quatrain 494

From sunlight, two versions of quatrain #494:

Who sees inside from outside?
Who finds hundreds of mysteries
even where minds are deranged?

See through his eyes what he sees.
Who then is looking out from his eyes?

-- Version by Coleman Barks
Open Secret
Threshold Books, 1984

who is the one
who sees the external
right from within
who is the one
who casts a hundred magic spells
when watching the insane in love
try your own eyes
see how they see
who is the one
who is looking out
through your eyes for you

--Translation by Nader Khalili
Rumi, Dancing the Flame
Cal-Earth Press, 2001

quatrain 61

From sunlight, two versions of quatrain #61:

If you have a spirit, lose it,
lose it to return where with one word,
we came from. Now, thousands of words,
and we refuse to leave.

-- Version by Coleman Barks
"Unseen Rain"
Threshold Books, 1986

If you have illusions about heaven
lose them.
The soul heard of one attribute of Love
and came to earth.
A hundred attributes of heaven
could never charm her back.
It is here the soul discovers
the reality of Love.

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

a woman from Iran

Haideh Daragahi: Citizen journalism in Iran

quatrain 1854

From sunlight, two further versions of quatrain #1854 to add to the Houshmand translation discussed at in search of water.

I took a journey
dead set to find
your true love
at any cost
at every stage I landed
I saw a head beheaded
I saw a life is lost

trans by Nader Khalili

I travelled everywhere,
following you,
looking for signs of where you had been –
They show me a house stacked with bodies,
heads strewn on the floor.

version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva