The Core

Rumi

Whoever planted this apple orchard hid it in a mist of language, though some fragrance comes through. Keep your nose subtle and clear for that. Coarse companions can clog you with mucus, so that you forget what's concealed in word-fog.

Husamuddin's sunlight helps, that which burns in this book. There is a being named Quzuh, familiar of cloud and rainbow, snow-moon and frozen grave mounds.

Leave Quzuh those coverings. Pierce to the core that the seven blue spheres revolve around. Venus touches her lute strings to lure out essence from this poem.

Jupiter lays down money. Saturn, even he, bends to kiss the hand, "I'm not worthy."

Mars cuts himself sharpening his sword. Astrologers study the stars as they die out. Philosophers talk about "thought," but what does that mean? Mystical

poets make metaphors. Sensualists order dessert. Bread dissolves in the belly. Every face lifts toward light. As minerals move in plants, as animals drink from the wet grass, Khidr leans to the wisdom spring; another being sets down his load lightheartedly with the Friend; life never ends.

Mathnawi VI: 84-128

Version by Coleman Barks

"The Soul of Rumi"

HarperCollins, 2001

These are lies!

Rumi

They say,
"The King of Love will turn from His lovers." - Lies!
They say, "The darkness will never turn to dawn." - Lies!

They say, "Do not sacrifice your life for love's sake.
When the body dies, you will die." - Lies!

They say, "You can go beyond the cycle of time
but your soul can travel no further." - Lies!

People who are caught in their own vanity say,
"The lives of the prophets are nothing but fairy tales." -
Lies!

People who have lost their way say,
"The servant can never reach God." - Lies!

They say,
"The Knower of Secrets does not tell His
servants all the mysteries of the Unseen." - Lies!

They say,
"He does not reveal the heart's innermost secrets.
He does not lift His servants up to heaven." - Lies!

They say, "One who is born of Earth
will never join the angels of heaven." - Lies!

They say, "The Sun of God does not fill this whole world;
He misses a few atoms." - Lies!

Now go to that inner stillness.
Some say, "You will not hear the voice of God there." -
Lies!

-- Version by Jonathan Star
"Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved "
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York 1997



They say, "The king of love is not faithful." Lies! They say,
"Your night will never have a dawn." Lies!
They say, "Why do you slay yourself for love's sake? There is
no survival after the body's death." Lies!
They say, "Your tears shed in love are vain; once the eyes are
closed, there will be no encounter." Lies!
They say, "When we have gone outside the cycle of time,
beyond this soul of ours will not travel." Lies!
Those persons who have not escaped from fancy say, "The
stories of the prophets were all mere fancies." Lies!
Those persons who have not gone on the right way say, "The
servant has no way to come to God." Lies!
They say, "He who knows all secrets tells not the servant the
secrets and mysteries of the Unseen without intermediary!" Lies!
They say, "They open not to the servant the heart's secret, and
He does not graciously carry the servant up to heaven." Lies!
They say, "That one who has earth in his composition will
never be familiar with the heavenly host." Lies!
They say, "The ' pure soul will never fly on the wings of love
out of this earthly nest to the free air." Lies!
They say, "that sun of God will never bring retribution for
the several atoms' weight of evil and good of men." Lies!
Keep silent from speaking; and if anyone says to you, "Speech
has no other expression but letters and sounds" -- Lies!

Translation by A. J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 1"
The University of Chicago Press, 1968