Friday, September 03, 2004

RUMI: These spiritual window-shoppers

These spiritual window-shoppers,
who idly ask, 'How much is that?' Oh, I'm just looking.
They handle a hundred items and put them down,
shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love and two eyes wet with weeping.
But these walk into a shop,
and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,
in that shop.

Where did you go? "Nowhere."
What did you have to eat? "Nothing much."

Even if you don't know what you want,
buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project,
like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you.

-- Rumi, 'We Are Three', Mathnawi VI, 831-845
I am hungry for deepness, for beauty, for teachings. I'm too tired to give them, so I went seeking. Start a huge, foolish project like Noah. It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My dear!
This translation is not right; it's like a joke!
I'm glad you like an Iranian poet, but this poem is not what he said!
Majid Zohari - Toronto
www.mblog.com/zohari