I found Roses in Konya… 2/3
And, now a few selected verses from Rumi:
I have come so that, tugging your ear, I may draw you to me, unheart and unself you, plant you in my heart and soul.
Rosebush, I have come a sweet springtide unto you,
to seize you very gently in my embrace and squeeze you.
I have come to adorn you in this worldly abode,
to convey you above the skies like lovers’ prayers.
I have come because you stole a kiss from an idol fair;
give it back with a glad heart, master, for I will seize you back.
What is a mere rose? You are the All,
you are the speaker of the command “Say”.
If no one else knows you, since you are I, I know you….
(Translation by A.J. Arberry)
And a modern translation of some more timeless verses:
When the rose is gone and the garden faded,
you will no longer hear the nightingale’s song.
The Beloved is all; the lover just a veil.
The Beloved is living; the lover a dead thing.
If love withholds its strengthening care,
the lover is left like a bird without care,
the lover is left like a bird without wings.
How will I be awake and aware
if the light of the Beloved is absent?
Love wills that this Word be brought forth
(Translation by E.H.Winfield)
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