On the World

On the World

 from Discourses of Rumi, translation by Fatemeh Keshavarz

The world is a mountain
Whatever you say, good or bad, it will echo it back to you
Don't say I sang nicely and mountain echoed an ugly voice…
That is not possible The human intellect is a place where hesitation and uncertainty take root
There is no way to overcome this hesitation…except by falling in love
To reach the sea and be happy with a jug water is a waste
The sea that has pearls…
And a hundred thousand other precious things.




Found here on the On Being website. Go listen to it read in English and Persian!

A Potted Plant

A Potted Plant

from The Subject Tonight is Love by Hafiz, translation by Daniel Ladinsky

I pull a sun from my coin purse each day.

And at night I let my pet the moon

Run freely into the sky meadow.

If I whistled,

She would turn her head and look at me.

If I then waved my arms,

She would come back wagging a marvelous tail

Of stars.

There are always a few men like me

In this world

Who are house-sitting for God.

We share His royal duties:

I water each day a favorite potted plant

Of His--

This earth.

Ask the Friend for love.

Ask Him again.

For I have learned that every heart will get

What it prays for

Most.



found here on the Peaceful Rivers website

The Guest House

 by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
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.

 

 

Found here on All Poetry dot com

Where Everything is Music

Where Everything Is Music

by Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks

 

 Don't worry about saving these songs!
 And if one of our instruments breaks,
 it doesn't matter.

 We have fallen into the place
 where everything is music.

 The strumming and the flute notes
 rise into the atmosphere,
 and even if the whole world's harp
 should burn up, there will still be
 hidden instruments playing.

 So the candle flickers and goes out.
 We have a piece of flint, and a spark.

 This singing art is sea foam.
 The graceful movements come from a pearl
 somewhere on the ocean floor.

 Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge
 of driftwood along the beach, wanting!

 They derive
 from a slow and powerful root
 that we can't see.

 Stop the words now.
 Open the window in the center of your chest,
 and let the spirits fly in and out. 

Found here on The Wondering Minstrels blog 

A Great Need

A Great Need

by Hafiz, translation by Daniel Ladinsky

Out
Of a great need
We are all holding hands
And climbing.
Not loving is a letting go.
Listen,
The terrain around here
Is
Far too
Dangerous
For
That.



Found here on Astro Dream Advisor dot com

In That Moon Language

In that Moon Language
by Hafiz, translated by Daniel Landisky


Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them, 'Love me.'
Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise someone would call the cops.
Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye
that is always saying,
with that sweet moon language,
what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?

 Quoted by Father Greg Boyle in his interview with Krista Tippet in On Being here. 

Two Giant Fat People

Two Giant Fat People
by Hafiz translated by Daniel Ladinsky

God and I have become
Like two giant fat people
Living in a tiny boat
We keep
Bumping into each other
And laughing.


Found on Nasheen Husain's blog here.