Jalalud'din Rumi - The Mystic Poet Options

[noorie]

Jalalud'din Rumi

Jalalud'din Rumi is one of the world’s most revered mystical poets. During his lifetime he produced a prolific range of inspiring and devotional poetry which encapsulates the sufi's experience of union with the divine. These timeless classics have enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, as Rumi has become one of our most popular poets. Although Rumi was a Sufi and a great scholar of the Qu’ran his appeal reaches across religious and social divisions. Even during his lifetime he was noted for his cosmopolitan outlook. His funeral, which lasted 40 days, was attended by Muslims, Jews, Persians, Christians and Greeks.

Rumi was born in 1207 on the Eastern shores of the Persian Empire. He was born in the city of Balkh ( in what is now Afghanistan), and finally settled in the town of Konya, in what is now Turkey. It was a period of remarkable social and political turbulence. The 13th Century was the era of the crusades; also the area where Rumi lived was under constant threat of Mongol invasion. The great upheavals Rumi faced during his life is said to have influenced much of his poetry.

Rumi met many of the great Sufi poets. For example, as a young boy he met the Sufi Master, Attar. Attar is said to have commented about Rumi.

"There goes a river dragging an ocean behind it."

However the most important turning point in Rumi’s life was when he met the wandering dervish Shams al- Din. Shams was eccentric and unorthodox, but was filled with heartfelt devotion, that sometimes he couldn’t contain. Shams appeared to be quite different to the respectable and prestigious scholar, (as Rumi was at that point.) However Rumi saw in Shams a divine presence. This meeting and their close mystical relationship was instrumental in awakening Rumi’s latent spirituality and intense devotion. It was at this point Rumi abandoned his academic career and began to write his mystical poetry.

Rumi’s poetry is wide ranging and encompasses many different ideas but behind all the poetry the essential theme was the longing and searching for the union with the divine. Rumi was himself a great mystic. His outpourings of poetry were a reflection of his own inner consciousness. Ironically Rumi said that no words could adequately explain the experience of mystical union. Yet his words are inspiring signposts which point towards the divine.

In his poetry Rumi frequently uses imagery which may be unexpected. For example although Islam forbids alcohol, he often describes the sensation of being “drunk and intoxicated with ecstasy for his beloved." Here drunk implies the bliss of the divine consciousness. Love is a frequent subject of Rumi's poems, descriptions of seeming romantic love is an illusion to the all encompassing pure, divine love. Metaphors such as this are common to other Sufi poets such as Omar Khayyam, Hafiz, and Attar.

Rumi's poetry is so widely appreciated because it has the capacity to uplift our own consciouness. Reading the words of Rumi can awaken in ourselves, our own spiritual self.

- Culled from the Net

[noorie]

In Farsi

yâr ma-râ ghâr ma-râ, `ishq-é jegar-khwâr ma-râ
yâr tow-î, ghâr tow-î, khwâja! negahdâr ma-râ

nûH tow-î, rûH tow-î, fâtiH-o maftûH tow-î
sîna-yé mashrûH tow-î, bar dar-é asrâr ma-râ

nûr tow-î, sûr tow-î, dawlat-é manSûr tow-î
morgh-é koh-é Tûr tow-î, khasta ba-minqâr ma-râ

480 qaTra tow-î, baHr tow-î, tuTf tow-î, qahr tow-î
qand tow-î, zahr tow-î, bêsh ma-y-âzâr ma-râ

Hujra-yé khworshêd tow-î, khâna-yé nâhêd tow-î
rawZa-yé ômêd tow-î, râh deh ay yâr ma-râ

rôz tow-î, rôza tow-î, HâSil-é daryôza tow-î
âb tow-î, kôza tow-î, âb deh în bâr ma-râ

dâna tow-î, dâm tow-î, bâda tow-î, jâm tow-î
pokhta tow-î, khâm tow-î, khâm be-ma-goZâr ma-râ

în tan agar kam tan-ady, râh-é del-am kam zan-ady
râh shod-î tâ na-body, în hama goftâr ma-râ

Meter: XooX XooX XooX XooX

(Rajaz matvî)

In English

A Friend, A Cave, And A Heart-Afflicting Love

For me, (there is) a friend, a cave, (and) a heart-afflicting
love. (And) you are (that) friend and cave, (O) master! Protect me!

You are Noah (and) you are the spirit. You are the opener and the
opened. (And) for me, you are the refreshed heart at the door of
secrets.

You are the light (and) the feast, and the triumph of Mansoor.
You are the bird of the mountain of Sinai (and) I (am) wounded
by (your) beak.

You are the drop and the ocean, kindness and severity, (and)
you are sugar (and) poison. Don't torment me (any) more!

You are the cell of (seclusion) for the sun (and) the (overnight)
house for Venus. You are (also) the (green) meadow of hope: show
me the way, O beloved!

You are the day and the fast (of Ramadan), (and) the gain from
begging. You are the water (and) the pitcher: give me water this
time!

You are the seed and the trap, (and) you are the wine and the cup.
You are (both) ripe and raw: don't leave me (in the state of being)
raw!

If this body (of mine) was not (so) hot-spirited, it would rob my
heart less (often). (But) you went on the road so that all these
words of mine would not be (any use)


Footnotes:

1. A friend (yâr): may also be translated "a beloved."

2. Heart-afflicting: literally, "liver-devouring." An idiom for grievous suffering.

3. Don't torment me: in Classical Persian culture, the expected role of the beloved was to act harshly and tyrannically toward the lover (as well as to impose periods of separation), an the lover's role was both to take delight in such treatment and to yearn for an end of harshness and separation.

4. The wine and the cup: symbols, in Persian sufi poetry, of spiritual blessing and drunkenness, and the dispenser (the sufi master) of such.

5. Ripe and raw (pokhta, khâm): technical words in sufism, which also mean (spiritually) mature, experienced, prepared, refined; (spiritually) immature, inexperienced, etc., uncooked, bearing no fruit.

6. So that all these words of mine would not be (any use): means, outwardly, that Rumi's words are ineffective because Shams-i Tabriz has gone and cannot hear them. On a deeper level, it may mean that Shams left so that Rumi's fire of longing would burn up all his fine thoughts and enable him to transcend the mind and intellect altogether.

More to follow later........

Noorie

[IDOL]

He's often called Mowla e Rume, I love one of his farsi poem " berawed aye hareefan, bekashid yaar maara"