Poems for Rumi's 800th Birthday

1.

 What was in that bright candlelight

that took my heart and burned it so completely?

Come friend, come quickly

nothing could heal me but your sweetness

and this glorious love.

I remember a dawn when my heart

got tied in a lock of your hair.

My soul heard something from your soul

my heart drank from your spring

I drowned and the flood swept me.

 2.

Those of you who feel no love

sleep on.

Those of you who are untouched by the sorrows of love

 in whose hearts there is no burning passion

sleep on.

Those of you who are not longing for union

and constantly asking, 'Where is He?'

sleep on.

Love's path is outside of all religious sects

if trickery and hypocrisy is your way

sleep on.

If like a drunkard in the night you fall left and right

unaware that the time has come for prayer

sleep on.

Fate has taken my sleep but since

it hasn’t taken yours, young man

sleep on.

I have fallen into love's hands

but since you are in your own

sleep on.

I am drunk on Love

but since you are drunk on food

sleep on.

I have given up words and have nothing more to say

but you can rap yourself in the robe of words and

sleep on.

 
4. 

There is a thread from the heart to the lips

where the secret of life is woven.

Words tear the thread

but in silence the secrets speak.

5.

sit only with those who know and understand you.

In the bazaar of herbs and potions

do not wander aimlessly find a potion that is sweet.

If you are not careful people will rob you in no time

you will take counterfeit coins for real.

Do not fill your bowl with food from every pot you see.

Not every joke is humorous, not every eye can see,

not every sea is full of pearls,

do not search for meaning where there isn’t one.

Dear heart, lay down your head

and one by one let go of all distractions.

Sing the song of longing like nightingale

and let its sound cast a spell on every stone, on every thorn.

Embrace the light and let it guide you

beyond the winds of desire, there you will find

a spring that will nourish your spirit

and by its sweet waters like a tree

you will bear fruit for ever.

 
6.

You have a habit to walk slowly

holding grudges and resentments,

ill tempered and greedy,

how do you expect to reach your destination?

With a closed mind and so many attachments,

how can you expect to attain union?

You are still like water stuck in the mud

when will you cleanse yourself?

Being so weak, you need all the help

and the grace of God, if you are to overcome

the storms and reach the shore to safety.

Take shelter only with those who need no shelter.

Only riding the wild horse of love

you can reach beyond the sun and the moon

 and behold the Perfect One.

 
7.

Stay under the shadow of the lovers

for the power of the sun will burn you up.

Stay close to them, for under their protection

one day, like the sun, you will begin to shine.

 
8.

When everyone has fallen asleep

and the house has become empty and still

it is time to enter into the garden

pull the skirt of the apple closer to the peach

and whisper the rose’ secret to the jasmine.

 Spring, like Christ, murmurs spells

that bring back to life the withered plants.

And when they open their lips in gratitude

 the soul becomes intoxicated with their fragrance.

I can tell from the rose’s and the tulip’s glowing faces

that there is a light hidden inside them.

A leaf quivers on a branch and my heart trembles

the wind stirs the leaves and beauty stirs my heart

 
9.

There is a loneliness more precious than life.

There is a freedom more precious than the world.

Infinitely more precious than life and the world

is that moment when one is alone with God.

 
10. 

Gently, gently open your eyes

and look at the face of Love,

look at her intoxicating eyes!

Her smile has lured thousands of hearts

into her infinite garden.

Come and let your lips taste the sweetness of her fruit.

You will become drunk on the scent of her roses

and dance like a willow swaying in the wind.

Turn your eyes from the world’s hunger for pleasure

there is a deeper fulfilment in the infinite mystery of Love.

 
11.

You came suddenly shook me from my sleep and vanished.

In my heart you rose like the moon

but as I glanced at you, you disappeared.

Having had a glimpse of Your garden,

 I have no more the patience to endure my existence.

One sip of Your intoxicating wine

has left me lovesick and full of longing.

Can a house stand when its foundations have been shaken?

On the path of love, there are many highs and lows

many unions and separations. 

Oh how endless seems to me the journey

to that wondrous place where my passion draws me.

12. 

Whisper to me intimately, like a lover

for tenderness is rare in this world

It is difficult to convey the magic of Love

to those who are made of dust.

 
13. 

Once a believer asked the angel at the Gate;

‘Is it true that Hell is the road through which both believers

and unbelievers have to pass? For on my way here

I saw neither smoke nor fire?’

‘The road you passed was hell indeed’,

the angel smiled ‘but since you have overcome

your hellish nature, to you it appears as a garden.

Having planted the seed of devotion you transformed

the fire of anger into compassion, the thorns of envy

into roses and ignorance into wisdom.

So now your fiery soul has become a rose garden,

where nightingales sing sweet praises.’

 
14.

My poetry is like Egyptian bread, eat it while it is fresh;

leave it overnight and it becomes dry and stale.

My poetry is like a fish on dry land, it quivers for a moment

and before long becomes cold and lifeless.

If you imagine it is still fresh, what you are eating my friend,

is only your imagination.

My poetry lives only in the warmth of awareness

in the cold of this world it dies.

15.

I have come to draw you out of yourself

and take you in my heart

I have come to bring out the beauty

you never knew you had and lift you like a prayer to the sky.

If no one can recognise you, I do

because you are my life and soul.

Do not escape accept your wounds

and turn bravery into your shield.

It takes a thousand stages for a perfect being to evolve.

Every step of the way I will walk with you

and never leave you stranded.

Be patient, do not open the lid too soon

simmer well until you are ready.

In this game I make the rules

I roll you like a ball and chase you when I choose. 

 
16.

17.

Listen, open the heart’s window

and keep looking at the Beloved.

The task of love is to open that window

so the heart can be illuminated by His Beauty.

Gaze incessantly at the Beloved's face

that is your power, my friend.

Make a way to the core of yourself

and banish all other perceptions.

You possess an Elixir, treat yourself with it

and by its alchemy you will turn your enemies into friends.

Thus becoming beautiful yourself

you will be able to reflect the Beloved’s beauty  

whose grace is the nourishment of spirit.

18.

To dance is not to jump to your feet at once

and rise painlessly in the air like dust.

To rise above both worlds is to dance,

dance in the blood of your pain

and give up your life.

 
19.

If you do not know me ask the dark night

 she is the witness of my lonely tears and laments

she is the only keeper of my secrets.

Now I stand here patient like a mountain and humble like dust.

My sorrows, like wall of thorns surround my garden

but once you pass beyond them

you will praise its flowing springs and fragrant roses.

You will praise the Beloved who blessed my garden with new life.

A peaceful weaver cannot appreciate the art of war

the mind cannot understand the sweetness of the lover’s pain,

 that sweet pain of melting like a grain of salt in the sea of love.

But I do not want to waste my words on tired minds

I can only talk to those who are thirsty for the sea.

20.

Let us fall in love again

and scatter gold dust all over the world.

Let us become new spring

and feel the breeze drift in the heaven’s scent.

Let us dress the earth in green,

and like the sap of a young tree

let the grace from within sustain us.

Let us carve gems out of our stony hearts

and let them light our path to Love.

The glance of Love is crystal clear

and we are blessed by its light.

 

21.

One day You will take my heart completely

and make it more fiery than a dragon.

Your eyelashes will write on my heart the poem

that could never come from the pen of a poet.

 
22. 

Blessed is the moment when we sit in the garden,

You and I

Two forms, two faces but a single soul

You and I

The birds will sing songs of eternal life

the moment we enter into the rose garden

You and I

The stars of heaven will come to look at us,

beautiful as the moon, entwined in ecstasy

You and I

The birds of paradise will be filled with envy

when they hear us laughing happily

You and I

What a marvel, us sitting here together

and at the same time in Iraq and Khorasan

You and I

One form on this earth and in Eternity

You and I.

 
23.

Those beautiful words we said to one another

are hidden in the secret heart of heaven.

One day like the rain, they will pour

our love story all over the world.