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the Message Continues ... 12/107

 

 

 

Newsletter for July 2010

 

Article 1 - Article 2 - Article 3 - Article 4 - Article 5 - Article 6 - Article 7 - Article 8 - Article 9 - Article 10 - Article 11 - Article 12

 

 

"Search the Darkness"
by Rumi

Sit with your friends; don't go back to sleep.
Don't sink like a fish to the bottom of the sea.

Surge like an ocean,
don't scatter yourself like a storm.

Life's waters flow from darkness.
Seach the darkness, don't run from it.

Night travelers are full of light,
and you are, too; don't leave this companionship.
Be a wakeful candle in a golden dish,
don't slip into the dirt like quicksilver.

The moon appears for night travelers,
Be watchful when the moon is full.

Version by Kabir Helminski
"Love is a Stranger"
Threshold Books, 1993

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The Ocean Moving All Night"

Stay with us. Don't sink to the bottom
like a fish going to sleep.
Be with the ocean moving steadily all night,
not scattered like a rainstorm.

The spring we're looking for
is somewhere in this murkiness.
See the night-lights up there traveling together,
the candle awake in its gold dish.

Don't slide into the cracks of ground like spilled mercury.
When the full moon comes out, look around.

Version by Coleman Barks
(from a translation by John Moyne)
"Open Secret"
Threshold Book, 1984

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sit with your comrades, do not go to sleep; do not go to the
bottom of the sea like a fish.
Be surging all night like the sea; no, do not go scattered like a
torrent.
Is not the water of life in darkness? Seek in darkness and do
not hurry away.
The nightfarers of heaven are full of light; you too, go not away
from the company of your companions.
Is not the wakeful candle in a golden dish? Go not into earth
like quicksilver.
The moon shows its face to the night-travelers; be watchful,
on the night of moonshine do not go.

-- Translation by A. J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 2"
The University of Chicago Press, 1991

Courtesy:  Sunlight ( The Ghazal (Ode) 2232, from Molana Jalal al-Din Rumi's "Divan" (known variously as the "Divan-e Kabir", or the
"Divan-e Shams-i Tabrizi"), in versions by Helminski and Barks; and in translation by A.J. Arberry:

 

 

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