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Ghazal 1
Alchemist of My Soul
O limitless and compassionate one,
high above the rest,
You have set ablaze the dry weeds of intellect.
You have come with a smile,
and thrown open the gates of my prison.
You have come to the lowly
and given to them with the generosity of God.
You are the call of the rising Sun,
the hope of all people in need.
You are the seeker, the goal,
and seeking itself.
Blazing like fire in every heart,
calming the mind of its restlessness,
you are the seer, the seen, and sight itself.
O Alchemist of my soul, essence of all truth,
once your cure appeared
everything else lost its meaning.
There was a time we lost ourselves in others,
a time we ate the best of foods.
There was time we relied on the intellect,
a time we looked for fortune –
but all this had no value in the end.
For a mouthful of food and some bitter herbs
we went everywhere,
we made so many plans –
one day it was Rome,
the next day it was Africa.
We entered a raging battlefield, for what? –
a few crumbs of bread.
Lose your soul in God’s love, I swear
there is no other way.
Stay with that silence.
I once ran toward the knowledge of this world;
now the papers are packed, the pens are broken –
O Saaqi, bring on the wine!
"A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi,"
Version by Jonathan Star from transliteration by Shahram Shiva
Bantam Books, 1992
You are
a sudden resurrection
an endless bliss
you set a fire
in the meadow
of our dreams
laughing today
you are happy
crashing the prisons
blessing the poor
like God Himself
unveiling the sun
spreading hope
bestowing a quest
beginning a beginning
setting the end
arranging minds
giving desires
and filling desires
to make a meager living
is not worth the suffering
i let go of preaching
and fill myself with sweets
i set the paper aside
break my pen
name myself silence
i see the cup-bearer is arriving now
"RUMI, Fountain of Fire",
Poetic translation by Nader Khalili
Burning Gate Press
Los Angeles, 1994.
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