Fw: [Sunlight] The wheat that grows on my grave

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Wednesday, December 14, 2005 12:35 PM

[sunlight] " The wheat that grows on my grave "

 

 

 

" Rumi would not have felt a sense of foreboding; quite the

contrary, he would have looked forward to the release of his soul

from the prison of self. Sepahsalar (a member of Rumi's inner

circle, and one of his biographers -- Ed.) expresses amazement about

the joyous and welcoming attitude toward death reflected in Rumi's

poems and wonders if anyone before or after will ever rival his words

in this regard. In several poems, some of them doubtless written on

the occasion of the death of one of his close disciples or an

important personage, Rumi reflects on the immortality of the soul. "

 

-- " Rumi, Past and Present, East and West "

Franklin D. Lewis

Oneworld Oxford 2001

 

Here, in remembrance and celebration of the Urs, the " wedding "

of Rumi with the Beloved, Sunlight offers Ghazal (Ode) 683, in a

translation by Kolin and Mafi, and in translation by Ibrahim

Gamard. This ghazal was inscribed on Rumi's sarcophagus.

 

 

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If you bake bread with the wheat that grows on my grave

you'll become drunk with joy and

even the oven will recite ecstatic poems.

If you come to pay your respects

even my gravestone will invite you to dance

so don't come without your drum.

Don't be sad. You have come to Gods feast.

Even death cannot stop my yearning

for the sweet kiss of my love.

Tear my shroud and wear it as a shirt,

the door will open and you'll hear

the music of your soul fill the air.

I am created from the ecstasy of love and

when I die, my essence will be released

like the scent of crushed rose petals.

My soul wants to leap and join

the towering soul of Shams.

 

-- Ghazal (Ode) 683

Translated by Azima Melita Kolin

and Maryam Mafi

" Rumi: Hidden Music "

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001

 

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If wheat comes up from my grave (and) you bake bread 7102

from it, drunkenness will increase.

The dough and the baker will become crazy (and) his

oven will sing verses like a drunkard.

If you come to visit my tomb, its shape* will appear (to

you as) dancing.

(O) brother, don't come without a tambourine to my 7105

tomb, since (being) full of sorrow is not suitable at the

banquet of God.

The chattering chin is bound up and sleeping at the

tomb, (and) the mouth (of the spirit) is chewing the opium

and sweet deserts of the Beloved.

Tear (something) from the shroud (and) tie it to (your

chest; (then) from (within) your soul, open the door of a

(wine) tavern.*

From every direction (is) the sound of the quarreling and

the harp of the drunkards. Inevitably, from every activity,

(more) activity is born.

God has created me from the wine of Love; even if

death grinds me (down to nothing), I am that very same

Love.

I am drunkenness, and my origin (is) the wine of Love. Tell 7110

(me), what comes from wine except love?

My spirit won't stand waiting for a moment: it will fly to the

tower of the spirit of Shams-i Tabriz.*

 

-- From " The Dîwân-é Kabîr (or

Dîvân-é Shams-é Tabrîzî,

or Kulliyât-é Shams) of Jalaluddin Rumi.

Translated from the Persian by Ibrahim Gamard

(11/1998; revised 11/00)

© Ibrahim Gamard (translation, footnotes, &

transliteration)

 

(7104) its shape: literally, my donkey's back. An idiom

meaning, my tomb's shape.

(7106) a (wine) tavern: since alcoholic beverages are strictly

forbidden in Islam, wine is a metaphor in Persian Sufi poetry. The

wine tavern is the Sufi gathering place, the drunkards are the

dervishes, the wine-server is often the Sufi master, the wine is the

(God-given) spiritual grace of the master, and drunkenness is

spiritual ecstasy-- a foretaste of the pure wine of Paradise (Quran

76:21; 83:25), itself a symbol of Heavenly bliss.

(7111) Shams-i Tabriz: literally, Shamsu d-Deen-é Tabreez, The

Sun of the Faith of Tabriz (a city now located in Iran).

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

ze-khâk-é man agar gandom bar-ây-ad 7102

az-ân gar nân paz-î mastî fezây-ad

 

khamîr-o nân-bâ dêwâna gard-ad

tanûr-ash bayt mast-âna serây-ad

 

agar bar gûr-é man ây-î ziyârat

to-râ khar-poshta-am raqSân nomây-ad

 

ma-y-â bê-daf ba-gûr-é man, barâdar!

7105

ke dar bazm-é khodâ gham-gîn na-shây-ad

 

zanokh bar basta-wo dar gûr khofta

dahân afyûn-o nuql-é yâr khây-ad

 

be-darr-î z-ân kafan bar sîna band-î

kharâbâtê ze-jân-at dar-goshây-ad

 

ze-har sô bâng-é jang-o chang-é mast-ân

ze-har kârê ba-lâ-bud kâr zây-ad

 

ma-râ Haq az may-é `ishq âfrîd-ast

ham-ân `ishq-am agar marg-am be-sây-ad

 

man-am mastî-wo aSl-é man may-é `ishq 7110

be-gô, az may ba-joz mastî che ây-ad

 

ba-burj-é rûH-é shamsu d-dîn-é tabrîz

be-par-ad rûH-é man yak-dam na-pây-ad

 

(meter: oXXX oXXX oXX)

 

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