Having visited Turkey recently, I was amazed to discover the simple beauty of the writings of the 13th century Persian poet and Sufi mystic known as Rumi. All of our Turkish guides were quick to pull out their pocket collection of Rumi and share their favorite quotes. Something for everyone!
The background is fascinating, to say the least. Born in the Persian Empire in what is now present day Balkh, Afghanistan, Rumi traveled west with his family at the age of ten to settle in Konya, Turkey, where he lived most of his life and produced his famous works, some 70,000 verses, written in Persian. He is sometimes called Balkhi for the province of his birth, while the name Rumi, meaning "the Roman", comes from the name of the province of Rum where Konya is located, the area being called that because it was once part of the Eastern Roman Empire. Rumi (1207-1273) is buried at his shrine which is now a popular place of pilgrimage, called the Mevlana Museum in Konya, and he is often given the title of Mevlana, meaning "master." His followers founded the order of the whirling dervishes famous for its Sufi dance ceremony.
The Mevlana Museum in Konya was well worth the visit. We also got to see a whirling dervish ceremony, known as "sema", which was held in a caravanserai (caravan palace) built in medieval times like a fortress, both for religious use and as an inn and stable for travelers. There were five men in white robes, positioned with one in the middle surrounded by the other four, twirling counterclockwise with their left foot as the pivot, starting up four different times and switching places at the direction of a sixth man, to the music of four musicians with reed, drums and sitar like instruments, no photography or clapping allowed, creating an atmosphere that proved soporific for some. I was able to keep my eyes open for the entire hour, treated to a glass of tea at the end.
Rumi's work has become increasingly popular in recent years in the West, through the work of various translators such as Coleman Barks and performers such as Shahram Shiva. While this may seem surprising for an 800-year-old Muslim writing in Persian, his works deal with the human condition in a very personal way and appeal to our common humanity, not limited by the strictures of religion, race or nationality. According to one Rumi scholar, Dr. Majid Naimi, "Rumi's life and transformation provide true testimony and proof that people of all religions and backgrounds can live together in peace and harmony. Rumi’s visions, words, and life teach us how to reach inner peace and happiness so we can finally stop the continual stream of hostility and hatred and achieve true global peace and harmony.” Not a bad message for the world we live in today!
Sufism, a spiritual, nonviolent, apolitical creed of Islam preaching tolerance, flourished in medieval times but apparently is hated today by Islamic fundamentalists like the Taliban and al-Qaida of the Wahabbi branch, as evidenced by recent terrorist attacks on Sufi shrines in Pakistan. With the rising popularity of Rumi, perhaps Westerners will gain a better understanding of Islam and the complexity of the current divides in the Islam world. Some see the appeal of Rumi, Sufism and Islamic spiritualism as a promising development to counter the rise of Islamic extremism.
Barks, who has been a significant force in popularizing Rumi in America through his books such as "The Essential Rumi", has been criticized for relying on other translations and taking liberties with the language to make the verse more universal and accessible. I do not know whether what I've come across so far comes from Barks or another source, but I can attest to the popular appeal. Of course, I have no idea if the popular versions of his verses in circulation on the internet are accurate translations. If Rumi is worthy, as some believe, of elevation to literary greatness with the likes of Dante and Shakespeare, then perhaps a definitive English language translation will someday prevail.
With that caveat, here's what I have collected as my favorites verses from Rumi, in no particular order, source and translator unknown:
"The wound is the place where the Light enters you."
"My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there."
"Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death."
"If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?"
"You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?"
"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment."
"Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of what you truly love."
"Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond."
"Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you."
"Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!
Why do you stay in prison
When the door is so wide open?"
"I have lived on the lip
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside."
"Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come."
"Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others' faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear."
"All people on the planet are children, except for a very few. No one is grown up except those free of desire."
"You wander from room to room
Hunting for the diamond necklace
That is already around your neck!"
"This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor...Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond."
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone's soul heal. Walk out
of your house like a shepherd."
"Poems are rough notations for the music we are."
"All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,
And I intend to end up there.
This drunkenness began in some other tavern.
When I get back around to that place,
I'll be completely sober. Meanwhile,
I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.
The day is coming when I fly off,
But who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?
Who says words with my mouth?
Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.
This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say.
I don't plan it.
When I'm outside the saying of it, I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.
We have a huge barrel of wine, but no cups.
That's fine with us. Every morning
We glow and in the evening we glow again."
"Out beyond ideas of
wrong-doing and right-doing
There is a field,
I'll meet you there
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase,
each other
doesn't make any sense."
"There are thousands of wines
that can take over our minds.
Don't think all ecstasies
are the same!
Jesus was lost in his love for God.
His donkey was drunk with barley."
"Love isn't the work of the tender and the gentle;
Love is the work of wrestlers.
The one who becomes a servant of lovers
is really a fortunate sovereign.
Don't ask anyone about Love; ask Love about Love.
Love is a cloud that scatters pearls."
"Some Hindus have an elephant to show.
No one here has ever seen an elephant.
They bring it at night to a dark room.
One by one, we go in the dark and come out
saying how we experience the animal.
One of us happens to touch the trunk.
A water-pipe kind of creature.
Another, the ear. A strong, always moving
back and forth, fan-animal. Another, the leg.
I find it still, like a column on a temple.
Another touches the curve back.
A leathery throne. Another, the cleverest,
feels the tusk. A rounded sword made of porcelain.
He is proud of his description.
Each of us touches one place
and understands the whole in that way.
The palm and the fingers feeling in the dark
are how the senses explore the reality of the elephant.
If each of us held a candle there,
and if we went in together, we could see it."
"Today I'm out wandering, turning my skull
into a cup for others to drink wine from.
In this town somewhere there sits a calm, intelligent man,
who doesn't know what he's about to do!"
"Love Dogs
One night a man was crying,
Allah! Allah!
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said,
"So! I have heard you
calling out, but have you ever
gotten any response?"
The man had no answer to that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.
He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage.
"Why did you stop praising?"
"Because I've never heard anything back."
"This longing
you express is the return message."
The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.
Your pure sadness
that wants help
is the secret cup.
Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.
There are love dogs
no one knows the names of.
Give your life
to be one of them."
"Be quiet now and wait.
It may be that the ocean one,
the one we desire so to move into and become,
desires us out here on land a little longer,
going our sundry roads to the shore."
"What the sayer of praise is really praising is himself,
by saying implicitly,
My eyes are clear.
Likewise, someone who criticizes is criticizing
himself, saying implicitly, 'I can't see very well
with my eyes so inflamed'. "
"Your task is not to look for love, but to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."
"You think because you understand 'one' you must also understand 'two', because one and one make two. But you must also understand 'and'."
"Work on your strong qualities
and become resplendent like the ruby.
Practice self-denial and accept difficulty.
Always see infinite life in letting the self die.
Your stoniness will decrease; your ruby nature will grow.
The signs of self-existence will leave your body,
and ecstasy will take you over."
"The way of love is not
a subtle argument,
The door there
is devastation.
Birds make great sky-circles
of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling,
they're given wings."
"Be helpless, dumbfounded,
Unable to say yes or no.
Then a stretcher will come from grace
to gather us up.
We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty.
If we say we can, we’re lying.
If we say No, we don’t see it,
That No will behead us
And shut tight our window onto spirit.
So let us rather not be sure of anything,
Beside ourselves, and only that, so
Miraculous beings come running to help.
Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,
We shall be saying finally,
With tremendous eloquence, Lead us.
When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,
We shall be a mighty kindness."
"Although you see the pit, you cannot avoid it."
"Here is a relationship booster
that is guaranteed to
work:
Every time your spouse or lover says something stupid
make your eyes light up as if you
just heard something
brilliant."
"In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves."
"The ground's generosity takes in our compost and grows beauty! Try to be more like the ground."
"Give up to grace. The ocean takes care of each wave 'til it gets to shore. You need more help than you know."
"Learn the alchemy true human beings know. The moment you accept what troubles you've been given the door will open."
"Suffering is a gift. In it is hidden mercy."
"Don't try to steer the boat.
Don't open shop for yourself. Listen. Keep silent.
You are not God's mouthpiece. Try to be an ear,
And if you do speak, ask for explanations."
