"Do you know what you are?
You are a manuscript oƒ a divine letter.You are a mirror reflecting a noble face.This universe is not outside of you.
Look inside yourself;everything that you want, you are already that.....”
I was never a big fan of poetry and so poets never ineterested me. Yes, I enjoy the play of words and the verbal folderol but it never seemed to completely gratify my literary needs. And then I was introduced to the works of Rumi.
Now for all those who are not aware of this name, let me give you a quick synopsis. Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī was a 13th century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, theologian, and most importantly a significant Sufi mystic. Regarded as one of the world's premiere persian poet till date, Rumi has written poems in Greek, Arabic and Turkish which have been translated into as many as 30 languages. Recently Rumi was even selected as the United states' Best Selling as well as the most popular poet.
Even though his personal history is as interesting as any fable, what drove me closer to Rumi is the simplicity of his poems. I have always believed that philosophy transcends time and there could be no better example of this than Rumi. Read any of his poems or couplets, the philosphy of this 13th centuary poet still makes as much sense today as it did 800 years ago! So, logically, it should mean that even through all these years of materialistic and ideological metomorphosis, the soul of humankind has not been transmogrified. He is still searching for what what he was 800 years ago.
“You think of yourselfas a citizen of the universe.
You think you belong to this world of dust and matter.
Out of this dustyou have created a personal image,
and have forgottenabout the essence of your true origin...”
Rumi is magic. Rumi is mystic. Rumi exemplifies sufism. To see life from such an enlightened peak often makes you happy about the little thing in life. Often a assauging remainder that things are not as bad as they look.
“Be melting snow,Wash yourself of yourself.
These pains you feel are messengers,Listen to them..."
“Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon;
How much it can fill your room depends on its windows.”
But then all I have read are the transalated verses of Rumi, so practically what Coleman Barks thought of Rumi's poems and with poetry its the perspective that matters most. So the true intentions of Rumi's verses will remain shrouded from those who are not truly worthy.
“Don't flounder in the preambles of the past
Wounded with regrets; don't let autumnal
Nostalgia blind you to the sounds and scents
Of the present's Spring; you're a native of
The pellucid moment, make it infinite beyond
The curving snake of passing time and space.
Learn to die in the infinitely elusive moment....”
