Re: [Dar-al-Masnavi] Regarding The Farsi Script of a famous poem.

[Ibrahim Gamard]

Dear Ashraf,
Salâm,

This "famous Rumi poem" is very distorted from the original (Mawlana
Rumi's quatrain no. 395); it is, as you can see below, more Barks than
Rumi. Since he does not know Persian, Coleman Barks' renditions should
not be called translations, but poetic interpretive versions, literary
adaptations, partial paraphrases, and so on.

"Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, There is a field.
I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world
is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase 'each
other' doesn't make any sense."30 [accurate translation: "Beyond Islam
and unbelief there is a 'desert plain.' For us, there is a 'passion'
in the midst of that expanse. The knower [of God] who reaches there
will prostrate [in prayer],/ (For) there is neither Islam nor
unbelief, nor any 'where' (in) that place."] [az kufr-o ze-islâm
berûn, SaHrâyê-st mâ-râ ba-meyân-é ân faZâ, sawdâyê-st `ârif chô
ba-d-ân rasîd sar-râ be-neh-ad nay kufr-o na islâm, na ân-jâ jâyê-st]

This is a version (not a translation) by Barks (based on Moyne, the
actual translator from Persian), "Open Secret," p. 8 (b), re-printed
in "The Essential Rumi," p. 36. Comment: This poem is not about going
"beyond good and evil." Rather, it is about the mystic's going beyond
the limitations of the mind and its beliefs (in favor of this, against
that) and going directly to Divine Realities. It is not a rejection of
Islam. Rather, it means, "Go beyond your beliefs about whether the
'sun' exists or not: just look at it directly." Here is Barks'
explanation of his reasons for altering the meaning: "For example,
Barks says he rewrote a Rumi line that originally read in English,
'out beyond what is holy in Islam and what is not permitted in Islam'
to 'out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right- doing.' 'I took the
Islam out of it,' Barks says in a phone interview from his home in
Athens, Ga. 'Yeah, the fundamentalists or people who think there is
one particular revelation scold me for this.'" ["Poet follows his own
muse in translating Sufi mystic/His Rumi books are surprising
best-sellers" Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer, San Francisco
Chronicle, April 4, 2002 (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/04/DD240893.DTL]

Ibrahim
------------

از كُفْر و زِ اِسلام بِرون ، صحْراییست ما را بمِیانِ آن فضا
، سَوْداییست
عارِف چو بدان رسید سر را بِنِهد نی كفْر و نه اِسلام ، نه آنجا جاییست
Beyond Islam and unbelief* there is a ‘desert plain’. For us, there is
a ‘yearning’* in the midst of that expanse. The knower (of God) who
reaches that (plain) will prostrate* (in prayer), (For) there is
neither Islam nor unbelief, nor any ‘where’ (in) that place.*
-- No. 1314: F-395. Line one is similar in theme to line one of F-394
(No. 1315) and line two of F-768 (No. 1311).
*1. Beyond Islam and unbelief [kufr]: For Muslim mystics, the presence
of God’s reality is so evident that mental concepts about belief or
unbelief about God’s existence can seem irrelevant. See Note 154.
2. a yearning [sawdāy ́]: See Note 277. 3. will prostrate [sar-rā
be-neh-ad]: lit., ‘will place (his) head down’. This means to
prostrate, for which see
Note 16.
*4. line four: See Note 154.
154. ‘beyond Islam and unbelief’ [az kufr-o ze-islåm b ́r ̈n] (P-A): a
state in the mystical journey where the presence of God’s Reality is
so evident that mental concepts about belief or unbelief can seem
irrelevant. This is a phrase in sufi poetry that externally appears to
reject Islâm, but is actually expressive of a profound level of
surrender to God. A dervish who realizes the limitations of outward
religious forms is not supposed to stop required religious practices,
such as daily prayers and the Sunnah (or spiritual behavior) of the
Prophet Muhammad. Rather, he has true Faith when he becomes drowned in
the Ocean of God’s Reality. Mawlânâ says:
The Sun has (always) been the proof of (the existence of) the Sun; if
you require proof of it, don’t turn your face from it! åftåb åmad
dal^l-é åftåb gar dal^l-at båy-ad, az way r ̈ ma-tåb
—Math. I: 116 His mistake is better than (ordinary) obedience in the
sight of God: in the presence of his ‘unbelief’, all (other) faiths
are threadbare. zallat-é ø beh ze-†å...at nazd-é ̇aqq p ́¥-é kufr-a¥
jumla ^mån-hå ∑alaq
—Math. I: 1579 Because the (mystic) lover is drunk in the immediate
moment, therefore he is superior to (both) unbelief and belief.
Unbelief and belief are both his doorkeepers, for he is the kernel,
and unbelief and religion (are) both his two rinds. z-ån-ke ...å¥iq
dar dam-é naqd-ast mast lå jaram az kufr-o ^mån bartar-ast kufr-o ^mån
har dø ∑wod dar-bån-é ø-st k-ø-st maœz-o kufr-o d^n ø-rå dø pøst
—Math. IV: 3280-81 --from “The Quatrains of Rumi”, translated by
Ibrahim Gamard and Ravan Farhadi, 2008

*****************************************
On May 4, 2:48 pm, AshZ <ashrafzi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have been looking for the actual farsi script for a poem of Rumi's
> that I fell in love with a long time ago. It is the "out beyond ideas
> of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field" poem. I have searched
> endlessly to find this but to no avail. I was wondering if you could
> send me a picture of that specific poem in the actual farsi script.
> This would be a tremendous help.
>
> Thank you so very much
> Ashraf

[Jack Beahler]

Sincerest thanks for your work here. I have found it it quite useful as I write the last paper of my undergraduate career, on the extents of Barks's invention and the actual literary influences of the works he passes of as Rumi's.