Translate

His Face...

Such is the seeker of the court of God:

when God comes, the seeker is no more.

Although union with God is immortality upon immortality,

yet at first that immortality consists in dying to self.

The reflections that are seeking the Light

disappear when His Light appears.

How should reason remain when He bids it go?

Everything is perishing except His Face.*

Before His Face the existent and the nonexistent perish:

existence in nonexistence is truly a marvelous thing!

In this place of presence all minds are lost beyond control;

when the pen reaches this point, it breaks.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

--Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
Mathnawi III:4658-4663
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of YahyĆ” Monastra

No comments: