Please Help- Rumi question, wedding saturday! Thanks You!
henryn
I'm attempting to help a friend who is reading at her dear friend's wedding
this Saturday. She had heard a beautiful Rumi poem read once before at a
wedding and cannot find it now.
I've uncovered the following lines - she believes this is the one:
The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.
My question, is this part of a longer poem?
and/or could she be thinking of a similar poem?
If so, does anyone have them available?
all help would be much appreciated!
thanks so much,
Henry
geo...@my-deja.com
Hello Henry,
Just ran a search on that quote through Google. According
to one site, it's taken from the book, 'The Essential Rumi,
translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne' page 106(?).
Another site takes the quote from the book, 'Open Secret:
Versions of Rumi', translated by John Moyne - Quatrain 1246.
Perhaps someone who has a copy of either book could give
you more information. In any case, I'm sure at least one
would be available at you local bookstore.
Regards,
geosun
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
henryn
my deepest thanks,
i will tell her immediately!
henry
Ibrahim Gamard
The quote you are looking for is a version of a Rumi quatrain by
Coleman Barks, based on a literal translation from the Persian by John
Moyne. Barks does not know Persian and depends on the literal
translations of others for his popular poetic interpretations of Rumi's
poetry. The version was first published in "Open Secret," 1984, p. 19;
it was later published in "The Essential Rumi," p. 106.
A more accurate rendition was translated by Nevit Ergin in "Crazy As
We Are," 1992, p. 8. It was translated by Ergin from a Turkish
translation of Rumi's quatrains by a Turkish scholar (Golpinarli, who
translated from the original Persian):
Since I have heard of the world of Love,
I've spent my life, my heart
and my eyes this way.
I used to think that love
And beloved are different.
I know now they are the same.
I was seeing two in one.
Here's a rhymed translation by an Iranian-- Vaziri, "Beyond Sufism
and Sainthood," 1998, p. 48:
From the dawn when I heard the mystic love tale
I sacrificed my spirit, heart and sight to its trail
I wondered if the Lover and the Beloved were two
That have always been one; I was too green, too pale.
Here's a literal paraphrase of my own from the original Persian:
When the lover first heard the story of being in love, he wore out his
soul, heart and eyes in its path. He thought that perhaps the lover and
beloved were two. But he realized that both were one and he was seeing
double [= double vision].
As you can see, Coleman Barks' version is very interpretive and
different from Rumi's original words. Although attractively romantic, it
is mystical in a very narrow sense. Also, his version omits the
transcendent level of the spiritual yearning of the mystic lover for
union with God, the ultimate Beloved-- for it is a feature of sufi
Persian poetry that, while the human beloved may be addressed and
described, the Divine Beloved [= God) is often intended.
Here's the Barks' version you quoted:
>
> > The minute I heard my first love story
> > I started looking for you, not knowing
> > how blind that was.
> >
> > Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
> > They're in each other all along.
Best wishes for your friend's friend's wedding!
Ibrahim Gamard
sadie
"The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along."
"It's a poem in the larger poem 'Music Master', published in "Whoever
Brought Me Here Will Have to Take Me Home" - easy to find as a paperback
(Penguin/Arkana)
Anna
In article <20001012105633...@ng-fh1.aol.com>, henryn
<magi...@aol.comtakmeOut> writes
>Hello,
>
>I'm attempting to help a friend who is reading at her dear friend's wedding
>this Saturday. She had heard a beautiful Rumi poem read once before at a
>wedding and cannot find it now.
>
>I've uncovered the following lines - she believes this is the one:
>
>The minute I heard my first love story
>I started looking for you, not knowing
>how blind that was.
>
>Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
>They're in each other all along.
>
>
>My question, is this part of a longer poem?
>and/or could she be thinking of a similar poem?
>
>If so, does anyone have them available?
>
>all help would be much appreciated!
>thanks so much,
>Henry
>
>
--
sadie
henryn
(and all others)
thank you all for your help, here is the happy ending:
kim, my friend is on her way to boston this morning to give her speech at the
rehearsal dinner tonight, and i will supply her with the exact words she had
hoped to use.
thank you
henry
natashada...@gmail.com
David Dalton
(in article<9012e764-7df3-4dd4...@googlegroups.com>):
true of some other readers not on google groups, so what is the
quote in question?
I have crossposted this followup to the groups
soc.culture.iranian,alt.fan.jalaludin_rumi,rec.arts.poems,
and alt.arts.poetry.comments as well as the original
alt.sufi but have set Followup-To to alt.sufi (but some
who reply might override that so you could check the
first two groups as well at least).
--
David Dalton dal...@nfld.com http://www.nfld.com/~dalton (home page)
http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page)
“‘Early morning jubilators/Up to no good instigators.../Sons of long
forgotten races/That the darkest night embraces.” (Hynes/O'Doherty)