"Shine like the whole universe is yours"

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Ibrahim

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Dec 5, 2015, 4:12:48 PM12/5/15
to Dar-al-Masnavi
My sister sent me this one, on a greeting card for my wedding anniversary. She wrote: "Please forgive the fake Rumi. Rumi probably said something else and I'm sure you would know."

It is from a book of poetic versions by Jonathan Star, "Rumi: In The Arms of the Beloved," 1997, pp. 271-73. Star, who does not know Persian, usually relies on translations from Persian by Shahram Shiva, but in this case, per word borrowings, I suspect that he has reinterpreted Arberry's accurate translation from Persian, which ends:

Beat the drum, and wind towards the minstrels of the city; it is the day of purification to the grown lads of the road of Love.

Had they sought God, instead of morsel and pence, you would not have seen one blind man seated on the edge of the moat.

What sort of ogling-house have you opened in our city! Mouth shut, shoot out glances, like light.

--Rumi's Ghazal no. 1145, translated by A.J. Arberry, "Mystical Poems of Rumi," 2008

http://ganjoor.net/moulavi/shams/ghazalsh/sh1145/


Although in most cases, Rumi ends his ghazal poems with mentions or allusions to his spiritual master, Shams (the Sun) of Tabriz, at other times he ends these poems with an appeal to silence, as in this ghazal. Perhaps Star thought that a reference to Shams was "missing" at the end of this poem; in any case, he added (= fabricated) one:



Beat the drum,
Follow the minstrels of the city.
It's a day of renewal
when every young man
walks boldly on the path of love.
Had everyone sought God
Instead of crumbs and copper coins
T'hey would not be sitting on the edge of the moat
in darkness and regret.
What kind of gossip-house
have you opened in our city?
Close your lips
and shine on the world 
like loving sunlight.
Shine like the Sun of Tabriz rising in the East.
Shine like the star of victory.
Shine like the whole universe is yours!




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