As you may have noticed, this blog is an all you can-eat multi-ethnic buffet of writing. I have decided to devote at least some of the Friday entries to poetry, to add yet another dimension to the efforts already on this site. I would like to start with some poetry from one of my favorite authors, Rumi.
Rumi lived from 1207 to 1273. He was born in modern-day Afghanistan, and ended up in what is now known as Turkey. His real name was Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi, and became known as Rumi "Roman" since he lived in land that was formerly part of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire). He is a poet, theologian, and mystic among other things. Perhaps not every Friday, but I plan to share several of my favorites in upcoming weeks. A great collection for newcomers to Rumi is The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks. The translations are wonderful (I can't speak to their accuracy obviously) and the organization is deliberately non-western, grouping the poems into esoteric groupings of theme. The following is from the first chapter, in which the poems all connect the metaphor of wine or taverns.
The Many Wines
God has given us a dark wine so potent that,
drinking it, we leave the two worlds.
God has put into the form of hashish a power
to deliver the taster from self-consciousness.
God has made sleep so
that it erases every thought.
God made Majnun love Layla so much that
just her dog would cause confusion in him.
There are thousands of wines
that can take over our minds.
Don't think all ecstasies
are the same!
Jesus was lost in his love for God.
His donkey was drunk with barley.
Drink from the presence of saints,
not from those other jars.
Every object, every being,
is a jar full of delight.
Be a connoisseur,
and taste with caution.
Any wine will get you high.
Judge like a king, and choose the purest,
the ones unadulterated with fear,
or some urgency about "what's needed."
Drink the wine that moves you
as a camel moves when it's been untied,
and is just ambling about.
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