Poems by Rumi I enjoyed reading

Okay, so I'm back with more poetry! XD This is some poetry by Rumi - the famous Sufi mystic poet - from a book called 'The Rumi Collection' which I got from a local library. It was the first time I read Rumi's poems and I really enjoyed reading them- they are so deep and symbolic! Here are the ones I especially liked:

WITH US

Even if you're not a seeker,

still, follow us, keep searching with us.

Even if you don't know how 

to play and sing,

you'll become like us;

with us you'll start singing and dancing.

Even if you are Qarun, the richest of kings,

when you fall in love,

you'll become a beggar.

Though you are a sultan, like us you'll become a slave.

One candle of this gathering

is worth a thousand candles; its light is as great.

Either you are alive or dead.

You'll come back to life with us.

Unbind your feet.

Show the rose garden-

start laughing with your whole body,

like a rose, like us.

Put on the mantle for a moment

and see the ones whose hearts are alive.

Then, throw out your satin dresses

and cover yourself with a cloak, like us.

When a seed falls into the ground,

it germinates, grows, and becomes a tree:
if you understand these symbols,
you'll follow us, and fall to the ground with us.

God's Shams of Tabriz says
to the heart's bud,
"If your eyes are opened,
you'll see the things worth seeing."

(translated by Nevit Ergin with Camille Helminski)

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EATING POETRY

My poems resemble the bread of Egypt - one night
passes over it, and you can't eat it anymore.

So gobble them down now, while they're still fresh,
before the dust of the world settles on them.

Where a poem belongs is here, in the warmth of the chest;
out in the world it dies of cold.

You've seen a fish - put him on dry land,
he quivers for a few minutes, and then is still.

And even if you eat my poems while they're still fresh.
you still have to bring forward many images yourself.

Actually, friend, what you're eating is you're own imagination.
These are not just a bunch of old proverbs.

(translated by Robert Bly)

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BORROWED CLOTHES

The servant for whom the world lovingly wept

the world now rejects: what did he do wrong?

His crime was that he put on borrowed clothes

and pretended he owned them.

We take them back, in order that he may know for sure

that the stock is Ours and the well-dressed are only borrowers;

that he may know that those robes were a loan,

a ray from the Sun of Being.

All that beauty, power, virtue, and excellence

have arrived here from the Sun of Excellence.

They, the light of that Sun, turn back again,

like the stars, from these bodily walls.

When the Sunbeam has returned home,

every wall is left darkened and black.

That which amazed you in the faces of the fair

is the Light of the Sun reflected in the three-colored-glass.

The glasses of diverse hue cause the Light to assume color for us.

When the many-colored glasses are no longer,

then the colorless Light amazes you.

Make it your habit to behold the Light without the glass,

so that when the glass is shattered you may not be left blind.

MATHNAVI V, 981-991

(translated by Kabir Helminski and Camille Helminski)

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If you are irritated by every rub,

how will your mirror be polished?

MATHNAVI I, 2980

(translated by Kabir Helminski and Camille Helminski)

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