Daniel
09-29-2007, 11:32 PM
Sherry Z noted that today, September 30th, is the 300th birthday of Rumi, the Persian poet, mystic and lover. So I thought it fitting to devote a thread to the occasion.
To start things off, I like to make a toast in the form of a poem, taken from The Essential Rumi, by Colman Barks with John Moyne.
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 has 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 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.
To start things off, I like to make a toast in the form of a poem, taken from The Essential Rumi, by Colman Barks with John Moyne.
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 has 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 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.