Monday, April 21, 2014

The Chinese and The Greek Arts


(Credit : Henry Westheim)


The Prophet said,
 
 "There are some who see Me by the same Light in which I am seeing them.
Our natures are ONE.
Without reference to any strands  of lineage,
 without reference to texts or traditions,
we drink the Life-Water together."
 
 
Here's a story about that hidden mystery:

The Chinese and the Greeks were arguing as to who were the better artists.
 
The King said,
"We'll settle this matter with a debate."
 
The Chinese began talking, but the Greeks wouldn't say anything.
They left.

The Chinese suggested then that they each be given a room to work on
with their artistry, two rooms facing each other and divided by a curtain.
 
The Chinese asked the King for a hundred colors, all the variations,
and each morning they came to where the dyes were kept and took them all.
 
The Greeks took no colors.
"They're not part of our work,"
They went to their room and began cleaning and polishing the walls. 
All day every day they made those walls as pure and clear as an open sky.

There is a way that leads from all-colors to colorlessness.
Know that the magnificent variety of the clouds and the weather comes from
the total simplicity of the sun and the moon.

The Chinese finished, and they were so happy.
They beat the drums in the joy of completion.

The King entered their room,
astonished by the gorgeous color and detail.

The Greeks then pulled the curtain dividing the rooms.
The Chinese figures and images shimmeringly reflected on the clear Greek walls. 
They lived there, even more beautifully, and always changing in the light.

The Greek art is the Sufi way.
They don't study books of philosophical thought.

They make their loving clearer and clearer.
No wantings, no anger.
In that purity they receive and reflect the images of every moment,
from here, from the stars, from the void.

They take them in as though they were seeing with the Lighted Clarity
that sees them.

  Mathnawi, I, 3462-3485, 3499
version by Coleman Barks
Delicious Laughter
Maypop, 1990

Friday, April 11, 2014

This Love


This Love is the king,
yet a throne cannot be found.
It is the essence of the Koran
yet a verse cannot be found.
Any lover hit by the Hunter’s arrow
will bleed all over,
yet a wound cannot be found.

  Version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva
A Garden Beyond Paradise
Bantam Books, 1992
 
 
 This Love is a King
but his banner is hidden.
The Koran speaks the Truth
but its miracle is concealed.
Love has pierced with its arrow
the heart of every lover.
Blood flows but the wound is invisible.

Translation by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1999

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

This Cage




You who fly up from this narrow cage
veering off beyond the heavens
you'll see a new life after this;
how long will you bear this life's drear? . . .
This body wore a butler's garb
now sports a more fashionable form.
Death means life and this life is death
though heathen eyes see negative
All souls departed from this body
live on, but hidden now, like angels . . .
When body's bricks crumble, don't wail
Sir, you've only been in a jail
when you emerge from jail or pit,
you stand regal, tall, like Joseph

  Ghazal 3172 - "Diwan-e Shamsi Tabrizi"
Translation by Franklin D. Lewis
"Rumi, Past and Present, East and West"
Oneworld Publications, Oxford, 2000
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