July 1, 2007 |
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Three Ghazals by Rumi (poetry)
Translations © Iraj Anvar & Anne Twitty
D 1653 Man az in khane-ye por nur…
I won’t leave this light-filled house,
Won’t leave this blessed city.
Here I am, here’s my beloved, this loving and the rest of my life.
I won’t leave him behind, even if you drag me away.
If the world becomes a wave-tossed sea,
I’ll go straight to that darling pearl.
You set out on your travels to perhaps make a profit.
I won’t leave this profit of truth for any ‘perhaps.’
I’ve found the kernel, I won’t crunch on the shell.
I’m in a safe place, I won’t head into danger.
D 1572 Gar gom shodegan-e ruzegarim…
Even though we are lost in this world,
we found the way to the lane of the Beloved.
The wheel of time will get lost too
if it catches our hearts’ fire.
If we scratch the head of trouble
it will lose its head and its mind.
This death that gobbles up people,
we’ll gobble it up, fearlessly.
This gamble has drowned you in debt.
We are the ones who forfeit our lives.
Our lives are just pawn for this loan.
We will give up this life and move on.
D 214 Our life is just pawn for this loan
If a tree could move from place to place,
it wouldn’t suffer the cruel wounds of the saw.
Neither the sun nor the moon would give light
if they were motionless like granite.
The Euphrates, Tigris and Oxus would be bitter
if they stayed in one place like the salt sea.
When air is trapped in a well it turns to poison.
Look, look what air lost by not traveling!
When sea water rode on the air and became a cloud,
it became sweet instead of bitter, sweet as halva.
When fire stops flaming and blazing up,
it becomes a kingdom of ashes, death and annihilation.
Look at Joseph of Canaan, who left the side of his father.
He traveled to Egypt and became a wonder.
Look at Moses, son of Imran, who left his mother’s bosom.
He went to Midian and walked the path of Lordship.
Look at Jesus, son of Mary, who through constant traveling
is like a fountain of life; he raises the dead.
Look at the prophet Muhammad, who left Mecca,
then seized it with his army and became Mecca’s ruler
when he rose up on Buraq, on the night of ascension,
and traveled to the station of nearness to God.
If it doesn’t bore you, I’ll count the world’s travelers for you,
one by one, and two by two and three by three.
Now that I’ve shown you a little, learn the rest for yourself.
Travel from your own nature to God’s nature and way. |
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Iraj Anvar is author of Divan-i Shams-i Tabriz: Forty-eight Ghazals. Co-founder and a director of the Tehran Theater Workshop, he is an accomplished practitioner and connoisseur of many forms of Persian arts, specializing in the reciting of mystical poetry. He holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Literature and has over 25 years of teaching experience at major institutions and universities in both the U.S. and Iran. His new set of Rumi translation will be published by Pir Press this fall. He played and recited Rumi in “Rumi / In the Blink of the Eye” directed by Robert Wilson in May 2007 at the Athens Festival.
After studying Rumi with Dr. Anvar, Anne Twitty began to work with him on these translations. She has previously been awarded the PEN Prize for Poetry in Translation and an NEA grant to support the translation of Maria Negroni's novel Ursula's Dream. Her original writing has frequently appeared in Parabola Magazine.
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