There is a Voice

THE PROGRESS OF MAN

First he appeared in the realm inanimate;
Thence came into the world of plants and lived
The plant-life many a year, nor called to mind
What he had been; then took the onward way
To animal existence, and once more
Remembers naught of what life vegetive,
Save when he feels himself moved with desire
Towards it in the season of sweet flowers,
As babes that seek the breast and know not why.
Again the wise Creator whom thou knowest
Uplifted him from animality
To Man's estate; and so from realm to realm
Advancing, he became intelligent,
Cunning and keen of wit, as he is now.
No memory of his past abides with him,
And from his present soul he shall be changes.
Though he is fallen asleep, God will not leave him
In this forgetfulness. Awakened, he
Will laugh to think what troublous dreams he had.
And wonder how his happy state of being
He could forget, and not perceive that all
Those pains and sorrows were the effect of sleep
And guile and vain illusion. So this world
Seems lasting, though 'tis but the sleepers' dream;
Who, when the appointed Day shall dawn, escapes
From dark imaginings that haunted him,
And turns with laughter on his phantom griefs
When he beholds his everlasting home.

R. A. Nicholson

'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations
edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972

THE TRUE SUFI

What makes the Sufi? Purity of heart;

Not the patched mantle and the lust perverse

Of those vile earth-bound men who steal his name.

He in all dregs discerns the essence pure:

In hardship ease, in tribulation joy.

The phantom sentries, who with batons drawn

Guard Beauty's place-gate and curtained bower,

Give way before him, unafraid he passes,

And showing the King's arrow, enters in.

R. A. Nicholson

'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations
edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972

Some Kiss We Want

There is some kiss we want with

our whole lives, the touch of



spirit on the body. Seawater

begs the pearl to break its shell.



And the lily, how passionately

it needs some wild darling! At



night, I open the window and ask

the moon to come and press its



face against mine. Breathe into

me. Close the language- door and



open the love window. The moon

won't use the door, only the window.

From Soul of Rumi by Coleman Barks

Let go of your worries

Let go of your worries
and be completely clear-hearted,
like the face of a mirror
that contains no images.
If you want a clear mirror,
behold yourself
and see the shameless truth,
which the mirror reflects.
If metal can be polished
to a mirror-like finish,
what polishing might the mirror
of the heart require?
Between the mirror and the heart
is this single difference:
the heart conceals secrets,
while the mirror does not.

 The Divani Shamsi Tabriz, XIII

Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion


or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up


from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,


am not an entity in this world or in the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any


origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.


I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,


first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.

Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi, An Excerpt from the translations of Coleman Barks