Rumi (Jelaluddin Mevlana Rumi), arguably the greatest mystical poet ever, was born in 1207 C.E. on the Eastern shores of the Persian Empire, then Afghanistan, and settled in present-day Turkey. Over a period of 25 years, he composed over 70,000 verses of poetry about divine love, mystic passion, and ecstatic illumination. In recent times, Rumi's work has experienced a renaissance across the globe and is the most widely read poet in America today. Although Rumi was a Sufi and a great scholar of the Qu’ran, his words reach across religious and social divisions. Even in his own time, he was known as a cosmopolitan. His funeral, which lasted 40 days, was attended by Christians, Muslims, Jews, Persians, and Greeks.
In the year 2007 (Rumi's 800th birthday), the International Year of Rumi, I went to Arizona for a week-long retreat and learned to meditate using Square Breath, a Sufi practice. It was unlike anything else I have experienced before, centering first on one’s breathing, then on one’s heartbeat, then bringing them in sync. It's an experience of one's own person becoming an expression of gratitude for the gift of life.
You might be familiar with his poem Guest House which talks about welcoming our emotions. But the stem-cell emotion of all emotions is an emotion of being alive, and I call it being lovedrunk. Rumi would say, "stain your prayer rug with wine." So, I did just that this week. I got lovedrunk.
Thinking is not enough, you see. It's too small for us. If we were to heal and evolve our world, we must feel the gift of life. The change artists of all ages managed to stay sane at the times when "rational" people lost their minds and warred with one another.
I have to admit that my attempt to summarize Rumi's work for myself or others has been frustrating. After years of spotty reading with sporadic stretches of deep study, I threw up my hands and identified with Attar, a Sufi master, who commented about Rumi: "There goes a river dragging an ocean behind it."
One of the most brilliant translators of Rumi into English is Coleman Barks. With his “good ol' boy” soft Southern voice, he can, paradoxically, transport you to Persia, Afghanistan, and Turkey of the Middle Ages. This connection between the contemporary American South and the ancient Middle East has been one of the most fitting global matches of spirit I have ever experienced.
Author Robert Bly says of Coleman: "One of the greatest pieces of good luck that have happened recently in American poetry is Coleman Barks' agreement to translate poem after poem of Rumi. Coleman's exquisite sensitivity to the flavor and turns of ordinary American speech has produced marvelous lines, full of flavor and Sufi humor, as well as the intimacy that is carried inside American speech at its best."
Here are the readings of three Rumi's poems, by Coleman. Poems like these might lead you to the threshold between the two worlds. If you take this mystic path, you will emerge on the other side first crawling, then walking, then "spreading your great silent wings."
Let’s start with rapturous:
And now a bit of holy mixed with racy:
Get lovedrunk with the mystics of the ages, and of today. Explore. There are thousands of verses like these. May their whole, provocative, dangling, passionate words never give you peace.