Night and Sleep

by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi, Rita Shumaker (Illustrator), Robert Bly (Translator)

Seventeen poems of Rumi, a 13th-century Persian mystic, in English versions by Robert Bly and Coleman Barks. These poems express a longing for the "Mystical Friend," a spiritual guide, or brother. "When Things are Heard" from the collection is featured on Keith Jarrett's double album, Invocations and The Moth and the Flame on ECM Records.

Genres: Poetry, Religion

48 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1981

About the author

Sufism inspired writings of Persian poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi; these writings express the longing of the soul for union with the divine.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī - also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, Mevlânâ/Mawlānā (مولانا, "our master"), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (مولوی, "my master") and more popularly simply as Rumi - was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian and Sufi mystic who lived in Konya, a city of Ottoman Empire (Today's Turkey). His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages, and he has been described as the most popular poet and the best-selling poet in the United States.

His poetry has influenced Persian literature, but also Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Azerbaijani, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu, as well as the literature of some other Turkic, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan languages including Chagatai, Pashto, and Bengali.

Due to quarrels between different dynasties in Khorāṣān, opposition to the Khwarizmid Shahs who were considered devious by his father, Bahā ud-Dīn Wālad or fear of the impending Mongol cataclysm, his father decided to migrate westwards, eventually settling in the Anatolian city Konya, where he lived most of his life, composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature, and profoundly affected the culture of the area.

When his father died, Rumi, aged 25, inherited his position as the head of an Islamic school. One of Baha' ud-Din's students, Sayyed Burhan ud-Din Muhaqqiq Termazi, continued to train Rumi in the Shariah as well as the Tariqa, especially that of Rumi's father. For nine years, Rumi practised Sufism as a disciple of Burhan ud-Din until the latter died in 1240 or 1241. Rumi's public life then began: he became an Islamic Jurist, issuing fatwas and giving sermons in the mosques of Konya. He also served as a Molvi (Islamic teacher) and taught his adherents in the madrassa. During this period, Rumi also travelled to Damascus and is said to have spent four years there.

It was his meeting with the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on 15 November 1244 that completely changed his life. From an accomplished teacher and jurist, Rumi was transformed into an ascetic.

On the night of 5 December 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seen again. Rumi's love for, and his bereavement at the death of, Shams found their expression in an outpouring of lyric poems, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi. He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus.

Rumi found another companion in Salaḥ ud-Din-e Zarkub, a goldsmith. After Salah ud-Din's death, Rumi's scribe and favourite student, Hussam-e Chalabi, assumed the role of Rumi's companion. Hussam implored Rumi to write more. Rumi spent the next 12 years of his life in Anatolia dictating the six volumes of this masterwork, the Masnavi, to Hussam.

In December 1273, Rumi fell ill and died on the 17th of December in Konya.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful little book, and offers an excellent introduction to the great Persian mystical poet usually referred to simply as Rumi.

Rumi was born in 1207, on the eastern edge of Persia (now Afghanistan), but his father soon moved the family to Turkey in order to avoid the Mongol hordes. In Turkey, the father came to be revered for his wisdom, and young Rumi was known as a seeker of wisdom too, and so, when his father died, the 24 year old Rumi became head of his father’s madrasa.

Fast forward a dozen years. Rumi and his students are sitting by a fountain (or a fishpond, depending on your version of the story), the master reading aloud to his students from his rare, illuminated spiritual books. Suddenly Shams Tabriz, a wandering dervish, wrapped in a ragged black cloak, pushes through the crowd, snatches up Rumi’s books, and throws them into the fountain! “Now go,” said Shams to Rumi, “go forth, and live what you have read!”

And it was then that Rumi fell passionately, completely, in love.

Now I’m not suggesting that Shams and Rumi were lovers (if I were, though, I would not be the first), but it is clear something about this wild desert holy man opened Rumi’s heart to the heart of the Beloved, the god who waits and dwells within us all. Rumi communed with Shams for four years, conversing with him continually, until one day Shams just disappeared. Perhaps he returned to the desert; perhaps—I think this more likely—he was murdered by Rumi’s students, egged on by his envious son.

Rumi eventually reconciled himself to the loss of his friend, but not before he poured out two thousand score of verses about his love for the Beloved. What was the title he gave to his first great book? The Works of Shams Tabriz.

This is a very short book, filled with evocative illustrations as well as poetry, but it is long enough for the reader to get a good idea of the passionate poetry of Rumi. The Robert Bly translations are good—almost as good as his Kabir—and Coleman Barks are equally as good. (I often assumed a poem I particularly liked was Bly, but when I checked, it was translated by Barks.)

Here follows a brief taste of what is to be discovered within. Both the translations I have chosen are by Barks:

The Ground

Today, like every other day,
we wake up empty and scared.
Don’t open the door
to the study and begin reading.
Take down the dulcimer.

Let the beauty we love
be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways
to kneel and kiss the ground.


Across the Doorsill

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep!

You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep!

People are going back and forth
across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep!

[Paige Goulden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing aside - a really gorgeous little publication, cover to cover. Loved the illustrations and the decorative margins (the writing was also nice too lol)

[Jerry-Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13646570

[albin james · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hello, my dear insondable friend....

[Alellujah · Rating 4 out of 5]

“let the beauty we love be what we do; there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” GOOD READ!!!!!