Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi

[Diane]

Wow, Lizzy, that's a lovely coincidence . How I am looking forward to receiving a package from afar...

Diane

[lizzytysh]

I'm looking forward to sending it, too....and, particularly, hearing your response to them ! It relies on two, basic things ~ my next paycheck; and a head count of how many want copies, so I can do and send them all at once. I also need to get my Hydra-trip gifts sent !

~ Lizzy

[Tri-me]

Out in Empty Sky

If you catch a fragrance of the unseen, like that,
you won't be able to be contained.
You'll be out in empty sky.
Any beauty the world has, any desire, will easily be yours.
As you live deeper in the heart, the mirror gets clearer and cleaner. Shams of Tabriz realized God in himself.
When that happens, you have no anxieties about losing anyone or anything.
You break the spells human difficulties cause.
Interpretations come, hundreds, from all the religious symbols and parables and prayers.
You know what they mean, when God lives through you like Shams.

Translated by Coleman Barks, from the book The Glance

Major Works
Rumi's major work is "Masnavi-ye Manavi" (Spiritual Couplets), a six-volume poem regarded by many Sufis as second in importance only to the Koran. In fact the Masnavi is often called "Qor'an-e-Farsi" (The Koran in Persian). It is considered by many to be one of the greatest works of mystical poetry. Rumi's other major work is the "Diwan-e Shams-e Tabriz-i" (The Works of Shams of Tabriz - named in honor of Rumi's great friend and inspiration, the dervish Shams), comprising some 40,000 verses. Both works are among the most significant in all of Persian literature. It is believed by some that Shams was murdered by disciples of Rumi who were jealous of his relationship with Shams (also spelt Shems).

[lizzytysh]

It is believed by some that Shams was murdered by disciples of Rumi who were jealous of his relationship with Shams (also spelt Shems).

_________________

That's how I've heard it. Such a wealth of beauty he left the world.

[st tess]

lizzytysh

I have read that Rumi's magnificent poetry was an outpouring of the love he felt for Shams, and that his work led him to the knowledge that Shams had never left but that instead they had become one. This story fits so perfectly with my spiritual sense of things that it brings tears of joy. As does Rumi's poetry.

[lizzytysh]

Hi St. Tess ~

I had heard the first part regarding Rumi's love for Shams, but never the second part. I love that interpretation/theory. The spiritual aspects of their lives were so intact and vivid that believing that comes easy with me, too. Thanks for offering that explanation.

Rumi's poetry affects me the same way, St. Tess.

For those [Diane and Steven ~ anyone else that I'm not recalling?] I've promised tapes to, I checked again, on Friday, regarding the repairs, and a belt has still not arrived. I may go looking for another repair shop, soon. It's bad enough dealing with my own delays, but when I can't even think about doing something due to someone else's ~ well, you know what I mean . "What goes around comes around" comes to mind .

~ Lizzy

[MonkOverBook]

Hi folks,

I'm very glad to find this intense discussion on the great Persian mystic, and I very much appreciate the depth of what you've been writing.

May I pick up the thread?

Quite an important word to Rumi is "hu", the arab for "he", used as an ecstatic equivalent for G-d. Where it occurs in "Like this" (your quote, Diane), it seems to me pronounced with an eye-wink. Compare this episode from Annemarie Schimmel's Rumi book:

We learn that already in the 13th century drunkards had to blow to the police: but the "Ah" demanded by the eye of the law becomes "Hu" in the mouth of the drunkard:

The inspector said: "Come on, say Ah!"
But always the drunkard said "Hu".
"Didn't I tell you: Say 'Ah'? And still you say hu?!"
"'Cos I am happy", he answered, "while you, friend, are sad.
'Ah' says, who lives under tyranny, suffers from pain,
but from joy comes the 'Hu' of the drunk!"
"That's too high for me", the inspector replied,
"and now stop with that sufistic stuff!"

[Diane]

Hello MonkOverBook, and welcome to the forum ! I see you live in Munich. Will you be at the Berlin event?

Thanks for bringing Rumi back up the line, it is always good to get a reminder of Rumi every once in a while.

Quite an important word to Rumi is "hu", the arab for "he", used as an ecstatic equivalent for G-d. Where it occurs in "Like this" (your quote, Diane), it seems to me pronounced with an eye-wink.

How interesting that "hu" is used in that context. In the context of the poem I posted earlier it makes perfect sense, if we read the lovers in the poem as having reached a state of spiritual union. Or maybe it is used as an eye-wink, as you say, as Rumi's work does seems to contain a lot of humour.

Compare this episode from Annemarie Schimmel's Rumi book:

Quote:
We learn that already in the 13th century drunkards had to blow to the police: but the "Ah" demanded by the eye of the law becomes "Hu" in the mouth of the drunkard:

The inspector said: "Come on, say Ah!"
But always the drunkard said "Hu".
"Didn't I tell you: Say 'Ah'? And still you say hu?!"
"'Cos I am happy", he answered, "while you, friend, are sad.
'Ah' says, who lives under tyranny, suffers from pain,
but from joy comes the 'Hu' of the drunk!"
"That's too high for me", the inspector replied,
"and now stop with that sufistic stuff!"

That is very funny, and paints a great picture. Rumi writes a lot of poems about drunkeness, doesn't he. I have the urge to find one I like and post it on here later...

Good wishes,

Diane

[lizzytysh]

Yes, Diane, he really does... and he also seems to use it as a metaphor regarding being drunk and intoxicated with the love of G~d, the gardens, each other...

Thanks for that splendid, 'anecdotal'-style account ~ so perfectly fitting with the ah/hu of drunkkenness, Monk.

Meanwhile, great news on the Rumi front! I have temporarily abandoned waiting on the stereo repair. I came across a Magnavox turntable/double-cassette, "surround sound" unit with two speakers for $25 and bought it. I will very soon be recording your long-awaited Rumi tapes, Diane and Steven ! You're going to love them !

MonkOverBook ~ If you're interested, I can do another set for you at the same time.

~ Lizzy

[Diane]

Lizzy, Great, re the tapes . Thank you. Can't wait!

How difficult it is to choose a Rumi poem, there are so many good ones, but what a wonderful task at the same time. I have settled on this one. To me it speaks of changes, growth, searching, longing, getting it all wrong, and still being able to see beauty. That sounds like my life.



Burnt Kabob


Last year, I admired wines. This,
I'm wandering inside the red world.


Last year, I gazed at the fire.
This year I'm burnt kabob.


Thirst drove me down to the water
where I drank the moon's reflection.


Now I am a lion staring up totally
lost in love with the thing itself.


Don't ask questions about longing.
Look in my face.


Soul drunk, body ruined, these two
sit helpless in a wrecked wagon.
Neither knows how to fix it.


And my heart, I'd say it was more
like a donkey sunk in a mudhole,
Struggling and miring deeper.


But listen to me: for one moment,
quit being sad. Hear blessings
dropping their blossoms
around you. God.

------------------------------------------



I love this one too. It reminds me of a time when I felt like the 'least figure', but someone made me 'part of the beauty'.


The Least Figure

I tried to think of some way
to let my face become yours

"Could I whisper in your ear
a dream I've had? You're the only one
I've told this to."

You tilt your head, laughing,
as if, "I know the trick you're hatching,
but go ahead."

I am an image you stitch with gold thread
on a tapestry, the least figure,
a playful addition.

But nothing you work on is dull.
I am part of the beauty.

[Kush]

I havent read this entire thread but if folks are not already aware of it...there is a new album based on poems by Sufi poets including Rumi (3 or 4 poems) by the group Niyaz from LA. It consists of two Iranians and producer/mixer Carmen Rizzo (a guy!). The vocalist is Azam Ali who was born in Iran and then spent her childhood in India and then in US i think as a teenager. She has a beautifully seductive voice.
The songs are both in Farsi and Urdu sometimes changing within the same song. The lyrics are translated on the album cover.
You can hear and see Azam Ali sing here:

http://www.sixdegreesrecords.com/artist ... tist=Niyaz

p.s. The album is readily available at any local Borders...thats where I bought it. Also I can understand some of the Urdu its a very poetic language and unfortunately the translations really dont do it justice.

[MonkOverBook]

Thanks, Kush, a very fine hint. There is more at http://www.niyazmusic.com.

Yes, folks, I am looking forward to Berlin, too. And it'd be great to meet the ones of you who come.

Hm, thanks for asking, Lizzy. Would you be so kind to send me a copy of the Rumi tape, too? I am quite interested.

Greetings from early morning Bavaria,

Monk.

[lizzytysh]

Hi Monk ~

Bavaria . Wonderful . My pleasure, on the tapes [plural]. I'll get with you later for the details.

~ Lizzy

[Kush]

Hey Monk....thanks for pointing out the official link. I need to check out more on Azam Ali especially her live concerts. I was quite taken in by her live performance on the video of the "The Hunt" on the site.
The gist of the song/poem is a hunter who goes on a hunt and then tells his friend that everywhere he went, in every animal in the mountains and in the forests he could only see his beloved so ultimately he could not bring himself to hunt a single creature. Very powerful performance I thought.

[st theresa]

I was reading some of the early posts and saw Coleman Barks mentioned. I was visiting my daughter a few years ago. She has moved to Athens Georgia and there I was down in the Bible belt I thought. Browsing through the bookstores I was amazed at all the sufi literature. After returning home I found a beautiful illustrated Rumi and Coleman Barks was the translator. Imagine my surprise to find that my daughter was living in center of sufi studies and that Coleman Barks was at he University of Georgia in Athens.

Its a small world after all.