Prologue and First Story
Tales from
Masnavi by A.J. Arberry
Umar and the
Harpist-- by Ibrahim Gamard
Mathnawi
VI: 255-260
At the
hour of the morning-drink
Mathnawi
VI: 2955-2962
Dar al Masnavi
Mathnawi VI: 255-260
Wealth has no permanence: it comes in the
morning,
and at night it is scattered to the winds.
Physical
beauty too has no importance,
for a rosy face is made pale by
the scratch of a single thorn.
Noble birth also is of small
account,
for many become fools of money and horses.
Many a
nobleman's son has disgraced his father by his wicked
deeds.
Don't court a person full of talent either,
even if
he seems exquisite in that respect:
take warning from the
example of Iblis1 .
Iblis
had knowledge, but since his love was not pure,
he saw in Adam
nothing but a figure of clay.
Version by Camille and Kabir
Helminski
"Rumi:
Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
At the hour of the morning-drink
At the hour of the
morning-drink a beloved said to her lover
by way of trial, "O
such-and-such son of such-and-such,
I wonder, do you love me or
yourself more? Tell the truth,
O man of sorrows."
He
replied, "I have become so naughted in thee that I am
full of
thee from head to foot.
Of my existence there is nothing (left)
in me but the name:
in my being there is naught but thee, O
thou whose wishes are gratified.
By that means I have become
thus naughted, like vinegar, in
thee (who are) an ocean of
honey."
As the stone that is entirely turned into pure ruby: it
is filled with the qualities of the sun.
That stony nature does
not remain in it: back and front, it is
filled with
sunniness.
Afterwards, if it love itself, that (self-love) is
love of the sun,O youth;
And if it love the sun with (all) its
soul, ‘tis undoubtedly love of itself.
Whether the pure ruby
loves itself or whether it loves the sun,
There is really no
difference in these two loves: both sides
(aspects) are naught
but the radiance of the sunrise.
Until it (the stone) has
become a ruby, it is an enemy to itself,
because it is not a
single "I": two "I’s" are there;
For the stone is dark and
blind to the day (-light): the dark is
essentially opposed to
light.
(If) it love itself, it is an infidel, because it offers
intense
resistance to the supreme Sun.
Therefore ‘tis not
fitting that the stone should say "I," (for)
it is wholly
darkness and in (the state of) death.
A Pharaoh said, "I am
God" and was laid low; a Mansur
(Hallaj) said, "I am God" and
was saved.
The former "I" is followed by God’s curse and the
latter
"I" by God’s mercy, O loving man;
For that one
(Pharaoh) was a black stone, this one (Hallaj) a
cornelian;
that one was an enemy to the Light, and this one
passionately
enamoured (of it).
This "I," O presumptuous meddler, was "He"
(God) in the inmost
consciousness, through oneness with the
Light, not
through (belief in) the doctrine of
incarnation.
Strive that thy stony nature may be diminished, so
that thy
stone may become resplendent with the qualities of the
ruby.
Show fortitude in (enduring) self-mortification and
affliction;
continually behold everlasting life in dying to
self.
(Then) thy stoniness will become less at every moment,
the
nature of the ruby will be strengthened in thee.
The
qualities of (self-) existence will depart from thy body,
the
qualities of intoxication (ecstasy) will increase in thy head (thy
spiritual centre).
Become entirely hearing, like an ear, in
order that thou mayst
gain an ear-ring of ruby.2
-- Translation by Reynold A.
Nicholson
"The
Mathnawi of Jalalu’ddin Rumi"
Mathnawi VI: 2955-2962
The spirit is like an ant, and the body like a
grain of wheat
which the ant carries to and fro
continually.
The ant knows that the grains of which it has
taken charge
will change and become assimilated.
One ant
picks up a grain of barley on the road;
another ant picks up a
grain of wheat and runs away.
The barley doesn't hurry to the
wheat,
but the ant comes to the ant, yes it does.
The going
of the barley to the wheat is merely consequential:
it's the
ant that returns to its own kind.
Don't say, "Why did the wheat
go to the barley?"
Fix your eye on the holder, not on that
which is held.
As when a black ant moves along on a black felt
cloth:
the ant is hidden from view; only the grain is visible
on its way.
But Reason says: "Look well to your eye:
when
does a grain ever move along without a carrier?"
"Rumi:
Jewels of Remembrance"
Camille and Kabir
Helminski
Threshold Books, 1996
WHISPERS OF LOVE
Lover whispers to my ear,
"Better to be a prey
than a hunter.
Make yourself My fool.
Stop trying to be the
sun and become a speck!
Dwell at My door and be
homeless.
Don't pretend to be a candle, be a moth,
so you
may taste the savor of Life
and know the power hidden in
serving."
Mathnawi V. 411-414 (translated by
Kabir Helminski)
'The
Rumi Collection', Edited by Kabir
Helminski