Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273)

Poems of Passion

[collected and visually processed by Chaim Frank, 2006]

Rumi - Poems of Passion

LOVE IS THE MASTER
Love is the One who masters all things; I am mastered totally by Love. By my passion of love for Love I have ground sweet as sugar. O furious Wind, I am only a straw before you; How could I know where I will be blown next? Whoever claims to have made a pact with Destiny Reveals himself a liar and a fool; What is any of us but a straw in a storm? How could anyone make a pact with a hurricane? God is working everywhere his massive Resurrection; How can we pretend to act on our own? In the hand of Love I am like a cat in a sack; Sometimes Love hoists me into the air, Sometimes Love flings me into the air, Love swings me round and round His head; I have no peace, in this world or any other. The lovers of God have fallen in a furious river; They have surrendered themselves to Love's commands. Like mill wheels they turn, day and night, day and night,

Constantly turning and turning, and crying out.

STAY CLOSE, MY HEART

Stay close, my heart, to the one who knows your ways; Come into the shade of the tree that allays has fresh flowers. Don't stroll idly through the bazaar of the perfume-markers: Stay in the shop of the sugar-seller. If you don't find true balance, anyone can deceive you; Anyone can trick out of a thing of straw, And make you take it for gold Don't squat with a bowl before every boiling pot; In each pot on the fire you find very different things. Not all sugarcanes have sugar, not all abysses a peak; Not all eyes possess vision, not every sea is full of pearls. O nightingale, with your voice of dark honey! Go on lamenting! Only your drunken ecstasy can pierce the rock's hard heart! Surrender yourself, and if you cannot be welcomes by the Friend, Know that you are rebelling inwardly like a thread That doesn't want to go through the needle's eye! The awakened heart is a lamp; protect it by the him of your robe!

Hurry and get out of this wind, for the weather is bad. And when you've left this storm, you will come to a fountain; You'll find a Friend there who will always nourish your soul. And with your soul always green, you'll grow into a tall tree Flowering always with sweet light-fruit, whose growth is interior.

(translated by Andrew Harvey)

THE INTEREST WITHOUT THE CAPITAL

The lover's food is the love of the bread; no bread need be at hand: no one who is sincere in his love is a slave to existence. Lovers have nothing to do with with with existence; lovers have the interest without the capital. Without wings they fly around the world; without hands they carry the polo ball off the field. That dervish who caught the scent of Reality used to weave basket even though his hand had been cut off. Lover have pitched their tents in non-existence: they are of one quality and one essence, as non-existence is.

Mathnawi III, 3020-3024

THE SHIP SUNK IN LOVE

Should Love's heart rejoice unless I burn? For my heart is Love's dwelling. If You will burn Your house, burn it, Love! Who will say, 'It's not allowed'? Burn this house thoroughly! The lover's house improves with fire. From now on I will make burning my aim, From now on I will make burning my aim, for I am like the candle: burning only makes me brighter. Abandon sleep tonight; traverse fro one night the region of the sleepless. Look upon these lovers who have become distraught and like moths have died in union with the One Beloved. Look upon this ship of God's creatures and see how it is sunk in Love.

Mathnawi VI, 617-623; The Rumi Collection, Edited by Kabir Helminski

Oh Beloved
Oh Beloved, take me. Liberate my soul. Fill me with your love and release me from the two worlds. If I set my heart on anything but you let fire burn me from inside. Oh Beloved, take away what I want. Take away what I do. Take away what I need. Take away everything that takes me from you.

CRADLE MY HEART
Last night, I was lying on the rooftop,

thinking of you. I saw a special Star, and summoned her to take you a message. I prostrated myself to the Star and asked her to take my prostration to that Sun of Tabriz. So that with his light, he can turn my dark stones into gold. I opened my chest and showed her my scars, I told her to bring me news of my bloodthirsty Lover. As I waited, I paced back and forth, until the child of my heart became quiet. The child slept, as if I were rocking his cradle. Oh Beloved, give milk to the infant of the heart, and don't hold us from our turning. You have cared for hundreds, don't let it stop with me now. At the end, the town of unity is the place for the heart. Why do you keep this bewildered heart in the town of dissolution? I have gone speechless, but to rid myself of this dry mood,

oh Saaqhi, pass the narcissus of the wine.

Hush Don't Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi Translated by Shahram Shiva

THE AWAKENING
In the early dawn of happiness you gave me three kisses so that I would wake up to this moment of love I tried to remember in my heart what Id dreamt about during the night before I became aware of this moving of life I found my dreams but the moon took me away It lifted me up to the firmament and suspended me there I saw how my heart had fallen on your path

singing a song Between my love and my heart things were happening which slowly slowly made me recall everything You amuse me with your touch although I cant see your hands. You have kissed me with tenderness although I havent seen your lips You are hidden from me. But it is you who keeps me alive Perhaps the time will come when you will tire of kisses I shall be happy even for insults from you I only ask that you keep some attention on me.

The Love Poems of Rumi by Deepak Chopra (Editor)

Tonight is a Night of Union

Tonight is a night of union for the stars and of scattering,

scattering, since a bride is coming from the skies, consisting of a full moon. Venus cannot contain hereself for charming melodies, like the nightingale which becomes intoxicated with the rose in spring-time. See how the polestar is ogling Leo; behold what dust Pisces is stirring up drom the deep! Jupiter has galloped his steed against ancient Saturn, saying Take back your youth and go, bring good tidings! Mars' hand, which was full of blood from the handle of his sword, has become as life-giving as the sun, the exalted in works. Since Aquarius has come full of that water of life, the dry cluster of Virgo is raining pearls from him. The Pleiades full of goodness fears not Libra and being broken; how should Aries flee away in fright from its mother? When from the moon the arrow of a glance struck the heart of Sagittarius, he took to night-faring in passion for her, like Scorpio. On such a festival, go, sacrifice Taurus, else you are crooked of gait in the mud like Cancer. This sky is the astrolabe, and the reality is Love; whatever wesay of this, attend to the meaning. Shamsi-Tabriz, on that dawn when you shine, the dark night

is transformed to bright day by your moonlike face.

Mystical Poems of Rumi 1A.J. Arberry - The University of Chicago Press, 1968

MAULANA'S LAST LETTER TO SHAMS

Sometimes I wonder, sweetest love, if you Were a mere dream in along winter night, A dream of spring-days, and of golden light Which sheds its rays upon a frozen heart; A dream of wine that fills the drunken eye. And so I wonder, sweetest love, if I Should drink this ruby wine, or rather weep; Each tear a bezel with your face engraved, A rosary to memorize your name... There are so many ways to call you backYes, even if you only were a dream.

translated by Annemarie Schimmel, 'Nightingale Under The Snow'

AFTER BEING IN LOVE, THE NEXT RESPONSIBILITY

Turn me like a waterwheel turning a millstone. Plenty of water, a Living River. Keep me in one place and scatter the love. Leaf-moves in wind, straw drawn toward amber, all parts of the world are in love, but they do not tell their secrets. Cows grazing on a sacramental table, ants whispering in Solomon's ear. Mountains mumbling an echo. Sky, calm. If the sun were not in love, he would have no brightness, the side of the hill no grass on it. The ocean would come to rest somewhere. * Be a lover as they are, that you come to know you Beloved. Be faithful that you may know Faith. The other parts of the universe did not accept the next responsibility of love as you can. They were afraid they might make a mistake with it, the inspired knowing that springs from being in love

Furuzanfar #2674 (translated by Coleman Barks); The Rumi Collection, edited by Kabir Helminski

That moon
That moon, which the sky ne'er saw even in dreams, has returned And brought a fire no water can quench. See the body' s house, and see my. soul, This made drunken and that desolate by the cup of his love. When the host of the tavern became my heart-mate, My blood turned to wine and my heart to kabab. When the eye is filled with thought of him, a voice arrives : W ell done, O flagon, and bravo, wine! Love's fingers tear up, root and stem, Every house where sunbeams fall from love. When my heart saw love's sea, of a sudden It left me and leaped in, crying, , Find me.' The face of Shamsi Din, Tabriz's glory, is the sun In whose track the cloud-like hearts are moving.

From Divan-i Shams, translated R. A. Nicholson

THROUGH LOVE
Through Love all that is bitter will sweet Through Love all that is copper will be gold. Through Love all dregs will turn to purest wine Through Love all pain will turn to medicine. Through Love the dead will all become alive. Through Love the king will turn into a slave!

ONCE
ONCE a beloved asked her lover: Friend, You have seen many places in the world! Now - which of all these cities was the best? He said: The city where my sweetheart lives!

FROM MYSELF
From myself I am copper, through You, friend, I am gold. From myself I'm a stone, but

through You I am a gem!

O Sun, fill our House

O Sun, fill our house once more with light! Make happy all your friends and blind your foes! Rise from behind the hill, transform the stones To rubies and the sour grapes to wine! O Sun, make our vineyard fresh again, And fill the steppes with hour is and green cloaks! Physician of the lovers, heaven's lamp! Rescus the lovers! Help the suffering! Show but your face - the world is filled with light! But if you cover it, it's the darkest night!

HOW SHOULD THE SOUL

How should the Soul not take wings when from the Glory of God It hears a sweet, kindly call: Why are you here, soul? Arise!

How should a fish not leap fast into the sea form dry land When from the ocean so cool the sound of the waves reaches its How should the falcon not fly back to his king from the hunt When from the falconer's drum it hears to call: Oh, come back? Why should not every Sufi begin to dance atom-like Around the Sun of duration that saves from impermanence? What graciousness and what beauty? What life-bestowing! What grace! If anyone does without that, woewhat err, what suffering! Oh fly , of fly, O my soul-bird, fly to your primordial home! You have escaped from the cage nowyour wings are spread in the air. Oh travel from brackish water now to the fountain of life! Return from the place of the sandals now to the high seat of souls!

Go on! Go on! we are going, and we are coming, O soul, From this world of separation to union, a world beyond worlds! How long shall we here in the dust-world like children fill our skirts With earth and with stones without value, with broken shards without worth? Let's take our hand from the dust grove, let's fly to the heavens' high, Let's fly from our childish behaviour and join the banquet of men! Call out, O soul, to proclaim now that you are rules and king! You have the grace of the answer, you know the question as well!

Translated by Annemarie Schimmel, 'Look! This is Love'

WHISPERS OF LOVE
Lover whispers to my ear, Better to be a prey than a hunter.

Make yourself My fool. Stop trying to be the sun and become a speck! Dwell at My door and be homeless. Don't pretend to be a candle, be a moth, so you may taste the savor of Life and know the power hidden in serving.

Mathnawi V. 411-414 (translated by Kabir Helminski); The Rumi Collection, Edited by Kabir Helminski

How Long
How Long Can I Lament With This Depressed Heart And Soul How Long Can I Remain A Sad Autumn Ever Since My Grief Has Shed My Leaves The Entire Space Of My Soul

Is Burning In Agony How Long Can I Hide The Flames Wanting To Rise Out Of This Fire How Long Can One Suffer The Pain Of Hatred Of Another Human A Friend Behaving Like An Enemy With A Broken Heart How Much More Can I Take The Message From Body To Soul I Believe In Love I Swear By Love Believe Me My Love How Long Like A Prisoner Of Grief Can I Beg For Mercy You Know I'm Not A Piece Of Rock Or Steel But Hearing My Story Even Water Will Become As Tense As A Stone

If I Can Only Recount The Story Of My Life Right Out Of My Body Flames Will Grow

Rocking and Rolling

Rocking And Rolling What Have You Been Drinking Please Let Me Know You Must Be Drunk Going House To House Wandering From Street To Street Who Have You Been With Who Have You Kissed Who's Face Have You Been Fondling You Are My Soul You Are My Life I Swear My Life And Love Is Yours So Tell Me The Truth Where Is That Fountainhead The One You've Been Drinking From Don't Hide This Secret

Lead Me To The Source Fill My Jug Over And Over Again Last Night I Finally Caught Your Attention In The Crowd It Was Your Image Filling My Dream Telling Me To Stop This Wandering Stop This Search For Good And Evil I Said My Dear Prophet Give Me Some Of That You've Drunk For Ecstasy Of Life If I Let You Drink You Said Any Of This Burning Flame It Will Scorch Your Mouth And Throat Your Portion Has Been Given Already By Heaven Ask For More At Your Peril I Lamented And Begged I Desire Much More Please Show Me The Source I Have No Fear To Burn My Mouth And Throat I'm Ready To Drink Every Flame And More

Show me Your Face

Show Me Your Face I Crave Flowers And Gardens Open Your Lips I Crave The Taste Of Honey Come Out From Behind The Clouds I Desire A Sunny Face Your Voice Echoed Saying Leave Me Alone I Wish To Hear Your Voice Again Saying Leave Me Alone I Swear This City Without You Is A Prison I Am Dying To Get Out To Roam In Deserts And Mountains I Am Tired Of Flimsy Friends And Submissive Companions I Die To Walk With The Brave

Am Blue Hearing Nagging Voices And Meek Cries I Desire Loud Music Drunken Parties And Wild Dance One Hand Holding A Cup Of Wine One Hand Caressing Your Hair Then Dancing In Orbital Circle That Is What I Yearn For I Can Sing Better Than Any Nightingale But Because Of This City's Freaks I Seal My Lips While My Heart Weeps Yesterday The Wisest Man Holding A Lit Lantern In Daylight Was Searching Around Town Saying I Am Tired Of All These Beasts And Brutes I Seek A True Human We Have All Looked

For One But No One Could Be Found They Said Yes He Replied But My Search Is For The One Who Cannot Be Found

Translated by Nader Khalili - Rumi, Fountain of Fire

Reason says Love says

Reason says, I will beguile him with the tongue; Love says, Be silent. I will beguile him with the soul. The soul says to the heart, Go, do not laugh at me and yourself. What is there that is not his, that I may beguile him thereby? He is not sorrowful and anxious and seeking oblivion that I may beguile him with wine and a heavy measure. The arrow of his glance needs not a bow that I should beguile the shaft of his gaze with a bow. He is not prisoner of the world, fettered to this world of earth, that I should beguile him with gold of the kingdom of the world. He is an angel, though in form he is a man; he is not lustful that I should beguile him with women.

Angels start away from the house wherein this form is, so how should I beguile him with such a form and likeness? He does not take a flock of horses, since he flies on wings; his food is light, so how should I beguile him with bread? He is not a merchant and trafficker in the market of the world that I should beguile him with enchantment of gain and loss. He is not veiled that I should make myself out sick and utter sighs, to beguile him with lamentation. I will bind my head and bow my head, for I have got out of hand; I will not beguile his compassion with sickness or fluttering. Hair by hair he sees my crookedness and feigning; whats hidden from him that I should beguile him with anything hidden. He is not a seeker of fame, a prince addicted to poets, that I should beguile him with verses and lyrics and flowing poetry. The glory of the unseen form is too great for me to beguile it with blessing or Paradise. Shams-e Tabriz, who is his chosen and beloved perchance I will beguile him with this same pole of the age.

I Saw My Sweetheart Wandering

I saw my sweetheart wandering about the house; he had taken a rebec and was playing a melody. With a plectrum like fire he was playing a sweet melody, drunken and dissolute and charming from the Magian wine. He was invoking the saqi in the air of Iraq2 The air of Iraq is

a Persian tune.; the wine was his object, the saqi was his excuse. The moonfaced saqi pitcher in his hand, entered from a corner and set it in the middle. He filled the first cup with that flaming wine; did you ever see water sending out flames? He set it on his hand for the sake of the lovers, then prostrated and kissed the threshold. My sweetheart seized it from him and quaffed the wine; flames from that wine went running over his face. He was beholding his own beauty, and saying to the evil eye, Never has there been, nor shall there come in this age, another like me.

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

[http://www.khamush.com/passion.htm]

Rumi about Life & Death

Look at Love
Look At Love How It Tangles With The One Fallen In Love Look At Spirit How It Fuses With Earth Giving It New Life Why Are You So Busy With This Or That Or Good Or Bad Pay Attention To How Things Blend Why Talk About All The Known And The Unknown See How The Unknown Merges Into The Known Why Think Seperately Of This Life And The Next When One Is Born From The Last Look At Your Heart And Tongue One Feels But Deaf And Dumb The Other Speaks In Words And Signs Look At Water And Fire Earth And Wind

Enemies And Friends All At Once The Wolf And The Lamb The Lion And The Deer Far Away Yet Together Look At The Unity Of This Spring And Winter Manifested In The Equinox You Too Must Mingle My Friends Since The Earth And The Sky Are Mingled Just For You And Me Be Like Sugarcane Sweet Yet Silent Don't Get Mixed Up With Bitter Words My Beloved Grows Right Out Of My Own Heart How Much More Union Can There Be

Come on Sweetheart
Come On Sweetheart Let's Adore One Another Before There Is No More Of You And Me

A Mirror Tells The Truth Look At Your Grim Face Brighten Up And Cast Away Your Bitter Smile A Generous Friend Gives Life For A Friend Let's Rise Above This Animalistic Behavior And Be Kind To One Another Spite Darkens Friendships Why Not Cast Away Malice From Our Heart Once You Think Of Me Dead And Gone You Will Make Up With Me You Will Miss Me You May Even Adore Me Why Be A Worshiper Of The Dead Think Of Me As A Goner Come And Make Up Now Since You Will Come And Throw Kisses At My Tombstone Later Why Not Give Them To Me Now

This Is Me That Same Person I May Talk Too Much But My Heart Is Silence What Else Can I Do I Am Condemned To Live This Life

I've Come Again

I've Come Again Like A New Year To Crash The Gate Of This Old Prison I've Come Again To Break The Teeth And Claws Of This Man-Eating Monster We Call Life I've Come Again To Puncture The Glory Of The Cosmos Who Mercilessly Destroys Humans I Am The Falcon

Hunting Down The Birds Of Black Omen Before Their Flights I Gave My Word At The Outset To Give My Life With No Qualms I Pray To The Lord To Break My Back Before I Break My Word How Do You Dare To Let Someone Like Me Intoxicated With Love Enter Your House You Must Know Better If I Enter I'll Break All This And Destroy All That If The Sheriff Arrives I'll Throw The Wine In His Face If Your Gatekeeper Pulls My Hand I'll Break His Arm

If The Heavens Don't Go Round To My Heart's Desire I'll Crush Its Wheels And Pull Out Its Roots You Have Set Up A Colorful Table Calling It Life And Asked Me To Your Feast But Punish Me If I Enjoy Myself What Tyranny Is This

You Mustn't Be Afraid Of Death

You Mustn't Be Afraid Of Death You're A Deathless Soul You Can't Be Kept In A Dark Grave You're Filled With God's Glow * Be Happy With Your Beloved You Can't Find Any Better The World Will Shimmer Because Of The Diamond You Hold

* When Your Heart Is Immersed In This Blissful Love You Can Easily Endure Any Bitter Face Around * In The Absence Of Malice There Is Nothing But Happiness And Good Times Don't Dwell In Sorrow My Friend

Translated by Nader Khalili Rumi, Fountain of Fire, CalEarth Press, 1994

Remember me.
I will be with you in the grave on the night you leave behind your shop and your family. When you hear my soft voice echoing in your tomb, you will realize that you were never hidden from my eyes.

I am the pure awareness within your heart, with you during joy and celebration, suffering and despair. On that strange and fateful night you will hear a familar voice -you'll be rescued from the fangs of snakes and the searing sting of scorpions. The euphoria of love will sweep over your grave; it will bring wine and friends, candles and food. When the light of realization dawns, shouting and upheaval will rise up from the graves! The dust of ages will be stirred by the cities of ecstasy, by the banging of drums, by the clamor of revolt! Dead bodies will tear off their shrouds and stuff their ears in fright-What use are the senses and the ears before the blast of that Trumpet? Look and you will see my form whether you are looking at yourself or toward that noise and confusion. Don't be blurry-eyed,

See me clearlySee my beauty without the old eyes of delusion. Beware! Beware! Don't mistake me for this human form. The soul is not obscured by forms. Even if it were wrapped in a hundred folds of felt the rays of the soul's light would still shine through. Beat the drum, Follow the minstrels of the city. It's a day of renewal when every young man walks boldly on the path of love. Had everyone sought God Instead of crumbs and copper coins T'hey would not be sitting on the edge of the moat in darkness and regret. What kind of gossip-house have you opened in our city? Close your lips and shine on the world like loving sunlight. Shine like the Sun of Tabriz rising in the East. Shine like the star of victory.

Shine like the whole universe is yours!

translated by Jonathan Star - Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved

HOW SHOULD THE SOUL

HOW SHOULD THE SOUL not take wings when from the Glory of God It hears a sweet, kindly call: Why are you here, soul? Arise! How should a fish not leap fast into the sea from dry land When from the ocean so cool the sound of the waves reaches its How should the falcon not fly back to his king from the hunt When from the falconer's drum it hears to call: Oh, come back? Why should not every Sufi begin to dance atom-like Around the Sun of duration that saves from impermanence?

What graciousness and what beauty? What life-bestowing! What grace! If anyone does without that, woewhat err, what suffering! Oh fly , of fly, O my soul-bird, fly to your primordial home! You have escaped from the cage nowyour wings are spread in the air. Oh travel from brackish water now to the fountain of life! Return from the place of the sandals now to the high seat of souls! Go on! Go on! we are going, and we are coming, O soul, From this world of separation to union, a world beyond worlds! How long shall we here in the dust-world like children fill our skirts With earth and with stones without value, with broken shards without worth? Let's take our hand from the dust grove, let's fly to the heavens' high, Let's fly from our childish behaviour and join the banquet of men!

Call out, O soul, to proclaim now that you are rules and king! You have the grace of the answer, you know the question as well!

Who's knocking at my door?

HE SAID: Who's knocking at my door? Said I: Your humble servant! Said He: What business have you got? Said I: I came to greet You! Said He: How long are you to push? Said I: Until You'll call me! Said He: How long are you to boil? Said I: Till resurrection! I claimed I was a lover true and I took may oaths That for the sake of love I lost my kingdom and my wealth! He said: You make a claim - the judge needs witness for your cause! Said I: My witness is my tears, my proof my yellow face!

Said He: The witness is corrupt, your eye is wet and ill! Said I: No, by Your eminence: My eye is sinless clear! He said: And what do you intend? Said I: Just faithful friendships! Said He: What do you want from me? Said I: Your grace abundant! Said He: Who travelled here with you? Said I: Your dream and phantom! Said He: And what led you to me? Said I: Your goblet's fragrance! Said He: What is most pleasant, say? Said I: The ruler's presence! Said He: What did you see there, friend? Said I: A hundred wonders! Said He: Why is it empty now? Said I: From fear of brigands! Said He: The brigand, who is that? Said I: IT is the blaming! Said He: And where is safety then? Said: In renunciation. Said He: Renunciation? That's ... ? Said I: The path to safety!

Said He: And where is danger, then? Said I: In Your love's quarters! Said He: And how do you fare there? Said I: Steadfast and happy. I tested you and tested you, but it availed to nothing Who tests the one who was once tried, he will repent forever! Be silent! If I'd utter here the secrets fine he told me, You would go out all of yourself, no door nor roof could hold you!

OH HAPPY DAY
OH HAPPY DAY when in you presence, my ruler, I shall die! When near the sugar-treasure melting like sugar I shall die! Out of my dust will grow a thousand of centrifolias When in the shade of yonder cypress in gardens I shall die.

And when you pour into my goblet the bitter drink of death, I'll kiss the goblet full of joy, dear, and drunken I shall die. I may turn yellow like the autumn when people speak of death, Thanks to your smiling lip: like springtime and smiling shall I die. I have died many times, but your breath made me alive again, Should I die thus a hundred more times I happily shall die! A child that dies in mother's bosom, that's how I am, my friend, For in the bosom of His Mercy and kindness, I shall die. Say: Where would death be for the lovers? Impossible is that! For in the fountain of the Water of Life - there I shall die!

translated by Annemarie Schimmel, 'Look! This is Love'

WHY CLING
Why cling to one life till it is soiled and ragged? The sun dies and dies squandering a hundred lived every instant God has decreed life for you and He will give another and another and another

(translated by Daniel Liebert) Mathnawi V. 411-414 (translated by Kabir Helminski) - The Rumi Collection, Edited by Kabir Helminski

At The Twilight
At the twilight, a moon appeared in the sky; Then it landed on earth to look at me. Like a hawk stealing a bird at the time of prey; That moon stole me and rushed back into the sky. I looked at myself, I did not see me anymore; For in that moon, my body turned as fine as soul.

The nine spheres disappeared in that moon; The ship of my existence drowned in that sea.

Divan, 649:1-3,5

Now Sleeping, Now Awake

Now sleeping, now awake, my hart is in constant fervour. It is a covered saucepan, placed on fire. O you! who have offered us from a cup a silencing wine; Each moment a new tale is shouting to be told in silence. In his wrath there are a hundred kindnesses, in his meanness a hundred generosities; In his ignorance immeasurable gnosis, silently speaking like the mind. The words of those whom you have silenced, cannot hear but those whom you have made unconscious; I am both silent and fermenting for you like the sea of Aden!

Divan, 1808:6-9

Translated by Fatemeh Keshavarz, 'Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi, University of South Carolina Press, 1998.

[http://www.khamush.com/life&death.htm]

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273 )

Mawln Jall ad-Dn Muhammad Rm (= Persian) / (Turkish =) Mevln Celleddin Mehmed Rumi, (12071273 CE), also known as Muhammad Balkh (Persian), but known to the world simply as Rumi, was a 13th century Persian poet, jurist, theologian and teacher of Sufism.

Rumi was born in Balkh (then a city of the Greater Khorasan province of Persia, now part of Afghanistan) and died in Konya (in present-day Turkey). His birthplace and native tongue indicate a Persian heritage. He also wrote his poetry in Persian and his works are widely read in Iran and Afghanistan where the language is spoken. He lived most of his life and produced his works under the Seljuk Empire and his descendants today are Turkish citizens and

live in modern day Turkey. Rumi's importance transcends national and ethnic borders. He has had a significant influence on both Turkish and Persian literature throughout the centuries. His poems have been translated into many of the world's languages and have appeared in various formats. He was also the founder of the Mevlevi order, better known as the Whirling Dervishes, who believe in performing their worship in the form of dance and music ceremony called the sema. The general theme of his thoughts, like that of the other mystic and Sufi poets of the Persian literature, is essentially about the concept of Tawheed (unity) and union with his beloved (the primal root) from which / whom he has been cut and fallen aloof, and his longing and desire for re-unity.

In Divan-i Shams, Rumi says:

What is to be done, O Muslims? for I do not recognize myself. I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Magian, nor Muslim. I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea; I am not of Nature's mint, nor of the circling heaven. I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire; I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity. I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsin I am not of the kingdom of 'Iraqian, nor of the country of Khorasan I am not of the this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwan. My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless...

Rumi's order issues invitation to people of all backgrounds:

Come, come, whoever you are.

Wanderer, idolater, worshipper of fire, Come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times, Come, and come yet again. Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Rumi's love and his bereavement for the death of Shams found their expression in an outpouring of music, dance and lyric poems, Divani Shamsi Tabrizi. He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus. There, he realized:

Why should I seek? I am the same as

He. His essence speaks through me. I have been looking for myself!

In December 1273, Rumi fell ill. He predicted his own death and composed the well-known ghazal, which begins with the verse:
How doest thou know what sort of king I have within me as companion? Do not cast thy glance upon my golden face, for I have iron legs.

He died on December 17, 1273 in Konya; Rumi was laid to rest beside his father, and a splendid shrine, the Yeil Trbe Green Tomb, was erected over his tomb. His epitaph reads:
When we are dead,

seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.

Rumi's life is fully described in Shams-ud-din Ahmed Aflkis Manakib-ul-Arifin (written between 1318 and 1353). He claimed descent from the caliph Abu Bakr, and from the Khwarizm-Shah Sultan Ala-ud-Din b. Tukush (11991220), whose only daughter, Malika-i-Jahan, had been married to Jalal-ud-dins grandfather.

Work
Rumi's poetry is often divided into various categories: the quatrains (rubaiyat) and odes (ghazals) of the Divan, the six books of the Mathnawi, the discourses, the letters, and the almost unknown Six Sermons. Rumi's major work is Masnavi-ye Manavi (Spiritual Couplets), a six-volume poem regarded by many Sufis as second in importance only to the Qur'an. * Fihi Ma Fih (In It What's in It) is composed of Rumi's speeches on different subjects. Rumi himself did not prepare or write these discourses. They were recorded by his son Sultan Valad or some other disciple of Rumi and put together as a book. The title may mean, What's in the Mathnawi is in this too. Some of the discourses are addressed to Muin al-Din Parvane. Some portions of it are commentary on Masnavi. * Majalis-i Sab'a (seven sessions) contains seven sermons (as the name implies) given in seven different assemblies. As Aflaki relates, after Sham-i Tabrizi, Rumi gave sermons at the request of notables, especially Salah al-Din Zarqubi.

The Mevlevi Sufi

The Mevlevi Sufi order was founded in 1273 by Rumi's

followers after his death. His first successor in the rectorship of the order was Husam Chelebi himself, after whose death in 1284 Rumi's younger and only surviving son, Sultan Walad, favorably known as author of the mystical Mathnawi Rabbnma, or the Book of the Guitar (died 1312), was installed as grand master of the order. The leadership of the order has been kept in Jalaluddin's family in Iconium uninterruptedly for the last six hundred years.