The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Both the translations I have chosen are by Barks: Here follows a brief taste of what is to be discovered within. (I often assumed a poem I particularly liked was Bly, but when I checked, it was translated by Barks.) The Robert Bly translations are good-almost as good as his Kabir-and Coleman Barks are equally as good. This is a very short book, filled with evocative illustrations as well as poetry, but it is long enough for the reader to get a good idea of the passionate poetry of Rumi. What was the title he gave to his first great book? The Works of Shams Tabriz. Rumi eventually reconciled himself to the loss of his friend, but not before he poured out two thousand score of verses about his love for the Beloved. Perhaps he returned to the desert perhaps-I think this more likely-he was murdered by Rumi’s students, egged on by his envious son. Rumi communed with Shams for four years, conversing with him continually, until one day Shams just disappeared. Now I’m not suggesting that Shams and Rumi were lovers ( if I were, though, I would not be the first), but it is clear something about this wild desert holy man opened Rumi’s heart to the heart of the Beloved, the god who waits and dwells within us all.
Suddenly Shams Tabriz, a wandering dervish, wrapped in a ragged black cloak, pushes through the crowd, snatches up Rumi’s books, and throws them into the fountain! “Now go,” said Shams to Rumi, “go forth, and live what you have read!”Īnd it was then that Rumi fell passionately, completely, in love. Rumi and his students are sitting by a fountain (or a fishpond, depending on your version of the story), the master reading aloud to his students from his rare, illuminated spiritual books. In Turkey, the father came to be revered for his wisdom, and young Rumi was known as a seeker of wisdom too, and so, when his father died, the 24 year old Rumi became head of his father’s madrasa.įast forward a dozen years.
Rumi was born in 1207, on the eastern edge of Persia (now Afghanistan), but his father soon moved the family to Turkey in order to avoid the Mongol hordes. This is a beautiful little book, and offers an excellent introduction to the great Persian mystical poet usually referred to simply as Rumi. In Turkey, the father came to be revered for his wisdom, and young Rumi was known as a seeker of wisdom too, and so, when his father died, the 24 year old Rumi became head of his father’s madrasa.