Rumi quote
Susan McCaffrey
You will see stars and moon
mirrored in your being." Rumi
I'm trying to find the source for attribution of the quote above. Any
help pointing me in the right direction would be appreciated.
Susan McCaffrey
Ibrahim Gamard
A Kelley Lynch sent me an e-mail recently about this verse ("Let the
waters settle, you will see stars and moon mirrored in your being").
Lines like this are very difficult to trace, but I lucked-out and
was able to find it.
I thought it sounded like something from Rumi's book, "The
Mathnawi," and that it was not a literal translation, since Rumi does
not use "mirror" as a verb. So I thought that perhaps Coleman Barks or
Kabir & Camille Helminski produced a version substituting the word
"mirrored" for "reflected" from Nicholson's literal translation of the
book. I then looked in my Persian concordance of the Mathnawi ("Az
Daryā ba-Daryā"-- From Ocean to Ocean) and looked for passages that had
"moon and stars" or stars and moon" and found the following lines in the
Mathnawi:
"God gave you the polisher of (Pure) Reason, so that the pages of
the heart may become luminous by means of it. O prayerless one, you have
bound up the polisher and have released the two hands of craving. If
bonds are placed on craving (instead), the hands of the polisher will be
released. If a piece of iron was the mirror for the Invisible, all forms
would be sent into it. (But) you made (the mirror of your heart) dark
and you gave rust to (your) nature: this is the meaning of (the verse)
"they strive to spread corruption on earth" [Qur'ān, 5:36]. Until now,
you have done it like this; now, don't do it . You have made the water
muddy; don't make it more so. Don't mix it up, so that this water may
become clear, and (so that) you may see the moon and stars circling in
it!"
--[Mathnawi, Book 4, lines 2475-2481, my translation, based on
Nicholson]
Therefore the line you asked about is in Rumi's famous poetic work
of mystical teachings, "The Mathnawi," 4:2481. You may be able to find
the particular version of the line which you quoted by checking Barks'
or Helminski's citations for Book 4. I looked in Barks' "The Essential
Rumi" but could not find it.
I also found this line: "The water in this stream has been changed
many times, (but) the reflection of the moon and the reflection of the
stars is constant." (Mathnawi, Book 6, line 3178)
If you have access to Nicholson's three-volume translation, you will
be greatly rewarded by studying the wealth of mystical wisdom before and
after these two quotes.
Best wishes,
Ibrahim Gamard
Kelley Lynch wrote:
> Dear Ibrahim Gamard,
> I saw your note on the newsgroup and was wondering if you might know
> where the lines of Rumi's -- "Let the waters settle, you will see
> stars
> and moon mirrored in your being" come from in his works.
> Thank you,
> Kelley Lynch