Andrew Harvey's Quatrain versions
Ibrahim Gamard
"Ruminations" mailing list about Andrew Harvey's versions of Rumi and
how much of what he produces is as much his own messages as it is of
Rumi's. I agree with this.
For all the praises on the book jackets about what a brillian
scholar Harvey became, at such a young age, etc., I find his work on
Rumi extremely sloppy, and very distorted by his Hinduizations-- as well
as by his homosexual biases.
He does not directly claim in his books that Rumi's relationship
with Shams was a homosexual one, but he seems to suggest it in his
versions of Rumi's poetry in his various books (which more recently
refer to Harvey's "husband"). A friend of mine, who is a local leader of
the Mevlevi sufis, wrote: "In San Francisco, for example, Andrew Harvey
frequently holds well publicized and attended lectures premising that
Mevlana and Shems-i-Tabriz (may God be pleased with them both, and exalt
their stations!) were (May Allah forgive me for repeating it!)
homosexual lovers..." There is no evidence whatsoever that this
extraordinary relationship with his spiritual master was a homosexual
one. To believe otherwise is a misunderstanding and lack of knowledge of
the traditional symbolism of "lover and beloved" in the Islamic Persian
culture of Rumi's era.
It would seem that Harvey, also known for the emotional intensity of
his public readings of Rumi, is using Rumi's poetry and an
interpretation of Rumi's relationship with Shams in order to further his
own agenda: of developing a new type of revolutionary mysticism which is
in harmony with the spirituality of the "Divine Mother," as he
interprets it. (This, after becoming disillusioned by his former guru,
Mother Meera, who told him that homosexuality is not sanctioned by
Hinduism). Harvey's mysticism advocates a passionate divine love which
is alternative to that of the "patriarchal religions" which he so
condemns. Harvey seems to believe that only human power can save "Mother
Earth" from destruction, and he uses his interpretation of Rumi in a
highly pitched anxious manner in order to promote a kind of passionate
love for the divine as the way to motivate people to rescue the planet
from the current ecological crises (in "The Way of Passion"). All this
has little to do with Rumi's religious mysticism, which is an
extraordinary intrepretation of Quranic and other traditional Islamic
themes.
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Another attempt at making "versions" of the quatrains was done by
Andrew Harvey in three books (1988, 1989, and 1996), many of which are
also included in a third book (1994).35 He called them "re-creations,"
stated that most were "adapted" from Mawlana's Quatrains and that some
were taken from Mawlana's other works. Since all his poems are
quatrain-like with four lines, the number of total quatrains is unclear.
And since he deliberately omitted citations, it is difficult to trace
his versions and compare them to the original Persian. He described his
work as the result of help from scholars and various translations in
European languages, especially those in the French translation of Eva de
Vitray Meyerovitch.36 Some of his translations of quatrains which were
traceable are moderately faithful to the Persian; others are grossly
distorted.37 Sometimes he tries so hard to convey the passion in
Mawlana's mysticism that he makes a good translation worse: "When in my
heart the lightning of love arises / I know it is flashing and rearing
in His heart also./ And when in ecstasy I can say only His Name/ I know
that it is His Passion that erupts from me."38 [Nicholson's translation:
"When the lightning of love for the beloved has shot into this heart,
know that there is love in that heart. When love for God has been
doubled in thy heart, without any doubt God hath love for thee."]39
Harvey, like Barks, disregards the fact that Mawlana was a devout
Muslim. Harvey's knowledge about Islam, the Qur'an, and the Prophet
Muhammad is defective and his anti-religious bias is obvious: "Mohammed
wasn't a Muslim, Buddha wasn't a Buddhist, and Christ wasn't a
Christian! So how could Rumi be a Muslim? Religions are a cosmic
disaster because immediately when the sacred fire is lit, somebody
steals it to illuminate some grim old sanctuary."40 Apparently ignorant
of the universal Islamic belief that Muhammad was the final prophet, he
declares, "Rumi is a prophet, talking to us with poetry to inspire our
transformation."41 He, like many Westerners, tries to elevate sufism
(Islamic mysticism) as a universal religion of love, distinct from
"orthodox Islam." For example, he mistranslates part of a quatrain as a
rejection of Islamic religious laws in a way reminiscent of the
Christian rejection of the laws of Judaism: "Tell the night 'Our day has
no night; Our religion has no law but love'"42 [correct translation:
"Repeat until night: 'Our days have no nights/ In the path of Love, and
Love has no rules'"].43 At the time he wrote these books, Harvey was the
disciple of a Hindu guru (the "Divine Mother") and his understanding of
Mawlana is distorted by ideas about "avatars." He seems unaware of the
primary teaching of Islam that there is nothing divine except God. For
example, he calls Mawlana a "divinized Master"44 and suggested that he
"has spent an entire lifetime, many lifetimes probably" to give
teachings to the human race.45 "Rumi's compassion is infinite."46 He
claims that Mawlana's spiritual teacher, Shams-i Tabriz, was "the equal
of Jesus and Muhammad, inseparable from God Himself"47 and "a man who
became divinized."48 "He understood that Shams was an Incarnation.
Although Islam does not accredit incarnation, there is no doubt that
Shams was experienced by Rumi as a living vessel of the Divine."49 "Rumi
knows that Shams' glory fills the universe."50. Harvey also expressed
exaggerated views about the relationship between Mawlana and Shams-i
Tabriz -- "these two supreme lovers"51 whose mutual love "is the supreme
human love affair" and "a transmisson of sacred identity, in ecstasy, to
the entire human race. And they both knew it."52 He failed to appreciate
that, for Mawlana, the human beloved is a symbol for God; his adoration
is for God alone.
In addition, Harvey's attempts to interpret a "sensual" aspect
within the quatrains are also unjustified: "This miracle, daily as dawn
and sundown/ Normal as bread, as sleep after love"53 "Last night I
touched your beauty/ Woke an alchemist"54 [correct translation: "I was
copper. It (love) seized me like an alchemical elixir. I searched for
him with a thousand hands"].55 "Take in, coquette, this sad-eyed shabby
client/ Embrace, flawless full moon, my boiling darkness"56 [correct
translation: "O seller of amorousness, adapt to the customer./ O Moon of
Perfection, adapt to the dark night"].57 "We walk in dazedly, where
being here/ Or there, in time or not, are only/ Two motions of the same
ecstatic breathing."58 "Tonight is the night; sad, radiant,/ When our
mysteries are fulfilled./ All my mysteries are images of you --/ Night,
be long! He and I are lost in Love."59 [Correct translation, which
expresses the real theme of separation: "Tonight is my night (for being)
very helpless and miserable./ Tonight is the night (for being) occupied
with secrets./ The secrets of my heart are all thoughts of (my)
beloved./ O night, don't pass quickly, for there is work for me (to
do)."]60 "Your body is more subtle than soul or heart. . . How long the
sun and moon have been turning / Day and night, just to spend one night
with You"61 [Correct translation: "Your (bodily) form is more exquisite
than the heart and soul. . . The sun and moon have been circling for
ages, / (For) days and nights, in desire for your night."]62
NOTES
35. Love's Fire, 1988, Speaking Flame,1989, and Love's Glory, 1996. Each
book contains 108 poems. By means of a computer search of English
translation words, 45 quatrains in the first book, 24 quatrains in the
second book, and 18 in the third book were traced as corresponding to
Faruzanfar's text. About 70 of Harvey's versions from the first two
books are included in The Way of Passion, 1994 (pp. 54-72, 91-108,
264-274).
36. in Harvey's prefaces to his three books.
37. In the selections chosen here, there are no differences between the
"pseudo-Faruzanfar" (Isfahan) text and the Faruzanfar text.
38. Harvey, 1996, p. 50. This is a "re-creation" of two couplets from
the Mathnawi presented in four lines, as if it were a quatrain.
39. Mathnawi, III: 4395-4396, trans. by Nicholson, p. 245, Vol. 4.
40. Harvey, 1994, p. 151-152.
41. Harvey, 1994, p. 158.
42. Harvey, 1988, p. 47.
43. See our translation of F. 375.+++
44. Harvey, 1994, p. 18.
45. Harvey, 1994, p. 47.
46. Harvey, 1994, p. 123.
47. Harvey, 1994, p. 21.
48. Harvey, 1994, p. 23, 35.
49. Harvey, 1994, p. 81.
50. Harvey, 1994, p. 82.
51. Harvey, 1994, p. 97.
52. Harvey, 1994, p. 77.
53. Harvey, 1989, p. 89. These lines appear to be fabricated, while
the last two lines are translated accurately. See our translation of
F-1256, numbered here as No. XXX.+++
54. Harvey, 1989, p. 71.
55. See our No. XX (F-411).
56. Harvey, 1989, p. 21.
57. See our No. XX (F-994).+++
58. Harvey, 1989, p. 102. This selection was not traceable, but Harvey
clearly
misunderstood a common Persian idiom, "ham-dam" (lit., "same breath"),
which means "close companion."
59. Harvey, 1988, p. 57 and in 1994, p. 96.
60. See our No. XX (F-204).+++
61. Harvey, 1996, p. 65.
62. See our No. XX (F-1529).+++
--adapted from the Introduction to "The Quatrains of Rumi," an
unpublished manuscript of translations and explanatory notes by Ibrahim
Gamard and Ravan Farhadi.