{"id":7429,"date":"2022-03-15T08:44:55","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T06:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/?p=7429"},"modified":"2024-08-22T22:48:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T20:48:46","slug":"three-love-poems-by-rumi-translated-by-haleh-liza-gafori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/three-love-poems-by-rumi-translated-by-haleh-liza-gafori\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Love Poems by Rumi, Translated by Haleh Liza Gafori"},"content":{"rendered":"
Three poems excerpted from the collection, GOLD<\/a>, featuring new translations of poems by Jal\u0101l al-D\u012bn Mu\u1e25ammad R\u016bm\u012b or simply, Rumi, the 13th century sage and mystic.<\/h5>\n
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Rumi\u2019s poems were meant to induce a sense of ecstatic illumination and liberation in his audience, bringing its members to a condition of serenity, compassion, and oneness with the divine. They remain masterpieces of world literature to which readers in many languages continually return for inspiration and succor, as well as aesthetic delight. This new translation by Haleh Liza Gafori preserves the intelligence and the drama of the poems, which are as full of individual character as they are of visionary wisdom.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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GOLD<\/em> is available from PenguinRandomHouse<\/a>, published by NYRB Books.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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You Found Me<\/strong><\/p>\n

You found me once again,
\nyou thief of hearts. In drunken ecstasy,
\nyou searched the bazaar and found me.<\/p>\n

Even through sleepy-lidded, Love-drunk eyes,
\nyou spotted me. I ran to the tavern.
\nYou found me.<\/p>\n

Why do I run when no one can escape you?
\nWhy hide when you\u2019ve found me a hundred times?<\/p>\n

I thought I could lose you in a crowd of people.
\nBut you find me even in crowds of secrets,
\neven behind my own masks.<\/p>\n

What a blessing to be sought and found by your eyes.
\nWhat luck to be caught in your twists and turns\u2014<\/p>\n

loving seer, persistent seer,
\ntowering cypress of countless gardens,<\/p>\n

I was pulling a thorn from my foot
\nwhen you found me.<\/p>\n

You showered me with flowers
\nfrom your fertile beds.<\/p>\n

Dear nightingale,
\nyour melodies opened my ears.<\/p>\n

Like a ladle wanting its fill of light,
\nI plunged into the moon\u2019s halo.<\/p>\n

At the bottom of that bottomless pot, you found me.<\/p>\n

Like a deer fleeing a lion, I ran through the desert.
\nDeep in the mountains, you found me.<\/p>\n

Wounded, I shed my blood on every path.
\nYou followed the drops and found me.<\/p>\n

I was a hooked fish writhing in the waves.
\nAt the end of the line, you found me.<\/p>\n

You roam the skies and catch galloping deer.<\/p>\n

With all that skill and patience,
\nyou found me.<\/p>\n

The moment you found me,
\nyou gave me a cup brimming with Love\u2019s wine,
\nheavy enough to match the weight on my soul.<\/p>\n

Every sip lightened it.
\nEvery sip, a balm.
\nI drank till empty.
\nMy soul took flight.<\/p>\n

I have no mind, no ear, no tongue today.
\nThe source of thought and word found me.<\/p>\n

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