Slow Language - The Essential Rumi

Friday, September 11, 2009

Yesterday I received a wonderful gift from my friend Tanya: The Essential Rumi, a book of poetry that I have been wanting to get my hands on for months. Here is one of my favorites, so far:




Jalaluddin Rumi

1207 -1272

Wean Yourself (Translation by Coleman Barks)

Little by little, wean yourself.
This is the gist of what I have to say.

From an embryo, whose nourishment comes in the blood,
move to an infant drinking milk,
to a child on solid food,
to a searcher after wisdom,
to a hunter of more invisible game.

Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.
You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate.
There are wheatfields and mountain passes,
and orchards in bloom.

At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight
the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding."

you ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up
in the dark with eyes closed.
Llisten to the answer.
There is no "other world."
I only know what I've experienced.
You must be hallucinating.