different songs

It's a waste to play music to the deaf

Sang by a stream: 'You can make a flower

Of jewels and gold, even add perfume,

But it won't have a flower's true bloom.'

#1846: From Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Search word: music

Music and dancing are early loves of mine. I came to love the rhythms of flamenco and I loved to stamp my feet in unison. Sometimes, I feel too old to dance and sometimes I feel I've become old precisely because I've ceased to dance.

I'm currently reading both Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" and Spong's This Hebrew Lord which features this beautiful portrait of Jesus by Rembrandt on its front cover:

Rembrandt: Head of Christ @ TheWords.com

Rushdie is so irreverent, Spong so faithful to his own tradition; Rushdie's writing sparkles with often incomprehensible wit, Spong uses a sober almost academic style; Rushdie lampoons religion in all its forms, Spong calls us to find new respect for it; Rushdie is like a bubbling cascading fountain, Spong like a quieter stream. Is there "truth" in what each man writes? Does it matter?

Today's translation of a Rumi verse sounds awkward: something is missing or not needed in the "sang by a stream" bit. Perhaps the quoted words were sung by a stream, perhaps Rumi's "you" sang while standing by a stream. This verse seems like a bruised rose with some of its petals flopping forlornly.