From the Mathnawi of Rumi

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

as things are somewhat quiet over the festive season- i thought i would post

one of my

versifications of Rumi from Nicholson's prose for those that enjoy him .

 

Happy and auspicious New Year to all,

 

love,

 

 

Alan

 

 

 

 

ESOTERIC TEACHING

 

 

The Sage said “ one shouldn’t blurt out every secret

Even an even number may turn out oddly to be odd,

And sometimes the odd number oddly turns out to be even.”

 

If naively you breathe words on a mirror it becomes dim,

Don’t wag the errant tongue foolishly on three things,

Your date of departure, your fortune, and your religion.

There’s many an opponent waiting, if he knows all that,

If you tell one or two folk, say good bye to your secet,

All secrets told beyond two are published abroad .

If you tie two or three birds together they die on the ground,

They’ll chirp ,well hidden, to confuse any bird snatchers.

The prophet consulted friends but they misunderstood him,

His question would be concealed in a parable so his foes

Might not distinguish their feet from their heads,

He had answers from foes, others failed to catch the drift.”

When like a fool he looks neither forward nor back..

The road looks smooth but beneath are many pitfalls,

Among the myriads of names and forms there is lack of meaning,

Words and images are like dangerous man holes,

Sweet flattery can suck up the vital source of life

Like sand ; where water gushes from sand is hard to find.

Go seek that spring, and become an ocean of wisdom.

He becomes free of desire and their ways and means.

His heart is a Guarded Tablet, he’s enriched by the spirit.

When wisdom is his teacher it then becomes his pupil,

It cries like Gabriel : ‘oh Ahmed one more step will burn me

Leave me, advance yourself, this is my end, oh Soul Sultan’,

Whoever remains without thanks and self control

Only follows the stilleto heels of harsh necessity.

Pleading fate as an excuse, is an illness nearing death.

The Prophet said ‘ feigned illness in jest brings real disease,

And the jester goes out like a spluttering candle.”

The meaning of jabr is to bind a limb or tie a vein,

As your foot is not broken, whom are you mocking?

Why have you bandaged your foot in swathes of cloth?

Whoever breaks his leg in effort, Burlaq comes, and off he rides ,

He carried the Prophet Messenger of true religion,

Who as an accepter of command became widely accepted.

Until then he was taking orders from the temporal King,

Now he gives the universal King’s commands to mankind.

Before, his fate was ruled by the planets and stars,

Now he rules galaxies , constellations and their circuits.

If this perplexes, you’ll doubt ‘the moon was split in two’.

Refresh faith but not with the tongue, you who refresh desire.

So long as craving is fresh then faith becomes stale.

You’ve corrupted the true meaning of the virgin phrase,

Interpret and improve yourself not the divine scriptures.

Desire is the lock that fastens shut the pearly gate.

You interpret the Koran according to your wants.

The sublime meaning is then perverted and degraded.

 

The fly lifted its head like a pilot on a blade of straw

Navigating a ship through a pool of donkey’s urine.

“I have sailed this boat and ocean for a long time,

And often pondered over my wise interpretation.

Look here ,in this ship I’m Captain ,skilled and judicious.”

He was paddling the craft on the sea, it seemed limitless,

The pee was boundless in realation to his pin head body,

Where was that vision to see its true perspective?

His world was as vast as his sight, his sea was proportionately large,

So with false comment on the Koran. Like the little fly,

His imagination reeks like the piss of a donkey,

His conception is as worthless as a blade of straw.

If the fly stops following his own opinion, grace might transform him,

One who sees the Divine hand, pointing at true meaning

Is not a fly, his spirit doesn’t represent his outer form.

 

What is skin ? Specious words, ripples on a blocked stream.

Their words are like a nutshell, the meaning is in the kernel,

Letters are the form, meaning is in the holy spirit.

The shell hides the rotteness of the flawed kernel,

But jealously protects the nutritious, tasty nut.

When the pen is wind, and paper is water, all that’s written

Vanishes swiftly in the white caps of the ocean.

If inscribed on water and you expect faithful constancy,

You’ll be disappointed and come back with bitten nails.

Man’s wind is vanity and desire, give them up. and God speaks.

Sweet are the sublime messages from the Lord Creator,

>From head to foot they are enduring and constant .

Prayers for Kings pass, but not the signs of Prophets.

The pomp of Kings is from earthly vanity, the prophet’s

Glory comes from the grace of His most Divine Majesty.

The names of Kings are removed from coins of the realm,

Mohammed’s name is stamped and sealed for ever.

Ahmad’s name is the inheritence of all the prophets

When the one hundredth is counted, the ninety nine are there as well.

What worlds are in the constant care of Mother Reason,

In her wide ocean the cups are flowing fast on top of the water,

Until they become full they are like bowls skimming on the sea,

But when a bowl is full it sinks down into the deep.

Reason is well hidden, only phenomena are visible.

Our forms are like the spray of the wind swept waves,

Whatsover means that form uses to approach Mother Reason

She, by that same means, throws the form away.

While the heart fails to see the giver of her conscience

It’s like an arrow fired in the air and ignorant of its archer.

He who’s blind thinks his horse is lost while galloping along.

In grief the scatterbrain runs from door to door asking,

“Who stole my steed ?” “what’s that nag under your thigh ?”

“Yes, this is my horse, but tell me where on earth is it?”

Oh blind rider in search of your horse, remember your Self!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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