Thursday, December 12, 2013

Our death will be our wedding with eternity

From Mawlānā Rūmīs Dīwān-i Shams (Ghazal 833, ll. 1-13)
   [Persian, 13th century]

Our death will be our wedding with eternity; 
   what is its secret? He is God, [He is] One.* 
Sunlight splits as it enters a houses windows; 
   close the windows, and numbers are gone. 
Numbers only exist in the cluster of grapes – 
   not in the sap which flows forth from them. 
To the one who lives under the light of God, 
   the death of this carnal soul is a blessing. 
Do not speak of bad or good concerning him, 
   for he has gone beyond both good and bad. 
Look to the Real, do not speak of the unseen, 
   until He adds to your sight another sight. 
To the earthly vision of these sensual eyes, 
   no unseen or secret thing can be revealed; 
yet when the eye reverts to the light of God, 
   how could anything hide under that light? 
Though all light shines from that eternal light, 
   do not call these lights the light of God
for the eternal light alone is the light of God; 
   transient light denotes but body and flesh. 
A fiery light glows in the eye of the creature – 
   save for that eye which the Real has ointed. 
Its fire once turned to light for Your friend,** 
   while reason shares its vision with the ass. 
O God, who bestows on us the grace of vision! 
   its bird flies to You on the wings of desire. 

*Qur’ān 112:1
**khalīl, i.e. Abraham

[my translation]
Persian text: http://ganjoor.net/moulavi/shams/ghazalsh/sh833/

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