the stream,
We, like the flowing water, will journey forth to her
O herald of the unseen, speak, so that we
From your glad tidings and good news, will be glad, blissfully.

 


 

Original:

صبح است و صبوح است بر این بام برآییم              از ثور گریزیم و به برج قمر آییم

پیکار نجوییم و ز اغیار نگوییم                      هنگام وصال است بدان خوش صور آییم

روی تو گلستان و لب تو شکرستان                       در سایه این هر دو همه گلشکر آییم

خورشید رخ خوب تو چون تیغ کشیده‌ست             شاید که به پیش تو چو مه شب سپر آییم

زلف تو شب قدر و رخ تو همه نوروز               ما واسطه روز و شبش چون سحر آییم

این شکل ندانیم که آن شکل نمودی                        ور زانک دگرگونه نمایی دگر آییم

خورشید جهانی تو و ما ذره پنهان                        درتاب در این روزن تا در نظر آییم

خورشید چو از روی تو سرگشته و خیره‌ست           ما ذره عجب نیست که خیره نگر آییم

گفتم چو بیایید دو صد در بگشایید                          گفتند که این هست ولیکن اگر آییم

گفتم که چو دریا به سوی جوی نیاید                     چون آب روان جانب او در سفر آییم

ای ناطقه غیب تو برگوی که تا ما                                     از مخبر و اخبار خوشت خوش خبر آییم

 

Hafez on Laylat al-Qadr

Translation:

 

Last night, at the moment of dawn, they saved me from sorrow
And in the darkness of night, they gave me the water of life
By the rays of the light of the Essence they made me selfless
They gave me wine from the cup of the radiance of the Attributes
What a blessed dawn it was, and what an auspicious night
That night of destiny, when they gave me a new fate
From now on, it’s just my face and the mirror, reflecting beauty
Since on that night they brought me news from the unveiling of the Essence
It’s no wonder that I achieved my desire and my heart became happy
I was a beggar, and they gave me this as alms
That day, the secret voice gave me the good news of this kingdom
that gave me patience and steadiness in the face of pain and suffering
All this honey and sugar which comes from my speech
is the reward of my patience in [the trials of love] that they gave me in the form of my Beloved (Shakh Nabat)
It was because of Hafez’s zeal and the breath of those who rise at dawn
that they saved me from the chains of the sorrows of fate

 

 

Original:
                دوش وقت سحر از غصه نجاتم دادند
واندر آن ظلمت شب آب حیاتم دادند
               بیخود از شعشعه پرتو ذاتم کردند
باده از جام تجلی صفاتم دادند
              چه مبارک سحری بود و چه فرخنده شبی
آن شب قدر که این تازه براتم دادند
               بعد از این روی من و آینه وصف جمال
که در آن جا خبر از جلوه ذاتم دادند
                من اگر کامروا گشتم و خوشدل چه عجب
مستحق بودم و این‌ها به زکاتم دادند
                 هاتف آن روز به من مژده این دولت داد
که بدان جور و جفا صبر و ثباتم دادند
                 این همه شهد و شکر کز سخنم می‌ریزد
اجر صبریست کز آن شاخ نباتم دادند
                 همت حافظ و انفاس سحرخیزان بود
که ز بند غم ایام نجاتم دادند

 

Hafez on Ramadan

 

 

Translation:
 In the month of Sha’aban, do not neglect the glass of wine
This sun will disappear untl the ‘Eid of Ramadan

 

Original:

ماه شعبان منه از دست قدح کاین خورشید                   از نظر تا شب عید رمضان خواهد شد

 

 Translation:
 Come back and be the dear friend of my squeezed heart
Be the intimate of the secrets of this poor love-crazed one
That wine which they sell in the tavern of love
Give me two or three cups and say “It’s Ramadan!”

 

Original:
               بازآی و دل تنگ مرا مونس جان باش
وین سوخته را محرم اسرار نهان باش
                    زان باده که در میکده عشق فروشند
ما را دو سه ساغر بده و گو رمضان باش

 

Translation:
That wine of love which ripens the immature
Although it is the month of Ramadan, bring me a cup of it

 

Original:
                      زان می عشق کز او پخته شود هر خامی
گر چه ماه رمضان است بیاور جامی

Rumi: By love

Translation:

By love, the bitter becomes sweet
By love copper coins become gold
By love, the dregs become clear
By love, the pain becomes healing
By love, the dead is made living
By love, the king is made a slave
And this love is the result of knowledge
Who, in foolishness, ever sat on such a throne?

 

Original:

 

از محبت تلخها شیرین شود
از محبت مسها زرین شود
از محبت دردها صافی شود
از محبت دردها شافی شود
از محبت مرده زنده می‌کنند
از محبت شاه بنده می‌کنند
این محبت هم نتیجهٔ دانشست
کی گزافه بر چنین تختی نشست

Compare with James Taylor’s song, the lyrics of which seem worthy of the Diwan-i Shams

 

Lyrics:

There’s something in the way she moves,
Or looks my way, or calls my name,
That seems to leave this troubled world behind.
And if I’m feeling down and blue,
Or troubled by some foolish game,
She always seems to make me change my mind.
And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now,
She’s around me now
Just about all the time
And if I’m well you can tell she’s been with me now,
She’s been with me now quite a long, long time
And I feel fine.
It isn’t what she’s got to say
But how she thinks and where she’s been
To me, the words are nice, the way they sound
I like to hear them best that way
It doesn’t much matter what they mean
If she says them mostly just to calm me down

And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now,
She’s around me now
Just about all the time
And if I’m well you can tell she’s been with me now,
She’s been with me now quite a long, long time
And I feel fine.
Every now and then the things I lean on lose their meaning
And I find myself careening
Into places where I should not let me go.
— She has the power to go where no one else can find me
And to silently remind me
Of the happiness and the good times that I know, got to know.
And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now,
She’s around me now
Just about all the time
And if I’m well you can tell she’s been with me now,
She’s been with me now quite a long, long time
And I feel fine.
Lyrics from http://www.elyrics.net

 

As Rumi is said to have written elsewhere:

You come to us from another world;
From beyond the stars and a void of space
Transcendent, pure – of unimaginable beauty.
Bringing with You the essence of Love.
You transform all who are touched by You –
Mundane concerns, troubles and sorrows dissolve in Your presence
Bringing joy to ruler & ruled, to peasants and kings.
You bewilder us with Your grace;
All evil is transformed into goodness.
You are the Master Alchemist!
You light the fire of Love in earth & sky,
In heart & soul of every being.
Through Your loving, existence & non-existence merge
All opposites unite
All that is profane becomes sacred again.
Be sure that in the Religion of Love, there are no believers or unbelievers
Love embraces all.

 

Hafez: We are Red Lions, Black Cobras

A new favorite from Hafez…

Translation:

 

Although we are the king’s slaves
We are the sovereigns of the kingdom of the dawn

 

With treasure in our sleeves and holes in our pockets
We are the surface of the world-seeing cup and the dust of the road

 

Awake with presence, yet drunk with pride,
We are the ocean of unity, yet drowning in sin

 

Lady luck, when she flirts
we are the mirror for her moon-like face

 

For the fortunate king, each night
we guard his crown and diadem

 

Tell him to be grateful for our conversation,
“For while you sleep, we are standing guard.”

 

Shah Mansur knows that
wherever we go

 

We make a shroud of blood for our enemies
and give the mantle of victory to our friends

 

There is no tint of hypocrisy in us
We are red lions and black cobras

 

Tell them to pay their debt to Hafez
You’ve admitted it, and we’ve witnessed it

 

Original:

               گر چه ما بندگان پادشهیم
پادشاهان ملک صبحگهیم
             گنج در آستین و کیسه تهی
جام گیتی نما و خاک رهیم
       هوشیار حضور و مست غرور
بحر توحید و غرقه گنهیم
           شاهد بخت چون کرشمه کند
ماش آیینه رخ چو مهیم
            شاه بیدار بخت را هر شب
ما نگهبان افسر و کلهیم
           گو غنیمت شمار صحبت ما
که تو در خواب و ما به دیده گهیم
           شاه منصور واقف است که ما
روی همت به هر کجا که نهیم
           دشمنان را ز خون کفن سازیم
دوستان را قبای فتح دهیم
           رنگ تزویر پیش ما نبود
شیر سرخیم و افعی سیهیم
           وام حافظ بگو که بازدهند
کرده‌ای اعتراف و ما گوهیم

 

lyris aside, this music seems to say the same thing to me:

 

 

 

 

Love beyond words…

Ibn al-Fāriḍ
In the art of describing his beauty, time itself expires
and yet still there remains in him, what has not been described

 

وعـلى تَـفَنّنِ واصِـفيهِ بِحُسْنِهِ          يَـفنى الـزّمانُ وفيه ما لم يُوصف

 


Anon.

A robe woven from the cloth of 29 letters
would still fall short of his glory

 

ألا أنّ ثوبا خيط من نسج تسعة     وعشرين حرفاً من معاليه قاصر


 

Whoever’s tasted the drink of our people knows it
And will only pour the purest wine
Passing out, he’ll know the outcome of his oblivion
And whoever realizes this tomorrow will give his soul for it

 

من ذاق طعم شراب القوم يدريه      ولم يروق رحيقاً غير صافيه

يغمى عليه فيدري غب غيبته     ومن دراه غدا بالروح يشريه

 Rumi

 

 

Whatever description or explanation I give of love
when I reach love, I am ashamed of it
Although the description of the tongue clarifies
love that is tongueless is of grater clarity
As the pen hastened to write
when it came to love, it split on itself
In describing love, Reason becomes mired
like an ass in mud
It is love alone, it is love alone
which has explained love and being in love

 

Original:

هرچه گویم عشق را شرح و بیان
چون به عشق آیم خجل باشم از آن
گرچه تفسیر زبان روشنگرست
لیک عشق بی‌زبان روشنترست
چون قلم اندر نوشتن می‌شتافت
چون به عشق آمد قلم بر خود شکافت
عقل در شرحش چو خر در گل بخفت
شرح عشق و عاشقی هم عشق گفت

Hafez:

The tongue of the pen cannot express the mystery of love
The description of longing is beyond the limits of writing

 

قلم را ان زبان نبود كه سرّ عشق گويد باز
وراى حدّ تقرير است شرح ارزومندى

 

Hafez says, “Shatter”

Translation:

 

Give us love’s flirtatious look and shatter sorcery’s bazaar
With but a seductive glance, shatter wealthy Samer’s law
Give both the head and turban of the whole world to the wind
That is, let your hair down, let the heart-breaking begin
Tell the lock of hair to give up its bold arrogance
“Shatter the cruel heart,” tell the flirting glance
Come out and steal the ball of beauty from every last player
Beat the houris and the glory of the angels shatter
With your doe-eyes, steal the glance of the sun’s lion
With your curved eyebrows, shatter the bow of jupiter
When with the breath of wind, the flowers sweetly bloom
Shatter their worth with your locks of hair’s amber perfume
When the nightingale boasts of being in eloquence, first
O Hafez, shatter his rank, by reciting Persian verse

 

غزل 399- 

 

Original:

 

کرشمه‌ای کن و بازار ساحری بشکن            به غمزه رونق و ناموس سامری بشکن
به باد ده سر و دستار عالمی یعنی                      کلاه گوشه به آیین دلبرری بشکن
به زلف گوی که آیین دلبری بگذار               به غمزه گوی که قلب ستمگری بشکن
برون خرام و ببر گوی خوبی از همه کس               سزای حور بده رونق پری بشکن
به آهوان نظر شیر آفتاب بگیر                         به ابروان دوتا قوس مشتری بشکن
چو عطرسای شود زلف سنبل از دم باد              تو قیمتش به سر زلف عنبری بشکن
چو عندلیب فصاحت فروشد ای حافظ
تو قدر او به سخن گفتن دری بشکن

The magic of music

 
What is music and why there is so much of the enchantment of love in it?
Music is the secret of Love and Love is the secret of God

 

Original:

سرود چيست كه چندين فسون عشق داراوست

سرود محرم عشق است و عشق محرم اوست

 

 

Love plays its lute behind the screen —
where is a lover to listen to its tune?
The world has spilled Love’s secret —
when could music ever hold its tongue?
Every atom babbles the mystery —
Listen yourself, for I’m no tattletale!

-Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi

 

Rumi

“In the house of lovers, the music never stops,
the walls are made of songs & the floor dances”

Don’t worry about saving these songs!
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it doesn’t matter.

We have fallen into the place
where everything is music.

The strumming and the flute notes
rise into the atmosphere,
and even if the whole world’s harp
should burn up, there will still be
hidden instruments playing.

So the candle flickers and goes out.
We have a piece of flint, and a spark.

This singing art is sea foam.
The graceful movements come from a pearl
somewhere on the ocean floor.

Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge
of driftwood along the beach, wanting!

They derive
from a slow and powerful root
that we can’t see.

Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest,
and let the spirits fly in and out.

 

(From: Rumi – Selected Poems. Translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne)


‘Tis said, the pipe and lute that charm our ears
Derive their melody from rolling spheres;
But Faith, o’erpassing speculation’s bound,
Can see what sweetens every jangled sound.

We, who are parts of Adam, heard with him
The song of angels and of seraphim.
Out memory, though dull and sad, retains
Some echo still of those unearthly strains.

Oh, music is the meat of all who love,
Music uplifts the soul to realms above.
The ashes glow, the latent fires increase:
We listen and are fed with joy and peace.

trans. R. A. Nicholson

(From: ‘Persian Poems‘, an Anthology of verse translations
edited by A.J. Arberry, Everyman’s Library, 1972)


We rarely hear the inward music,
but we’re all dancing to it nevertheless
directed by the one who teaches us,
the pure joy of the sun,
our music master.

 

We all were parts of Adam at one time
In paradise we all have heard these tunes
Though clay and water fill us up with doubts
We still remember something of those songs

From Masnavi 736-7
Trans. by Franklin Lewis, found here

 

The musician’s art is to send light into the depths of men’s hearts
-Robert Schumann

 

All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music
-Walter Pater

 

Music is the mediation between the intellectual and the sensuous life
-Beethoven

 

Music is the Answer to the mystery of life; it is the most profound of all the arts; it expresses  the deepest thoughts of life and being in simple language which nonetheless cannot be translated.
-Schopenhauer

 

The certitude of my brightest love

 

Hafez: 

I have never seen a more beautiful reminder
than the words of love that linger in this turning dome

 

         از صدای سخن عشق نديدم خوشتر
  يادگاری که در اين گنبد دوار بماند

 

Cristina Branco:

 

The certitude of my brightest love

The certitude of my brightest love
I am going to light up, should there be no moonlight tomorrow
And I will gather from a firefly a lonely glow
That the good bug may forgive me for this theft

Whistling the melodies ever more beautiful
And describing the cities I’ve seen
Of men and fossils and their gestures as written
Of good and evil, peace, calm and tumult

If I am alone it is in an alley that I meet myself
I go door to door asking who saw me
If I lived there, if I was the same and at what point
My desire packed its bags and fled.

Whistling the melody ever more beautiful
The certainty of my brightest love
Of the feeling among the others the favourite
That is to see the rose with time gain colour.

Whistling the melodies ever more brilliant
As brilliant from the certainty of a love
As the ruby most precious among others
That is of tenderness alternating with ardour.

I will not deny staying thus in this beauty
Whistling the melodies ever more fleeting
It is not possible nor is it simple, for sure
But it is will that gives me what I am doing.

Translation from: http://lyricstranslate.com

As Certezas do Meu Mais Brilhante Amor

As certezas do meu mais brilhante amor
Vou acender, que amanhã não há luar
E eu colherei do pirilampo um só fulgor
Que me perdoe o bom bichinho de o roubar

Assobiando as melodias mais bonitas
E das cidades descrevendo o que já vi
Homens e fósseis e seus gestos como escritas
Do bem e do mal, a paz a calma e frenesi

Se estou sozinho é num beco que me encontro
Vou porta a porta perguntando a quem me viu
Se ali morei, se eu era o mesmo e em que ponto
O meu desejo fez as malas e fugiu

Assobiando a melodia mais bonita
A da certeza do meu mais brilhante amor
Da sensação de entre as demais a favorita
Que é ver a rosa com o tempo a ganhar cor

Assobiando as melodias mais brilhantes
Como o brilhante da certeza de um amor
Como o rubi mais precioso entre os restantes
Que é o da meiguice alternando com ardor

Não negarei ficar assim nesta beleza
Assobiando as melodias mais fugazes
Não é possível nem é simples, com certeza
Mas é vontade que me dá do que me fazes

Love’s Ocean Has No Shore…

Say: Were the ocean ink for the Words of my Lord (to be written out), sooner would the ocean be exhausted than would the Words of my Lord, even if We added another ocean like it, for its aid.
-Surah Kahf: 109
 
Sarmad:
The ocean of his generosity has no shore.
The tongue is powerless to thank,
the heart too bewildered to understand.
Though my sins are many
his compassion is greater still–
I swim in the sea of disobedience
but I do not drown.
— from Sarmad: Martyr to Love Divine, by Isaac Ezekiel

Hafez :

The sea of love is a sea that has no shore.
There, you can only give up your soul.
Each time you give your heart to love is a joyous moment.
For auspicious deeds there is no need for divination.
Avail yourself of the rend’s way, for this mark,
like the road to buried treasure, is not plain to everyone.

Don’t frighten us with reason’s prohibitions, and bring wine,
for that watchman has no authority in our province.

One can see him with a pure eye, like the new moon.
Not every eye can hold that crescent’s beauty.

Ask your own eyes who is killing us, O soul,
it is not the sin of ascendants and the crime of stars.

You are unaffected by the cry of Hafiz.
I am perplexed at that heart, hard as granite.

Translation:
Elizabeth Gray, The Green Sea of Heaven

 

Original:

بحریست بحر عشق که هیچش کناره نیست
آن جا جز آن که جان بسپارند چاره نیست
هر گه که دل به عشق دهی خوش دمی بود
در کار خیر حاجت هیچ استخاره نیست
ما را به منع عقل مترسان و می بیار
کان شحنه در ولایت ما هیچ کاره نیست
از چشم خود بپرس که ما را که می‌کشد
جانا گناه طالع و جرم ستاره نیست
او را به چشم پاک توان دید چون هلال
هر دیده جای جلوه آن ماه پاره نیست
فرصت شمر طریقه رندی که این نشان
چون راه گنج بر همه کس آشکاره نیست
نگرفت در تو گریه حافظ، به هیچ رو
حیران آن دلم که کم از سنگ خاره نیست

Rumi:
If there is no sign of you in someone
گر خورشیدست آن ندارد
Even if they are
shining like the sun,
they still don’t have
That (secret element)!
ما بر در و بام عشق حیران
We stand
raptured in awe
at the gates
and on the roof
of loveآن بام که نردبان ندارد
An inaccessible roof
With no ladder

دل چون چنگست و عشق زخمه
The heart is a harp
And love the player
پس دل به چه دل فغان ندارد
Who cannot feel emotions
Of longing when you hear it played?
امروز فغان عاشقان را

بشنو که تو را زیان نداردهر ذره پر از فغان و نالهست
Every particle of the lovers being is shouting
اما چه کند زیان ندارد
And behold there is no hurt involved
رقص است زبان ذره زیرا
Dance is the speech of the moon’s atoms
جز رقص دگر بیان ندارد
Other than dance it has no other expression
هر سو نگران تست دلها
وان سو که تویی گمان ندارد
این عالم را کرانهای هست
This world does have a boundary
عشق من و تو کران ندارد
The love of me and you has none
مانند خیال تو ندیدم
I have never seen anything like the thought of You
بوسه دهد و دهان ندارد
Which gives kisses without having a mouth
ماننده غمزهات ندیدم
I have not seen the likeness of your coyness
تیر اندازد کمان ندارد
Which shoots arrows but has no bow
دادی کمری که بر میان بند
طفل دل من میان ندارد
گفتی که به سوی ما روان شو
بی لطف تو جان روان ندارد
Ibn ‘Arabi
I marveled at an Ocean without shore,
and at a Shore that did not have an ocean;
And at a Morning Light without darkness,
and at a Night that was without daybreak;
And then a Sphere with no locality
known to either fool or learned scholar;
And at an azure Dome raised over the earth,
circulating ’round its center – Compulsion;
And at a rich Earth without o’er-arching vault
and no specific location, the Secret concealed…