Embedded Files
Popular mistranslations with corrections by @sharghzadeh:
Poem #1 ‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing’:
Coleman Barks, ‘The Essential Rumi,’ page 36:
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field, I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about,
ideas, language, and even the phrase “each other” doesn’t make any sense.
@sharghzadeh translation:
Beyond heresy and faith, there’s another place,
we yearn for what’s in the midst of that desert plain.
When the gnostic arrives there, he prostrates his face,
there’s no heresy, faith, or place in that domain.
Original text:
از کفر و ز اسلام برون صحرائیست
ما را بمیان آن فضا سودائیست
عارف چو بدان رسید سر را بنهد
نه کفر و نه اسلام و نه آنجا جائیست
Transliteration:
az kufr o zi islām birūn ṣaḥrāʾīst
mā rā bamiyān-i ān fażā sawdāʾīst
ʿārif chu badān rasīd sar rā binihad
na kufr o na islām o na ānjā jāʾīst
Poem #2 ‘Come, come, whoever you are’:
Translation of unknown origin:
Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times come, yet again, come, come.
@sharghzadeh translation:
Come again, come again, whatever you are, come again,
if you’re an infidel or idolater, come again.
This doorway of ours is not a doorway of hopelessness,
if you’ve broken one hundred repentances, come again.
Original text:
باز آ باز آ هر آنچه هستی باز آ
گر کافر و گبر و بت پرستی باز آ
این درگه ما درگه نومیدی نیست
صد بار اگر توبه شکستی باز آ
Transliteration:
bāz ā bāz ā har āncha hastī bāz ā
gar kāfir o gabr o but parastī bāz ā
īn dargah-i mā dargah-i nawmīdī nīst
ṣad bār agar tawba shikastī bāz ā
Poem #3 ‘If you don’t have a woman that lives with you’:
Coleman Barks, ‘Open Secret,’ page 19:
If you don’t have a woman that lives with you, Why aren’t you looking?
If you have one, Why aren’t you satisfied?
@sharghzadeh translation
If you don’t have a partner why not seek one?
And if you find a partner, why not have fun?
Original text:
اگر تو یار نداری چرا طلب نکنی
وگر به یار رسیدی چرا طرب نکنی
Transliteration:
agar tu yār nadārī chirā ṭalab nakunī
wagar bih yār rasīdī chirā ṭarab nakunī
Poem #4 ‘Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened’:
Coleman Barks, ‘The Essential Rumi,’ page 36:
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.
Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading.
Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kiss the ground.
@sharghzadeh translation
Today we’re broken, broken, like every other day,
open not the door of worry, grab the lute and play!
There are one hundred kinds of prayers and prostrations
when one faces their beloved’s beauty as they pray.
Original text:
امروز چو هر روز خرابیم خراب
مگشا در اندیشه و برگیر رباب
صدگونه نماز است و رکوعست و سجود
آنرا که جمال دوست باشد محراب
Transliteration:
imroz chu har roz kharābīm kharāb
magushā dar-i andesha o bargīr rubāb
ṣad gūna namāz ast o rukūʿst o sujūd
ānrā ki jamāl-i dost bāshad miḥrāb
Poem #5 ‘Love comes sailing through and I scream’:
Coleman Barks, ‘Unseen Rain,’ page 58:
Love comes sailing through and I scream.
Love sits beside me like a private supply of itself.
Love puts away the instruments and took off the silk robes.
Our nakedness together changes me completely.
@sharghzadeh translation
My idol, wine-praising with a sweet cry,
like jars of sugar, he sat by my side.
He set aside silk and a lute close by,
“We’re happy and without a self” he cried.
Original text:
آمد بتِ خوش‌عربدهٔ می‌کیشم
آمد بتِ خوش‌عربدهٔ می‌کیشم
بنشست چو یک تنگِ شِکَر در پیشم
بنشست چو یک تنگِ شِکَر در پیشم
در بر بنهاد بَربَط و ابریشم
در بر بنهاد بَربَط و ابریشم
وین پرده همی‌زد که «خوش و بی‌خویشم»
وین پرده همی‌زد که «خوش و بی‌خویشم»
Transliteration:
āmad but-i khwash ʿarbada-yi may kesham
binishast chu yak tung-i shikar dar pesham
dar bar binihād barbaṭ o abrisham
wīn parda hamī zad ki khwash o bekhesham
Poem #6 ‘You say you have no sexual longing any more’:
Coleman Barks, ‘Unseen Rain,’ page 19:
You say you have no sexual longing any more. You're one with the one you love.
This is dangerous, don’t believe that I have a love like that.
If one day you see a picture of how you think, you’ll hate yourself, openly.
@sharghzadeh translation
You say, “Our hearts are together, but we’re apart.”
But never think to yourself, “I have a pure heart.”
If you see a true reflection of your thoughts once,
you’ll say, “I’m disgusted!” and desire a fresh start.
Original text:
گوئی که «بَتَن دور و بَدِل با یارم
گوئی که «بَتَن دور و بَدِل با یارم
زنهار مپندار که من دل دارم»
زنهار مپندار که من دل دارم»
گر نقش خَیالِ خود ببینی روزی
گر نقش خَیالِ خود ببینی روزی
فریاد کنی که «من ز خود بیزارم»
فریاد کنی که «من ز خود بیزارم»
Transliteration:
gūʾī ki batan dūr o badil bā yāram
zinhār mapindār ki man dil dāram
gar naqsh-i khāyal-i khwad bibīnī rozī
faryād kunī ki man zi khwad bezāram
Poem #7 ‘They try to say what you are, spiritual or sexual?’:
Coleman Barks, ‘The Essential Rumi,’ page 37:
They try to say what you are, spiritual or sexual?
They wonder about Solomon and all his wives.
In the body of the world, they say, there is a soul, and you are that.
But we have ways within each other that will never be said by anyone.
@sharghzadeh translation
O love, fairies and humans know of you,
you’re more famous than Solomon’s ring too.
In the worldly form, you’re known as the soul,
I live with you in a way that birds knew.
Original text:
ای عشق تُرا پری و انسان دانند
معروف‌تر از مُهْرِ سلیمان دانند
در کالبدِ جهان تُرا جان دانند
با تو چنان زِیَم که مُرغان دانند
Transliteration:
ay ʿishq turā parī o insān dānand
maʿrūf-tar az muhr-i sulaymān dānand
dar kālbud-i jahān turā jān dānand
bā tu chinān ziyam ki murghān dānand
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