"Where is a heart that is not shattered in a hundred pieces by God's love?...How should I utter a word?-- for the fire in my heart is grown fierce, the lion of separation from the Beloved, has become raging and blood shedding. Inasmuch as He is thy lover, do thou be silent: as He is pulling your ear, be you all ear....How should I not wail bitterly on account of His deceit, since I am not in the circle of those intoxicated with Him? How should I not mourn, like night, without His day, and without the favor of His day-illuming countenance? His unsweetness is sweet to my soul......The Friend loves this agitation:it is better to struggle vainly than to lie still..... In this way be ever scraping , and scratching, and exerting yourself to the utmost; until your last breath do not be unoccupied for a moment. "
Rumi (Vol. 1; selections from 1723-1822)
Commentary: Rumi is always reminding us that on the path of love, the way forward will be neither clear, nor smooth. Keep going.
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The Mathnawi, Jalalu'ddin Rumi's master work, is a 1200 page poem. Having studied it in an intensive tutorial with a Persian scholar, Dev Prakash in 1979, I am now rereading it 30 years later,using the Reynold Nicholson translation. My hope is that you will find these short selections speaking to your soul, as they do to mine.
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