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Ode 911
On the day of death, when my bier is on the move, do not
suppose that I have any pain at leaving this world.
Do not weep for me, say not "Alas, alas!" You will fall into
the devil’s snare – that would indeed be alas!
When you see my hearse, say not "Parting, parting!" That
time there will be for me union and encounter.
When you commit me to the grave, say not, "Farewell, fare-
well!" For the grave is a veil over the reunion of paradise.
Having seen the going-down, look upon the coming-up; how
should setting impair the sun and the moon?
To you it appears as setting, but it is a rising; the tomb appears
as a prison, but it is release for the soul.
What seed ever went down into the earth which did not grow?
Why do you doubt so regarding the human seed?
What bucket ever went down and came not out full? Why
this complaining of the well by the Joseph of the spirit?
When you have closed your mouth on this side, open it on
that, for your shout of triumph will echo in the placeless air.
-- A.J Arberry
Mystical Poems of Rumi 1
The University of Chicago Press, 1991
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Mathnawi III: 3901-3906
I died to the mineral state and became a plant;*
I died to the vegetable state and reached animality;*
I died to the animal state and became a man;*
then what should I fear? -- I have never become less from dying.
At the next charge forward I will die to human nature,
so that I may lift up my head and wings and soar among the
angels.
And I must also jump from the river* of the state of the
angel: "Everything perishes except His Face."* Qu'ran 28:88
Once again I will become sacrificed from the state of the
angel; I will become that which cannot come into the
imagination.*
Then I will become non-existent;* non-existence says to
me (in tones) like an organ: "Truly, to Him is our return."* Qu'ran 2:156
-- From "The Mathnawî-yé Ma`nawî" [Rhymed Couplets of
Deep Spiritual Meaning] of Jalaluddin Rumi.
(With gratitude for R.A. Nicholson's 1930 British translation)
(c) Ibrahim Gamard (translation, footnotes, & transliteration)
az jumâdî mord-am-o nâmê shod-am
w-az namâ mord-am ba-Haywân bar zad-am
mord-am az Hawânî-wo âdam shod-am
pas che tars-am, kay ze mordan kam shod-am?
Hamla-yé degar be-mîr-am az bashar
tâ bar âr-am az malâ'ik parr-o sar
w-az malak ham bâyâd-am jastan ze jû
kullu shay-in hâlik illâ wajha-hu
bâr-é dêgar az malak qurbân shaw-am
ân-che andar wahm n-ây-ad ân shaw-am
pas `adam gard-am `adam chûn arghanûn
gôy-ad-am ke innâ ilay-hi râji`ûn
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