quatrain 1408

From Sunlight, three versions of quatrain #1408, to add to the Houshmand version discussed under true gold:

O my Beloved!
Take me,
Liberate my soul,
Fill me with your love,
and release me from both worlds.

If I set my heart
On anything but you,
O fire, burn me from inside!

O my Beloved
Take away what I want,
Take away what I do,
Take away everything
that takes me from you.

Version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva
A Garden Beyond Paradise

take me in my love
take my soul
set me on ecstasy
take both of my worlds
if I rest my heart on
anything but you
throw me with fireball
take everything I hold

Translation by Nader Khalili
Rumi, Dancing the Flame

My Friend,
I offer You my life.
Accept me, make me drunk
and save me from both worlds.
Set me on fire
if my heart settles on anything
but You.

Translation by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved

realizing God

From sunlight:

Out in Empty Sky

If you catch a fragrance of the unseen,
like that, you won't be able to be

contained. You'll be out in empty sky.
Any beauty the world has, any desire,

will easily be yours. As you live
deeper in the heart, the mirror gets
clearer and cleaner. Shams of Tabriz
realized God in himself. When that

happens, you have no anxieties about
losing anyone or anything. You break

the spells that human difficulties cause.
Interpretations come, hundreds, from

all the religious symbols and parables
and prayers. You know what they mean,

when God lives through you like Shams.

Ghazal (Ode) 2931
Version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin
"The Glance"
Viking-Penguin, 1999

the four elements

The four elements are four sturdy pillars,
through which the roof of the heavens is kept in place.

Mathnawi / Chittick

source: this world is all war