“In your Wild Dreams, what are you Looking for?” Rubaiyat of Jalalu’d-Din Rumi

Courtesy Anthony A. Lee, here are four poems from his and the late Amin Banani’s translation of the quatrains of the great Sufi mystic Mevlana Jalalu’d-Din Rumi:

Jalalu’d-Din Rumi, 53 Secrets from the Tavern of Love: Poems from the Rubaiyat of Mevlana Rumi, Translated by Amin Banani and Anthony Lee (White Cloud Press, 2014)

Truth

In your wild dreams, what are you looking for?

In tears and blood, what are you looking for?

You—from head to foot—you are the Truth. You

can’t find yourself! What are you looking for?

Love

The candle inside your heart: Let it burn!

That gap keeps you from the Friend: Let it turn!

Hey! Don’t you know about pain and burning?

Love comes like that. It’s not something you learn.

Rose Garden

Find the water of life, drink, and be healed.

Find the Friend in the rose garden—no thorns.

They say there’s a window from heart to heart.

But, why a window?—there are no walls here.

Don’t Think

Go throw your clothes in the street. Be clean!

Cover your shame with Joseph’s shirt, and dream!

A little fish can’t live without water.

Don’t think! Throw yourself naked in this stream.

———

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