Translations
Divan-e Shams by Rumi, in translations by A. J. Arberry
This page shows only poems with translations by A. J. Arberry.
Poems with translations
غزل شمارهٔ 819اندک اندک جمع مستان میرسند
Little by little the drunkards congregate, little by little the wine-worshippers arrive.
غزل شمارهٔ 821خنده از لطفت حکایت میکند
Laughter tells of your lovingkindness, tears complain of your wrath;
غزل شمارهٔ 824عاشقان پیدا و دلبر ناپدید
The lovers visible and the Beloved invisible—who ever saw such a love in all the world?
غزل شمارهٔ 833مرگ ما هست عروسی ابد
Our death is an eternal wedding-feast; what is the secret of this? He is God, One.
غزل شمارهٔ 837هر کجا بوی خدا میآید
Everywhere the scent of God is coming—see how the people are coming uncontrollably;
غزل شمارهٔ 841باز آفتاب دولت بر آسمان برآمد
Again the sun of felicity has mounted to heaven, again the desire of the souls has arrived from the way of the soul.
غزل شمارهٔ 853مر بحر را ز ماهی دایم گزیر باشد
The sea can always dispense with the fish, for in comparison with the sea the fish is contemptible.
غزل شمارهٔ 861لطفی نماند کان صنم خوش لقا نکرد
There was no grace left which that fair idol did not perform; what fault is it of ours, if he acted not generously towards you?
غزل شمارهٔ 863آتش پریر گفت نهانی به گوش دود
The fire the day before yesterday whispered secretly to the smoke, “The aloes-wood cannot rest without me, and with me it is happy.
غزل شمارهٔ 873خفته نمود دلبر گفتم ز باغ زود
The sweetheart appeared asleep. I called from the garden, “Quick, I have stolen a peach!” The sweetheart in fact was not asleep;
غزل شمارهٔ 879صبح آمد و صحیفه مصقول برکشید
Dawn has arrived and drawn his polished blade, and from heaven camphor-white morn has broken forth.
غزل شمارهٔ 882جامه سیه کرد کفر نور محمد رسید
Unbelief has put on black garments; the Light of Muhammad has arrived. The drum of immortality has been beaten; the eternal kingdom has arrived.
غزل شمارهٔ 887روبهکی دنبه برد شیر مگر خفته بود
A little fox carried off the sheep’s tail; was the lion perchance asleep? The blind and blue fox does not carry off its own life from the lion.
غزل شمارهٔ 892آمد شهر صیام سنجق سلطان رسید
The month of fasting has come, the emperor’s banner has arrived; withhold your hand from food, the spirit’s table has arrived.
غزل شمارهٔ 900بگیر دامن لطفش که ناگهان بگریزد
Hold on the skirt of His grace, for suddenly He will flee; but do not draw Him as an arrow, for He will flee from the bow.
غزل شمارهٔ 909چه پادشاست که از خاک پادشا سازد
What king is He who fashions a king out of dust, for the sake of one or two beggars makes Himself a beggar!
غزل شمارهٔ 911به روز مرگ چو تابوت من روان باشد
On the day of death, when my bier is on the move, do not suppose that I have any pain at leaving this world.
غزل شمارهٔ 919ببرد خواب مرا عشق و عشق خواب برد
Love took away sleep from me—and love takes away sleep, for love purchases not the soul and mind for so much as half a barleycorn.
غزل شمارهٔ 927به باغ بلبل از این پس حدیث ما گوید
Henceforward the nightingale in the garden will tell of us, it will tell of the beauty of that heart-ravishing Beloved.
غزل شمارهٔ 937فراغتی دهدم عشق تو ز خویشاوند
Love for you makes me oblivious to my own kindred, for love of you has rooted up the foundations of well-being;
غزل شمارهٔ 940ربود عشق تو تسبیح و داد بیت و سرود
Love for you took away my rosary and gave verses and songs; I cried “No strength (save with God)” and repented oft, but my heart did not heed.
غزل شمارهٔ 943نماز شام چو خورشید در غروب آید
At the night prayer, when the sun declines to sinking, this way of the senses is closed and the way to the Unseen is opened.
غزل شمارهٔ 968سیبکی نیم سرخ و نیمی زرد
A little apple, half red and half yellow, made tale of rose and saffron.
غزل شمارهٔ 981شعر من نان مصر را ماند
My verse resembles the bread of Egypt—night passes over it, and you cannot eat it any more.
غزل شمارهٔ 984هین که هنگام صابران آمد
Take heed, for the time of men of fortitude has come, the hour of hardship and testing has come.
غزل شمارهٔ 996گفت کسی خواجه سنایی بمرد
Someone said, “Master San¯a’¯ı is dead.” The death of such a master is no small thing.
غزل شمارهٔ 1001آه در آن شمع منور چه بود
Ah, what was there in that light-giving candle that it set fire to the heart, and snatched the heart away?
غزل شمارهٔ 1017آمد ترش رویی دگر یا زمهریر است او مگر
A sour-faced one has come—perchance is he the bitter winter cold? Pour a winecup over his head, saki, sweet as sugar.
غزل شمارهٔ 1022دی سحری بر گذری گفت مرا یار
Yesterday at dawn passing by the Beloved said to me, “You are distraught and unaware; how long will this go on?
غزل شمارهٔ 1025مرا آن اصل بیداری دگرباره به خواب اندر
Again in sleep that root of wakefulness gave me the opium of wild commotion and set me reeling.
غزل شمارهٔ 1037گیرم که بود میر تو را زر به خروار
I grant that your prince has gold by the ton; but how happens it that the gold-rich man obtains a cheek like gold?
غزل شمارهٔ 1047در این سرما و باران یار خوشتر
In this cold and rain the Beloved is sweeter, the Beauty in the bosom, and Love in the brain.
غزل شمارهٔ 1052نوریست میان شعر احمر
There is a light in the midst of the red hair, transcending eye and imagination and spirit.
غزل شمارهٔ 1073خوی بد دارم ملولم تو مرا معذور دار
I have a bad habit; I am weary; pray excuse me. How shall my habit become seemly without your fair face, my beauty?
غزل شمارهٔ 1077از کنار خویش یابم هر دمی من بوی یار
Each moment I catch from my bosom the scent of the Beloved; how should I not take my self every night into my bosom?
غزل شمارهٔ 1082عقل، بندِ رَهروان و عاشقانست، ای پسر
Reason is the chain of travellers and lovers, my son; break the chain, and the way is plain and clear ahead, my son.
غزل شمارهٔ 1092اختران را شب وصلست و نثارست و نثار
Tonight is a night of union for the stars and of scattering, scattering, since a bride is coming from the skies, consisting of a full moon.
غزل شمارهٔ 1095داد جاروبی به دستم آن نگار
That beauty handed me a broom saying, “Stir up the dust from the sea!”
غزل شمارهٔ 1103رفتم آن جا مست و گفتم ای نگار
I went there intoxicated and said, “O beauty, when you have maddened me, give ear!”
غزل شمارهٔ 1121آمد بهار خرم و آمد رسول یار
Joyous spring has arrived and the Beloved’s message has come; we are drunk with love and intoxicated and cannot be still.
غزل شمارهٔ 1126سست مکن زه که من تیر توام چارپر
Do not slacken the bowstring, for I am your four-feathered arrow; do not turn your face away, for I am a man with one heart, not two-headed.
غزل شمارهٔ 1131گفت لبم چون شکر ارزد گنج گهر
He said, “My sugar-sweet lip is worth a treasure of pearls.” “Ah, I have no pearls.” He said, “You have not? Then buy!
غزل شمارهٔ 1136نبشتهست خدا گِردِ چهره دلدار
God has written around the cheek of the Beloved the inscription Therefore take heed of him, you who have eyes.
غزل شمارهٔ 1139مجوی شادی چون در غمست میل نگار
Look not for happiness when the Beauty’s inclination is set on sorrow, for you are prey in the clutches of a lion, my dear friend.
غزل شمارهٔ 1142درخت اگر متحرک بدی به پا و به پر
If a tree could move on foot or wing, it would not suffer the pain of the saw or the blows of the axe;
غزل شمارهٔ 1145به من نگر که منم مونس تو اندر گور
Look on me, for I shall be your companion in the grave on that night when you pass across from shop and house.
غزل شمارهٔ 1151قدح شکست و شرابم نماند و من مخمور
My bowl has broken, and no wine has remained to me, and I am crop-sick; let Shams-e Din set in order my disordered estate—
غزل شمارهٔ 1156مطربِ عاشقان بجنبان تار
Minstrel of the lovers, shake the string, strike fire into believer and infidel!
غزل شمارهٔ 1158رحم بر یار کی کند هم یار
Who has compassion on a friend? A friend likewise. Who hears the sigh of the sick? The sick.
غزل شمارهٔ 1185چنان مستم چنان مستم من امروز
So drunk am I, so drunk am I today that I have leaped out of the hoop today.