Rumi was also a 13th century writer (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273). He was a Sufi mystic, born in Persia but in what is now Tajikistan, Afganistan.
I’d read a few of Rumi’s poems before but didn’t know
anything about him. Like everything else
I’m reading this term, there is so much more I want to know about that time
period: what was going on everywhere else at the time, more about sufiism, more
about Persia and Afganistan at the time, more about Islam. Rumi’s poetry reminded me of Sappho – maybe
because both wrote so passionately about love and the beloved. It’s hard for me to analyze and dissect these
poems – their strength for me lies in the emotions I feel when reading them, in
the power of the words - and so I want to save certain pieces I loved, so I can
come back and savour them later. I can
see this being a book I’ll want to come back to and read in the future.
Rumi speaks often of love as being as a unifying force, of
two souls combining.
In I AM NOT (on page 56) he says:
I have put duality
away
And seen the two
worlds as one.
THE RUINS OF MY HEART (page 49)
[…]
My soul spills into
yours and is blended
Because my soul has
absorbed your fragrance,
I cherish it.
Every drop of blood I
spill
informs the earth,
“I merge with my
Beloved when I participate in love.”
[…]
He often includes imagery of wine and drunkenness, perhaps
to show how love intoxicates the lover, how love infuses you and affects your
thoughts, body and reason. Many of his
poems mention his beloved, Shamsi Tabriz.
At the end of SWEEP THE DUST OFF
THE SEA, on page 34
The Sun of Tabriz
keeps me
drunk and languishing
in this state
THE INNER GARMENT OF LOVE (pg 69)
[…]
Be drunk with love,
for love is all that
exists.
Where is intimacy
found
If not in the give and
take of love.
Love for Rumi seems to be his way through the world, to
spirituality, to fulfillment. It’s not
all sweetness & light and angels singing.
Many of his poems mention fire, burning, conflict, suffering, piercing.
DIDN’T I SAY? (Pg 22)
[…]
Didn’t I say, “They
will waylay you and make you cold,
I am the fire and your
warm desire.”
[…]
EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION (pg 41)
[…]
Those glances of love
were arrows,
piercing and killing
all reason
[…]
Hundreds of thousands
of full moons
Are dedicated to the
all night fever of His love
[…]
All perceptions are
riding on lame donkeys,
While He is an arrow
travelling through space.
[…]
In SONG OF THE REED (pg 50)
[…]
I want a heart torn
open with longing
to share the pain of
this love.
[…]
It is the fire of love
that inspires the flute.
It is the ferment of
love that completes the wine.
[…]
THE INNER GARMENT OF LOVE (pg 69)
[…]
If they ask what Love
is,
Say: the sacrifice of
will.
If you have not left
your will behind,
You have no will at
all.
[…]
Between the mirror and
the heart
Is this single
difference:
The heart conceals
secrets,
While the mirror does
not.
Rumi contrasts love and reason in some of his poems with
reason proving the lesser faculty.
THE PULL OF LOVE (pg 31)
[…]
Though reason is
learned and has its honours,
It pawned its cap and
robe for a cup of love.
[…]
He describes reason as something very black and white, cold,
demanding - not as a quality that brings purpose, depth and joy to life.
LOVE IS RECKLESS (pg
53)
Love is reckless; not
reason.
Reason seeks a profit.
Love comes on strong,
consuming herself, unabashed.
Yet, in the midst of
suffering,
Love proceeds like a
millstone
Hard surfaced and
straightforward.
Having died to
self-interest,
She risks everything
and asks for nothing.
Love gambles away
every gift God bestows.
[…]
Religion seeks grace
and favour,
But those who gamble
these away are God’s favourites,
For they neither put
God to the test
Nor knock at the door
of gain and loss.
LOVE IS A STRANGER (pg 18)
[…]
Reason, do not envy my
mouth.
[…]
whether you have raised a flag or a pen,
the night is gone and
day has arrived,
and the sleeper shall
see what he has dreamed.
He seems to suggest that reason tries to control love, to
control the body and the person. I’m not
sure where Rumi thinks reason lives. One
of his line talks about covering “my
reason, my head and my feet” suggesting Rumi doesn’t associate reason with
the brain, certainly not with the heart as Mencius did.
WHAT A MAN CAN SAY (pg 28)
In the name of
friendship
Don’t repeat to my
Beloved
All that I said last
night,
Out of my mind;
But if, by God, she
hears it,
She’ll understand what
a man can say
In the dark, loud or
quiet, rough or soft,
When reason is not at
home.
[…]
THE HOUSE OF LOVE (pg
67)
[…]
But you build up
thought
like a massive wooden
door.
Set fire to the wood.
Silence the noise of
the heart.
Hold your harmful
tongue.
While Rumi seems to fully support Love, this doesn’t apply
to all passions (greed, envy etc).
EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION (pg 42)
[…]
If night never came,
people would waste themselves
Pursuing all that they
desire.
They would give their
own bodies to be consumed
For the sake of their
desires and greed,
But night appears, a
treasure of Mercy,
To save them from
desires for a short while.
[…]
When it comes to love though, moderation does not seem to be
what Rumi recommends.
EMPTY THE GLASS OF YOUR DESIRE (pg 74)
Join yourself to
friends
And know the joy of
the soul.
Enter the
neighbourhood of ruin
With those who drink
to the dregs.
Empty the glass of
your desire
So that you won’t be
disgraced.
Stop looking for
something out there
And begin seeing
within.
[…]
When the earth is this
wide,
Why are you asleep in
a prison?
Think of nothing but
the source of thought.
Feed the soul; let the
body fast.
Love is not without its suffering but for Rumi even this has
purpose. Love and spirituality are joined together in Rumi’s poetry. For Rumi, Love seems to be transcendent and
his words make you feel that even if it hurts and changes and doesn’t give you
a “fairytale” ending, Love is a path worth pursuing because of its transcendent
power:
THE GUEST HOUSE (pg
44)
[…]
Whatever sorrow takes
away or causes the heart to shed,
it puts something
better in its place –
especially for one who
is certain
that sorrow is the
servant of the intuitive.
[…]
WHEN A MAN AND WOMAN BECOME ONE (pg 55)
[…]
The garden of love is
green without limit
and yields many fruits
other than sorrow or joy.
TO TAKE A STEP WITHOUT FEET (pg 59)
This is love: to fly
towards a secret sky,
To cause a hundred
veils to fall each moment.
[…]
LOVE IS A STRANGER (pg
18)
[…]
Love is a stranger
with a strange language
[…]
ON THE DEATHBED (pg 23)
[…]
On this path, Love is
the emerald,
the beautiful green
that wards off dragons.
[…]
A WORLD WITH NO BOUNDARIES (pg 61)
With every breath the
sound
Of love surrounds us,
And we are bound for
the depths
Of space, without
distraction.
We’ve been in orbit
before
And know the angels
there.
Let’s go there again,
Master,
For that is our land.
[…]
out beyond duality
we have a home, and it
is Majesty
[…]
These following lines don’t really demonstrate anything
related to reason or passion but they are just phrases that I liked and wanted
to remember.
ELEGY FOR SANA’I (pg
68)
[…]
he valued the whole
world at a single barleycorn.
[…]
WORDS OF ALI WHEN HE REFUSED TO KILL AN OPPONENT WHO SPAT IN
HIS FACE (pg 82)
[…]
I am not chaff but a
mountain of patience.
[…]
EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION (pg 43)
[…] the eyes of the
wise see to the end […]
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