Rumi

Kabir Helminski feels Rumi’s popularity in the West is because of
1. A universal voice beyond the concerns of conventional religion.
2. Boundary between divine and human love is left ambiguous
3. Rumi is ecstatic and intoxicated with Gods love, those qualities are lacking in most people these days.
4. He is the clearest, most powerful voice of cosmic, divine love.

Rumi’s soul was set ablaze after his meeting with Shams of Tabriz, a mysterious vagabond.

Some of Rumi’s poetry, in The Rumi Collection translations by Coleman Barks, Robert Bly, Andrew Harvey, Camille and Kabir Helminski, Daniel Liebert, Peter Lamborn Wilson, among others.

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 became like us;
with us you’‘’ start singing and dancing.

Even if you are Qarun, the richest of kings,
when you fall in love,
you’ll became a beggar.
Though you are a sultan, like us you’ll became a slave.

One candle of this gathering
is worth a hundred candles; it’s 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 became 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”


You are not a single “You”

When you fall asleep,
you go from the presence of yourself
into your own true presence.
You hear something
and surmise that someone else in your dream
has secretly informed you.
You are not a single “you.”
No, you are the sky and the deep sea.
Your mighty “Thou,” which is nine hundredfold,
is the ocean, the drowning place
of a hundred “thous” within you.

Intellect is a shackle

O my child, intellect is a shackle
on the foot of one who walks the path.
Break the bond; the way is open!
The intellect is a chain, the heart may be deceptive,
and even your soul is a veil-
the path is hidden from all three.

When you life the intellect, soul, and heart,
the station of nearness your reach is still subjective.
One who gets lost isn’t considered brave.
Love takes aim at the one who has no troubles.
Know that the arrow of the friend is ready in the bow.
Make your chest a target in front of it.

Love isn’t the work of the tender and 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 alone about Love.
Love is a cloud that scatters pearls.

Love doesn’t need me to translate; it translates for itself.
If you journey to the seventh heaven, Love is a useful ladder.
Wherever a caravan journeys, Love is its qiblah.

May this universe not deceive you, way laying you from love,
for this universe comes from you.
Let’s go! Close your mouth like mother of pearl.

Be silent, for this tongue of yours is the enemy of the soul.
O child, Shams of Tabriz has arrived; the soul is full of joy
for the time has come to join in union with his sun.