On the day of death - Sheb i Aroos
when i die
when my coffin
is being taken out
you must never think
i am missing this world
don’t shed any tears
don’t lament or
feel sorry
i’m not falling
into a monster’s abyss
when you see
my corpse is being carried
don’t cry for my leaving
i’m not leaving
i’m arriving at eternal love
when you leave me
in the grave
don’t say goodbye
remember a grave is
only a curtain
for the paradise behind
you’ll only see me
descending into a grave
now watch me rise
how can there be an end
when the sun sets or
the moon goes down
it looks like the end
it seems like a sunset
but in reality it is a dawn
when the grave locks you up
that is when your soul is freed
have you ever seen
a seed fallen to earth
not rise with a new life
why should you doubt the rise
of a seed named human
have you ever seen
a bucket lowered into a well
coming back empty
why lament for a soul
when it can come back
like Joseph from the well
when for the last time
you close your mouth
your words and soul
will belong to the world of
no place no time
– Translation by Nader Khalili
“Rumi, Fountain of Fire”
Burning Gate Press, 1994.
December 28th, 2007
in
Poetry, Rumi, Arts & Culture, All My Posts, World Writers, Sufi poetry, World Literature, Sufism, Turkey |
December 28th, 2007 at 10:59 am
[…] On the day of death - Sheb i Aroos when i die when my coffin is being taken out you must never think i am missing this world don’t shed any tears don’t lament or feel sorry i’m not falling into a monster’s abyss when you see my corpse is being carried don’t cry for my … […]
December 28th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
“Ghalle aave Nanaka; sadde uthh jaaye”
(This can be roughly translated as, “We come into this world when we are sent here, O Nanak; we return when recalled (by the Almighty)”.)
December 29th, 2007 at 5:54 am
NoRaza, you and Rumi are wrong!!
To lament, to “miss the world” and loved ones is higher because it is more human.
“Yearning makes the heart grow deeper”
Saint Augustine.
or, perhaps Iqbal: even if you reveal your Face I’ll still take “perhaps” and “maybe” . Raza, have you seen ‘Wings of Desire’?
Keep well,
b.
December 29th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Quite inspirational! and timely as well because there is this growing need of inspirational cure for the grief stricken hearts of all of us who are seeing this country sliding deep and deep into the void of uncertainity.
May Allah console us!
December 30th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Yes indeed the message is clear that ideas buried under the chest cannot be erased by removing physical presence of someone. I say this especially when dreams live in the hearts of so many actually overwhelming majority.
While still grappling with utter sense of disbelief here in our tormented land, I felt quite consoled when i read this.
May God Save Us from Forces of Darkness & Hopelessness!
Thanks Raza for timely choosing to post beautiful words!!!
Z
December 30th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
An eloquent ode to death, the door to paradise.
However, the fact that death is not the end, cannot take away from the beauty that is life. These lyrics console the bereaved but cannot replace the dynamism of life.
I hope all is well with you and yours.
December 30th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Happy New Year Brother
May Allah bless you and your family this coming year with ever increasing love and wisdom 
Ameen.
And here is a death poem by al-Ghazali that says much the same thing, from a Darvish post:
http://darvish.wordpress.com/2007/12/27/lord-i-obey-willingly/
Ya Haqq!
January 1st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
# 3 Aadil Says:
December 29th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Quite inspirational! and timely as well because there is this growing need of inspirational cure for the grief stricken hearts of all of us who are seeing this country sliding deep and deep into the void of uncertainity.
May Allah console us
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Exactly!
truely captures the sentiments Raza.
January 2nd, 2008 at 3:30 am
Pakistan is in a chaos, and this beautiful poem is needed for some consolation - for all reasons and for no reasons. Loss is always sharp…
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:12 am
simply beautiful!
January 20th, 2008 at 6:23 am
what a masterpiece by Rumi!
loved it!