RUMI 5

[Guest guest]

RESURRECTION

 

Look at me, as you’re my companion in this jail,

On the night when you’ll stop shopping and cease living,

You’ll hear my ‘hello’ in the hollow of the tomb,

I shall be known, you were never hidden from my sight.

 

I am reason , intellect and discrimination within your skull

At times of rejoicing and celebration, and at sorrow and distress .

 

Oh dark night when you hear that familiar voice

That teaches escape from snakes and the fear of ants.

 

Love’s divine drunkeness will bring your grave a great gift,

Wine, the Beloved, ethereal light , sweets and incense,

In that sacred hour when your spiritual lamp is lit .

 

What a cry goes up from the dead in their mausoleums,

The very earth is disturbed by their wails and groans .

 

By the beat of resurrection drums, and the dead arising,

They have rent their sackcloths and waxed their ears in fright.

What can brain and ear achieve before the trumpet blast ?

 

Look to your sight, see the seer, seeing and seen are One.

To whatever side you survey, you’ll spy my form,

Whether you turn inward and gaze deeply into your Self

Or look outwards towards that hurly burly world.

 

So shun distorted vison and heal your blindness,

For a perverted eye can’t view the Lord’s beauty.

Beware lest you mistake my human shape for ‘Thatâ€.

 

The Spirit is highly subtle and love is very jealous.

What room is there for form if feelings are a hundred?

It’s the rays of the Soul’s mirror that reveal a world,

Had folk sought God and Self instead of goods and wealth

You wouldn’t see any blind men sitting on the cliff’s edge.

 

Since you set up house as a dealer in loving glances,

Give them freely, like light, with lips closed tight.

 

I keep silent and hold the unworthy in the dark,

All of you are fit, but the full mystery is still veiled.

Wake up, like the Sun of Tabriz towards the East

See the glorious dawn of triumph and the victor’s flag!

 

 

From versifications of Rumi from the Mathnawi

Alan Jacobs