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 2756ای وصل تو اصل شادمانی
Union with you is the source of happiness, for those are but forms and this is reality.
غزل شمارهٔ 2760با دل گفتم چرا چنینی
I said to my heart, “Why are you thus? How long will you consort with love?”
غزل شمارهٔ 2775مرغ دل پران مبا جز در هوای بیخودی
Bird of heart, fly not save in the air of selflessness; candle of soul, shine not save in the palace of selflessness.
غزل شمارهٔ 2776ای رها کرده تو باغی از پی انجیرکی
You who let a garden go for the sake of a small fig, let slip the houri for the sake of an unworthy crone.
غزل شمارهٔ 2779بانگ میزن ای منادی بر سر هر دستهای
Proclaim, O crier, at the head of every market, “Have you seen, Moslems, a runaway slave?
غزل شمارهٔ 2788آه از آن رخسار برق انداز خوش عیارهای
“Ah, from those lightning-casting, sweet, mischievous cheeks! A thunderbolt from its lightning has fallen on the soul of every helpless one!”
غزل شمارهٔ 2795ای تو جان صد گلستان از سمن پنهان شدی
Soul of a hundred rose gardens, you have vanished from jasmine; soul of the soul of my soul, why have you vanished from me?
غزل شمارهٔ 2805ای خوشا عیشی که باشد ای خوشا نظارهای
What a joyous pleasure it will be, what a charming spectacle, when such a part returns to the source of the source!
غزل شمارهٔ 2814خنک آن دم که به رحمت سر عشاق بخاری
Happy the moment when with compassion you scratch the head of lovers, happy the moment when from autumn arises the wind of spring.
غزل شمارهٔ 2820چو به شهر تو رسیدم تو ز من گوشه گزیدی
When I reached your city you withdrew into a corner from me; when I left your city you did not give me a good-bye glance.
غزل شمارهٔ 2828خبری است نورسیده تو مگر خبر نداری
Tidings are newly arrived—do you perhaps have no news of it? The envious heart has turned to blood; perhaps you have no heart.
غزل شمارهٔ 2830هله پاسبان منزل تو چگونه پاسبانی
Ho, watchman of the dwelling, what sort of watchman are you? For the night-thief secretly carries off all our baggage.
غزل شمارهٔ 2832صنما چنان لطیفی که به جان ما درآیی
O idol, you are so subtle that you enter into our soul; O idol, by the right of your grace, pray enter amongst us.
غزل شمارهٔ 2838صفت خدای داری چو به سینهای درآیی
You have the attribute of God; when you enter any breast, you display from that breast the glow of Mount Sinai.
غزل شمارهٔ 2845بت من به طعنه گوید چه میان ره فتادی
My idol scolds, saying, “Why have you fallen in the middle of the road?” Idol, why should I not fall from such a wine as you have given me?
غزل شمارهٔ 2852چو یقین شدهست دل را که تو جان جان جانی
Since it has become certain to my heart that you are the soul of the soul of the soul, open the door of grace, for you are the stay of a hundred worlds.
غزل شمارهٔ 2859برو ای عشق که تا شحنه خوبان شدهای
Go, love, for you have become the most perfect of the lovely ones; you have smitten the necks of penitence and the penitent.
غزل شمارهٔ 2865در رخ عشق نگر تا به صفت مرد شوی
Gaze on the cheeks of love that you may gain the attributes of true men; sit not with the cold ones so you will not be chilled by their breath.
غزل شمارهٔ 2873رو رو ای جان سبک خیز غریب سفری
Go, nimble-rising soul go on a strange journey to the sea of meanings, for you are a precious pearl.
غزل شمارهٔ 2880به حق و حرمت آنکه همگان را جانی
By the right and sanctity of that, that you are the soul of all men, fill a cup with that whose description you know well.
غزل شمارهٔ 2894با چنین رفتن به منزل کی رسی
With such a gait, when will you reach the station? With such a habit, how will you gain the goal?
غزل شمارهٔ 2899بار دیگر عزم رفتن کردهای
Once more you have resolved to go, once more you have made your heart like iron.
غزل شمارهٔ 2902ای درآورده جهانی را ز پای
O, you who have shaken a whole world, the voice of the reed, the voice of the reed, the voice of the reed.
غزل شمارهٔ 2912با من ای عشق امتحانها میکنی
You are putting me on trial; O love, you know my weakness, yet you go on doing so.
غزل شمارهٔ 2916مرحبا ای پرده تو آن پردهای
Welcome, melody—you are that melody which has brought a sign from the spiritual world.
غزل شمارهٔ 2922هم تو شمعی هم تو شاهد هم تو می
You are both candle and fair one and wine, likewise spring in the midst of December.
غزل شمارهٔ 2927ز کجا آمدهای میدانی
Do you know where you have come? From the midst of allglorious sanctuary.
غزل شمارهٔ 2933ای آنک امام عشقی تکبیر کن که مستی
You who are imam of love, say All¯ah Akbar, for you are drunk; shake your two hands, become indifferent to existence.
غزل شمارهٔ 2942اندر مصاف ما را در پیش رو سپر نی
In the battle ranks we have no shield before our face; in the concert we are unaware of reed pipe and tambourine.
غزل شمارهٔ 2946دی عهد و توبه کردی امروز درشکستی
Yesterday you made compact and repentance, today you have broken them; yesterday you were a bitter sea, today you are a pearl.
غزل شمارهٔ 2958مطرب چو زخمهها را بر تار میکشانی
Minstrel, when you draw your plectrums over the strings, you draw into labor these idlers of the way.
غزل شمارهٔ 2964دی دامنش گرفتم کای گوهر عطایی
Yesterday I clutched his skirt saying, “O essence [jewel] of generosity, do not say goodnight, do not grieve us, for tonight you are mine.”
غزل شمارهٔ 2967آمد ز نای دولت بار دگر نوایی
Once again a melody has come from the reed pipe of fortune; O soul, clap hands, O heart, stamp feet.
غزل شمارهٔ 2981ای سیرگشته از ما ما سخت مشتهی
You who are weary of us, we are very desirous; you who have withdrawn from the road, where is the courtesy of fellowtraveling?
غزل شمارهٔ 2984ای مرغ گیر دام نهانی نهادهای
Bird-catcher, you have set a hidden snare; over the snare you have laid smoke-colored fabric.
غزل شمارهٔ 2998سوگند خوردهای که از این پس جفا کنی
You swore an oath that henceforth you would be cruel; now you break your oath and finish with cruelty.
غزل شمارهٔ 3001ای نای بس خوش است کز اسرار آگهی
Reed, very sweet it is that you know the secrets; that one does the work who has knowledge of the work.
غزل شمارهٔ 3019ای که تو عشاق را همچو شکر میکشی
You who slay like sugar the lovers, slay my soul sweetly this moment, if you are slaying.
غزل شمارهٔ 3021شیردلا صد هزار شیردلی کردهای
Lion-heart, you have made a hundred thousand lion-hearts; you have outstripped the sun even in generosity.
غزل شمارهٔ 3034میرسد ای جان باد بهاری
O soul, the breeze of spring is coming, so that you may raise your hand towards the rose garden.
غزل شمارهٔ 3038ببرد عقل و دلم را براق عشق معانی
The Bur¯aq of the love of realities carried away my mind and heart; ask me where it took them? Thither you do not know.
غزل شمارهٔ 3048تو آسمان منی من زمین به حیرانی
You are my heaven, I am the earth in astonishment; every moment what things have you set growing in my heart.
غزل شمارهٔ 3050خدایگان جمال و خلاصه خوبی
The lord of beauty and quintessence of loveliness entered the soul and mind as a man will stroll in the garden at spring.
غزل شمارهٔ 3051به عاقبت بپریدی و در نهان رفتی
Finally you have broken away and departed into the Unseen; I wonder, I wonder—by which way did you depart from the world?
غزل شمارهٔ 3055بیا بیا که نیابی چو ما دگر یاری
Come, come, for you will not find another friend like me; where indeed in both worlds is a beloved like me?
غزل شمارهٔ 3061اگر تو یار نداری چرا طلب نکنی
If you have no beloved, why do you not seek one? And if you have attained the Beloved, why do you not rejoice?
غزل شمارهٔ 3071دلا همای وصالی بپر چرا نپری
Heart, you are the phoenix of union. Fly, why do you not fly? No one recognizes you, neither man nor peri.
غزل شمارهٔ 3079بیامدیم دگربار سوی مولایی
We have come once again to a lord to whose knee no sea reaches.
غزل شمارهٔ 3090بجه بجه ز جهان تا شه جهان باشی
Leap, leap from the world, that you may be king of the world; seize the sugar tray that you may be a sugar plantation.