Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, 1207-1273, Balkh.
Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like somebody suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
You’re covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side.
Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.
The speechless full moon
comes out now.
~~~
This poem seems to warrant a few notes:
– I’ve been focusing on poems written in English to avoid translation/interpretation biases. However, Rumi is a much-studied Sufi poet and this translation and line spacing seems to match most that I can find online.
– I’m not a Rumi scholar and have not read his Mathnawī-ī ma’nawī, but I *think* this poem might be from it.
– I don’t have enough room on the board to properly list where Rumi is from, since the political geography has changed a lot since the 13th century. According to Wikipedia, he was born in Persia in an area which is now Afghanistan/Tajikistan.
