This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and attend them all: even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of all its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whatever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
If you don’t have The Essential Rumi translated by Coleman Barks on your bookshelf consider this book of poems a gift to yourself.
Rumi was a 13thc (1207-1273) Persian (now Tajikistan) poet, theologian and Sufi mystic. In 2007 he was considered the “most popular poet in America”. If you’re familiar with Rumi, you’ll know why.
Rumi wrote prose and poems of fear, anguish, joy, sadness, anger, longing and love. In 25 years he wrote 70,000 verses. The Guest House quoted above was one of his teaching stories.
Apparrently translating Rumi from New Persian in to English is no easy job. Some of the earlier translations in the early 20th c by R.A. Nicholson and A.J. Arberry are very literal and the later translations by Barks and Nader Khalili are much more poetic.
Shahram Shiva, a Rumi translator and performer wrote, “ Rumi is able to verbalize the highly personal and often confusing world of personal growth and development in a very clear and direct fashion. He does not offend anyone and he includes everyone”.
Rumi wrote from his heart and what Rumi wrote 8 centuries ago is so timeless that it speaks to the hearts of the whole world, even today.
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