Tag Archives: Sufi Poetry
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THE AWAKENING

By Jalaluddin Rumi

THE AWAKENING

In the early dawn of happiness
you gave me three kisses
so that I would wake up
to this moment of love

I tried to remember in my heart
what I’d dreamt about
during the night
before I became aware
of this moving
of life

I found my dreams
but the moon took me away
It lifted me up to the firmament
and suspended me there
I saw how my heart had fallen
on your path
singing a song

Between my love and my heart
things were happening which
slowly slowly
made me recall everything

You amuse me with your touch
although I can’t see your hands.
You have kissed me with tenderness
although I haven’t seen your lips
You are hidden from me.

But it is you who keeps me alive

Perhaps the time will come
when you will tire of kisses
I shall be happy
even for insults from you
I only ask that you
keep some attention on me

Translations by Farsi scholar Fereydoun Kia

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A Poem by Hafez

The Poetry Of Hafiz

Hafiz, a Sufi poet, expressed in poetry love for the divine, and the intoxicating oneness of union with it.  Hafiz, along with many Sufi masters, uses wine as the symbol for love. The intoxication that results from both is why it is such a fitting comparison. Hafiz spoke out about the hypocrisy and deceit that exists in society, and was more outspoken in pointing this out than many poets similar to him.

 

Like The Morning Breeze

Like the morning breeze, if you bring to the morning good deeds,

The rose of our desire will open and bloom.

Go forward, and make advances down this road of love;

In forward motion, the pain is great.

To beg at the door of the Winehouse is a wonderful alchemy.

If you practice this, soon you will be converting dust into gold.

O heart, if only once you experience the light of purity,

Like a laughing candle, you can abandon the life you live in your head.

But if you are still yearning for cheap wine and a beautiful face,

Don’t go out looking for an enlightened job.

Hafiz, if you are listening to this good advice,

The road of Love and its enrichment are right around the curve.

From: Drunk on the Wind of the Beloved

Translated by Thomas Rain Crowe

Painting by Mohammad Bagher Aghamiri

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Hafiz-I Know The Way You Can Get

I know the way you can get

When you have not had a drink of Love:

 

Your face hardens,

Your sweet muscles cramp.

Children become concerned

About a strange look that appears in your eyes

Which even begins to worry your own mirror

And nose.

 

Squirrels and birds sense your sadness

And call an important conference in a tall tree.

They decide which secret code to chant

To help your mind and soul.

 

Even angels fear that brand of madness

That arrays itself against the world

And throws sharp stones and spears into

The innocent

And into one’s self.

 

O I know the way you can get

If you have not been drinking Love:

 

You might rip apart

Every sentence your friends and teachers say,

Looking for hidden clauses.

 

You might weigh every word on a scale

Like a dead fish.

 

You might pull out a ruler to measure

From every angle in your darkness

The beautiful dimensions of a heart you once

Trusted.

 

I know the way you can get

If you have not had a drink from Love’s

Hands.

 

That is why all the Great Ones speak of

The vital need

To keep remembering God,

So you will come to know and see Him

As being so Playful

And Wanting,

Just Wanting to help.

 

That is why Hafiz says:

Bring your cup near me.

For all I care about

Is quenching your thirst for freedom!

 

All a Sane man can ever care about

Is giving Love!

 

From: ‘I Heard God Laughing – Renderings of Hafiz’

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Painting Mohammad Bagher Aghamiri, Caresses "Navazesh" (1985)

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Love says, “Be silent. I will beguile him with the soul.”

By Jalaluddin Rumi Reason says, “I will beguile him with the tongue;” Love says, “Be silent. I will beguile him with the soul.” The soul says to the heart, “Go, do not laugh at me and yourself. What is there that is not his, that I may beguile him thereby?” He is not sorrowful and […]

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A Poem: Confused and Distraught

By Jalaluddin Rumi

Again I am raging, I am in such a state by your soul that every
bond you bind, I break, by your soul.
I am like heaven, like the moon, like a candle by your glow;

I am all reason, all love, all soul, by your soul.
My joy is of your doing, my hangover of your thorn;

whatever side you turn your face, I turn mine, by your soul.
I spoke in error; it is not surprising to speak in error in this
state, for this moment I cannot tell cup from wine, by your soul.
I am that madman in bonds who binds the “divs”;

I, the madman, am a Solomon with the “divs”, by your soul.
Whatever form other than love raises up its head from my
heart, forthwith I drive it out of the court of my heart, by your soul.

Come, you who have departed, for the thing that departs comes back;

neither you are that, by my soul, nor I am that, by your soul.
Disbeliever, do not conceal disbelief in your soul, for I will recite
the secret of your destiny, by your soul.

Out of love of Sham-e Tabrizi, through wakefulness or
nightrising, like a spinning mote I am distraught, by your soul.

Translation By A. J. Arberry

Rumi Poem: A Thief In The Night

A THIEF IN THE NIGHT Suddenly (yet somehow unexpected) he arrived the guest… the heart trembling “Who’s there?” and soul responding “The Moon…” came into the house and we lunatics ran into the street stared up looking for the moon. Then-inside the house- he cried out “Here I am!” and we beyond earshot running around […]

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A Superb Eastern Musician:Erkan Ogur

Erkan Ogur, a composer, he has influenced many musicians with his compositions combining the sounds of Turkish folk music, classical music with the ancient traditional music. Erkan Oğur, or  Erkan Ogur in the West, (born 1954) is a Turkish musician. A pioneer of fretless guitars, he  invented the first fretless classical guitar in 1976.  He […]

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Rumi: The Root of the Root of Your Self

Don’t go away, come near.
Don’t be faithless, be faithful.
Find the antidote in the venom.

Come to the root of the root of yourself.
Molded of clay, yet kneaded
from the substance of certainty,
a guard at the Treasury of Holy Light—
come, return to the root of the root of your Self.

Once you get hold of selflessness,
you’ll be dragged from your ego
and freed from many traps.
Come, return to the root of the root of your Self.

You are born from the children of God’s creation,
but you have fixed your sight too low.
How can you be happy?
Come, return to the root of the root of your Self.

Although you are a talisman protecting a treasure,
you are also the mine.
Open your hidden eyes
and come to the root of the root of your Self.

 

You were born from a ray of God’s majesty
and have the blessings of a good star.
Why suffer at the hands of things that don’t exist?
Come, return to the root of the root of your Self.

You are a ruby embedded in granite.
How long will you pretend it isn’t true?
We can see it in your eyes.
Come to the root of the root of your Self.

You came here from the presence of that fine Friend,
a little drunk, but gentle, stealing our hearts
with that look so full of fire; so,
come, return to the root of the root of your Self.

Our master and host, Shamsi Tabrizi,
has put the eternal cup before you.
Glory be to God, what a rare wine!
So come, return to the root of the root of your Self.

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“If” by Rudyard Kipling

“If” If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or […]

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The Sufi use of Music By Hazrat Inayat Khan

It goes without saying that one of the ways of recognizing the beauty around us is listening to a stirring piece of music. Previously, I have posted the guitarist Gasbarroni playing “Recuredos de l’Alhambra” (Memories of the Alhambra, authored by Francisco Tarrega). I thought that  today we would look at one of the spiritual consequences […]

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