Rumi Mystical Poems
Part Eight
گر سخن خواهی که گویی چون شکر
صبر کن از حرص و این حلوا مخور
صبر باشد مشتهای زیرکان
هست حلوا آرزوی کودکان
If you want your speech to be sweet and neat,
Have patience and abstain from eating the sweet.
The bitterness of patience is the desire of the wise,
But children ever crave for sweets and prize.
Rūmī, Mathnawī, vol. 1, lines 1610-1611:
Part Seven
عاشقم بر لطف و بر قهرش به جِد
ای عجب من عاشقِ اين هر دو ضد
تا که شیرینیّ ما از دو جهان
در حجاب روترش باشد نهان
With His kindness and wrath
I’m seriously in love
Isn’t that strange?
They’re two opposites thereof.
Thus our sweetness in this world and the next
Is veiled by that which is sour and vexed.
Rūmī, Mathnawī, vol. 1, lines 1580 and 1771
Part Six
ما در این انبار گندم می‌کنیم
گندم جمع آمده گم می‌کنیم
می‌نیاندیشیم آخر ما به هوش
کاین خلل در گندم است از مکر موش
گر نه موشی دزد در انبار ماست
گندم اعمال چل ساله کجاست؟
We gather wheat in our storage; however,
We lose the wheat that we used to gather.
We should ask ourselves, ‘Where is our wheat?’
There must be a rat that sneaks to eat.
Our wheat is our years of worship, but where?
It’s missing because a rat is there.
Rūmī, Mathnawī, vol. 1, lines 378-379 and 383
Part Five
کار پاکان را قیاس از خود مگیر
گر چه ماند در نبشتن شیر و شیر
Don’t set yourself as a standard to assess
The acts of the pious and the men of success.
Hare and heir are pronounced the same,
But are they the same? No one can claim.
Rūmī, Mathnawī, vol. 1, line 261
Part Four
من چه گويم؟ يك رگم هشيار نيست
شرح آن ياری كه او را يار نيست
قَالَ: أَطْعِمْنِي فَإِنِّي جَائِعُ
فَاعْتَجِلْ فَالْوَقْتُ سَيْفٌ قَاطِعُ
عارِف اِبْنُ الْوَقْت باشد ای رفيق
نيست فردا گفتن از شرط طريق
خوشتر آن باشد که سرّ دلبران
گفته آید در حدیث دیگران
What am I saying to describe and explain
My matchless Beloved when I’m out of my brain.
Feed me for I am hungry indeed;
And hurry up for time is passing with speed.
A mystic is the son of the moment and its flow;
As a condition of the journey you can’t say ‘tomorrow’.
When you want to describe the beauties of your friend
It’s better to find a means to that end:
Use the stories of others as a tool
To describe the beauty of your beloved’s jewel.
Rūmī, Mathnawī, vol. 1, line 130, 132-133 and 136
Part Three
گرچه تفسير زبان روشنگر است
ليک عشقِ بی‌زبان روشن‌تر است
چون قلم اندر نوشتن می‌شتافت
چون به عشق آمد قلم بر خود شكافت
چون سخن در وصف اين حالت رسيد
هم قلم بشكست و هم كاغذ دريد
عقل در شرحش چو خَر در گل بخفت
شرح عشق و عاشقی هم عشق گفت
آفتاب آمد دليل آفتاب
گر دليلت بايد از وی رو متاب
از وی ار سايه نشانی می‌دهد
شمس هر دم نور جانی می‌دهد
سايه خواب آرد تو را هم چون سَمَر
چون برآيد شمس، انْشَقَّ الْقَمَر
خود غريبی در جهان چون شمس نيست
شمس جان باقئی كش أمْس نيست
شمس در خارج اگر چه هست فرد
مثل او هم می‌توان تصوير كرد
شمس جان کاو خارج آمد از اثیر
نبْودش در ذهن و در خارج نظير
در تصوّر ذات او را كُنج كو
تا در آيد در تصوّر مثل او
The explanation of the tongue is solid and clear,
But a tongueless love is a higher frontier.
While in writing, the pen was very fast,
When it came to love, it split up with a blast.
The mind could not describe it thereof;
Love and the lover are described by love.
The proof of the sun is the sun; so to say:
If you are seeking a proof, do not turn away.
A shadow might be somewhat of a sign,
But real light is the sun’s, which shall ever shine.
A shadow brings about sleep, like a tale,
But the moon is split, when the sun shall come and hail.
The greatest stranger is the sun, or if you may:
The eternal spirit that has no yesterday.
For the sun in the sky, no star is alike,
But inside your mind it could have a like.
But the sun that’s beyond everything that you find
Has no like in the world, no like in your mind.
Its essence is not embraced by the mind;
Matchless it is, and one of a kind.
Rūmī, Mathnawī, vol. 1, lines 113-122
Part Two
من به هر جمعيّتی نالان شدم
جفت بدحالان و خوشحالان شدم
هر كسی از ظنّ خود شد يار من
وز درون من نجست اسرار من
سرّ من از نالۀ من دور نيست
ليک چشم و گوش را آن نور نيست
تن زجان و جان زتن مستور نيست
ليک كس را ديد جان دستور نيست
I went to every group, moaning in grief;
I sat with them all, careless of their belief.
Each became my friend based on his guess,
Without even seeking the secrets that I possess.
My secret is not far from my moaning and my fright,
But the ears and the eyes are missing the light.
The body and the soul are not veiled from each other,
But neither is permitted to encounter the latter.
Rūmī, Mathnawī, vol. 1, lines 5-8
Part One
بشنو از نی چون شکایت می‌کند
از جدایی‌ها حکایت می‌کند
کز نیستان تا مرا ببریده‌اند
در نفیرم مرد و زن نالیده‌اند
سینه خواهم شرحه شرحه از فراق
تا بگویم شرح درد اشتیاق
هر کسی کاو باز ماند از اصل خویش
باز جوید روزگار وصل خویش
Listen, my friend, to the complaint of this reed;
A story of separation it tells indeed.
Ever since this reed was cut from its bed,
Every man and woman’s sorrow I spread.
If I am to explain the story of my love,
My chest shall burst into pieces thereof.
Whoever is left away from his domain,
Shall seek the days of his union again.
Rūmī, Mathnawī, vol. 1, lines 1-4