On the
path of tribulations laid my heart
Solely for
Your sake, wedding party for my heart
Today Your
fragrance on the breeze redolent
Offering
my gratitude, threw my heart on the gales
Rumi only weds his heart to
the Beloved and none else,
simple. Throwing something on the wind means to get rid of it with
disgust and
loss.
How much more of these copious deceptions
How many
more imaginations of Your renditions
Sobhan for
Allah Your ways so bewildering
No trace
of You but all these thoughts and imaging
Rumi by deceptions mean the
term ‘Qoroor’ in Koran, which is
the cardinal description of the life of this world. The poet wonders,
if we
cannot see Allah then why all this incredible imagination and guess
work about
It? What I love about the Sufi politeness is the fact that they STOP at
some
words and throw their shoulders up and confess not knowing. Rumi does
not know
why the last verse is true? In contrast to scholars and theologians who
know
everything about every subject.
O! The green for every tree, every garden and plant
O! The
governor for all my destiny and affairs
O! The
silence and O! The noise and the sincerity and the
hypocrisy
Without
Your Royal presence, all this but mania, just come
to me
Rumi sees nothing but madness
and mania unless the Creator
is present in the midst of it all. He sees the Creator from the
chlorophyll of
the leaves to the hypocrisy of people i.e. in all things. The reason he
gave
one example after another is because in those things he saw the
Beloved. He
writes what he sees not what he knows. He does not write general.
With love
on board sailed our vessel from non-existence
Perpetually
illuminated our nights by the wine of re-union
That wine
which is not forbidden in our religion
So You
shall not find our lips parched on the dawn of
non-existence
Amongst the Sufis there is an
understanding of a world
called ‘Adam’ which means exactly ‘non-existence’. This is universe
with its
own laws and Sufi’s lips must be wet with the wine of love in order to
comprehend and later join this universe where there is nothing by
Beloved.
Either the
insomnia for being with Your loving
Or the
insomnia for being afar sobs and weeping
Sobhan for
Allah for both sleepless nights
Only You
can tell the difference between these awaken times
Either Rumi is in worship
close by Allah or neglected and
left by himself thus heart broken and desolate. Either night he is
sleepless.
Sobhan is an Arabic/Koranic word that means Praise. Sobhan for Allah
means
Praise the Lord. But I did not use this Christian/American phrase for
these
reasons:
1.
Comedians
use this term to make fun of God
2.
Dragged
into the gutter by the TV evangelists
3.
Term
praise is used for other than God
In contrast Sobhan is used and
means:
- Perpetual praise
- Only for the Creator of Heavens and
Earth
- All beings praise Allah knowingly or
unknowingly
No offence or criticism was
meant towards Christians.
How much
longer away from our stares
We are
yearning for assistance, miserable with love
Who is
this love? Ambushing our infants at the cradle
Who is
this heart? Our estranged vagabond one
For as
long as the imagination of Beloved is with us, O!
Heart
It Self,
all our life gazing upon everyone, O! Heart
And when
the yearning heart’s wishes came true, O! Heart
One thorn
better than one thousand palm fruits, O! Heart
The heart’s wish is to be in
love with Beloved and re-united
with the Creator (Beloved). In doing so much trials and heartache might
come to
the lover (us). So Rumi says he prefers the thorns (trials) than the
thousand
dates (temporal happiness of this life). Palm tree has wicked thorns
all over.
Beloved,
Fight not to slaughter my self but come forth now!
Mix
whatsoever colors You wish but come forth now!
Every
place a different artifice has placed and come forth
now!
Make up
some scheme for me to trouble but come forth now!
Term mixing colors and dyes in
Farsi means to cause complex
tricky situations. Rumi knows that Allah places the tests for everyone
in every
time in every place. Therefore he gives up avoiding them, instead of
thinking
to pass or fail, the poet begs Allah to come forth!
Other than
love no soothing comforter for I
No one at
first, No one at last but love the Beginning for I
Love sings
a song deep within for I
“O! The
lazy on the path of love, open the door for I”
“No one at first, No…” means
no one at all was there except
love.
© 2003-2002,
Dara Shayda
