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 nonexistence: they are of one quality and one essence, as nonexistence 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, 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 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 1"A.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, 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 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 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 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 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 houris 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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

Home Page | Life of Rumi | Masnavi | Bibliography | Books on Rumi | Discourses | Divani Shams | Daily Poem | Sufism Reflections | Contact | Rumi Links | Glossary | Rubaiyat | Poetry | Love Poems | Search | Life & Death | Poems of Passion

Last updated: May 9, 2004

www.khamush.com