SELECTED POEMS BY JALAL AD-DIN RUMI

A Guesthouse This being human is a guesthouse. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight . . . Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. ________________________________________________________________________ Old Age Why does a date-palm lose its leaves in autumn? Why does every beautiful face grow in old age Wrinkled like the back of a Libyan lizard? Why does a full head of hair get bald? Why is it that the Lion's strength weakens to nothing? The wrestler who could hold anyone down Is led out with two people supporting him, Their shoulders under his arms? God answers, They put on borrowed robes And pretended they were theirs. I take the beautiful clothes back, So that you will learn the robe Of appearance is only a loan. Your lamp was lit from another lamp. All God wants is your gratitude for that. ________________________________________________________________________

A Man Talking to his House I say that no one in this caravan is awake and that while you sleep, a thief is stealing the signs and symbols of what you thought was your life. Now you're angry with me for telling you this! Pay attention to those who hurt your feelings telling you the truth. Giving and absorbing compliments is like trying to paint on water, that insubstantial. Here is how a man once talked with his house, Please, if you're ever about to collapse, let me know. One night without a word the house fell. What happened to our agreement? The house answered, Day and night I've been telling you with cracks and broken boards and holes appearing like mouths opening. But you kept patching and filling those with mud, so proud of your stopgap masonry. You didn't listen. This house is your body always saying, I'm leaving; I'm going soon. Don't hide from one who knows the secret. ________________________________________________________________________ Quatrains For years, copying other people, I tried to know myself. From within, I couldn't decide what to do. Unable to see, I heard my name being called. Then I walked outside. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep. ________________________________________________________________________

Say Yes Quickly Forget your life. Say God is Great. Get up. You think you know what time it is. It's time to pray. You've carved so many little figurines, too many. Don't knock on any random door like a beggar. Reach your long hands out to another door, beyond where you go on the street, the street where everyone says, "How are you?" and no one says How aren't you? Tomorrow you'll see what you've broken and torn tonight, thrashing in the dark. Inside you there's an artist you don't know about. He's not interested in how things look different in moonlight. If you are here unfaithfully with us, you're causing terrible damage. If you've opened your loving to God's love, you're helping people you don't know and have never seen. Is what I say true? Say yes quickly, if you know, if you've known it from before the beginning of the universe. ________________________________________________________________________ The Field Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense. ________________________________________________________________________ Today, like every other day, we woke up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. ________________________________________________________________________

Those Who Don't Feel This Love

Those who don't feel this love pulling them like a river Those who don't drink dawn like a cup of spring water or take sunset like supper Those who don't want to change Let them sleep. This Love is beyond the study of theology that old and trickery and hypocrisy If you want to improve your mind that way Sleep on. I've given up on my brain I've torn the cloth to shreds and thrown it away. If you're not completely naked wrap your beautiful robe of words around you and sleep.