Help with translation of Forouzanfar 374

[Zanon]

Hi there

I'm wondering if anyone can point me to a literal translation of this Rumi poem:

The reference is #374: From Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Edited by Badiozzaman Forouzanfar (Tehran, Amir Kabir, 1988).

https://iranian.com/Arts/Rumi/374.html

but I'm not a Rumi scholar and I've found it difficult to track this down myself.

Thank you!

[Ibrahim]

Here is  a more literal translation:

گر جُملهٔ آفاق همه غم بِگْرِفت                     بی غم بوَد آن كِه عشْق مُحْكَم بِگْرفت

یك ذرّه نِگر ، كه پای در عشق بِكوفت           آن ذرّه چُنان شد ، كه دو عالم بِگْرفت

 

Even if all the horizons have been conquered by every sorrow,

The one who has held firmly to Love is free of sorrow.

Observe a single mote of dust that has danced in love:*1

That mote has become such that it has conquered this world and the next.2

913 (F-410)

*1: refers to motes of dust that appear to be "dancing" in a beam of sunlight.

2: lit., the two worlds [dō jahān]

-----From "The Quatrains of Rumi," translated by Ibrahim Gamard and Ravan Farhadi, 2008, p. 284

-----The differences in text and quatrain number are because the two-volume "Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi" contains an inferior edition of the quatrains (previously published in Isfahan) and is not the same as Forūzānfar's authentic edition of the quatrains in volume 8 of the ten-volume "Kolliyāt-e Shams yā Dīvān-e Kabīr"

Ibrahim Gamard 

[Zanon]

Thank you so much! I appreciate your help : )

One final question, when the poem uses the word "love" (عشْق) is that usually translated as love of God (agape) or love of a person (pragma, storge, philia, etc.)?

From the context of the poem it could go either way, and I don't know how this topic is usualy handled.

Thank you again!

-Zimran

[Ibrahim]

"The one who has held firmly to Love is free of sorrow" means divine Love and love of God. That's why I capitalized "Love" in the translation. Rumi followed the Sufi path of Love, established several centuries before his time. It was exemplified by the woman Sufi, Rabī'ah al-Adawiyya of Basrah (8th century), who famously prayed: "If I worship Thee for fear of Hell, then burn me in Hell, and if I worship Thee in hope of  Paradise, exclude me from Paradise; but if I worship Thee for Thy own sake, grudge me not Thy everlasting beauty." (trans. Arberry)

In the school of Love, God is the "Beloved," the worshipper is the "lover," and love is what unites the lover with the Beloved. ("Union" with God is a metaphor for the attainment of nearness [qurbat} with God.) At an earlier stage, love may "unite" the Sufi disciple [murīd] first with the human beloved, or Sufi master [murshid], leading to the goal of "annihilation in the master." After that, the seeker focusses on love of God alone, leading to the goal of "annihilation in God." This was the path of Rumi: his poems in his Dīvān were mostly directed to love of his Sufi master, Shams-e Tabrīzī. But in his later work, the Masnavi, he only mentioned the name of Shams a few times.

Some of his poems are clearly addressed to Shams, in terms of spiritual love and magnification of his attributes as reflected in the many beautiful things in creation; other poems and verses are clearly addressed to God and His Attributes; other poems or verses are ambiguous and may be either or both at the same time. This ambiguity is characteristic of Persian poetry; it  is also a feature of Persian pronouns, such as "ū," which can mean "he," "she," or "it"; and "mā," which can mean the "divine" or "royal" plural, "us/Us" and "we/We," or  the singular, "I" or "me/Me."

Ibrahim

[Salman Kureishy]

With all due respect, here is my take: persian poetry allows "love" , "ishq" and "beloved" to be used both for human as well as divine love. Even Rumi, in some of his poems, allows this to be interpreted in both ways. I know one of his poems which is clearly about earthly and human beloved. See Ghazal # 1826, Furozanfer) I quote from Fatemeh Keshavarz’s translation and discussion of the ghazal # 1826 in Reading Mystical Lyric (Chapter 8, p 146) . I believe one should respect alternative views and perspectives, specially of scholars like Fatemeh Keshavarz. THe extract below is from her book

( هر کی ز حور پرسدت رخ بنما که همچنین-- هر کی ز ماه گویدت بام برآ که همچنین)

 

If anyone asks you about the Houris, show your face, say: like this!

If anyone asks you about the moon, climb up on the roof, say: like this!

If anyone seeks a fairy, let them see your countenance,

If anyone talks about the aroma of musk, untie your hair [and] say: like this!

       If anyone asks:  “How do the clouds uncover the moon?" untie the front of your robe, knot by knot, say: like this!

        If anyone asks: "How did Jesus raise the dead?" kiss me on the lips, say: like this!

      

 

Rumi's brand of mysticism was a multifaceted one. It involved .. .  a specific interest in evoking  carnal and  sensual experience. Instead of  promoting  the view  that  one has to transcend  the human  level to experience the  mystical,  Rumi  tended  to  see  the  mystical  as just  an  aspect  of  the human  experience. With characteristic  boldness  he  crossed  the borderline between  the  spiritual  and  the  carnal  to  emphasize  that  the  two  were  indeed  one  and  the  same,  a view he expressed  directly  in  his didactic  Masnavi:1:111

 

“Love whether of this kind or that kind,

Shall ultimately guide us to the king."

 

In his poem, he preserves sensuality pre­cisely because he wishes it to be understood in ordinary human terms rather than in a vague and generalized fashion…The line that draws a parallel between the disrobing of the beloved and the appearance of the moon from behind the clouds derives its poetic force from the tension between celestial gravity and human physical attraction.

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[Zanon]

Perfect -- thank you!

[Christopher Starbuck]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnPbneUdjcs

with blessings to all :)

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