OH NOOOO! I think we are in TROUBLE! Can our friendship survive it?
I just came to turn off the computer, and saw your post, and thought the CD idea was a great one, but then I looked Rumi up. And read some of the poetry, as translated by Shahram Shiva. X, I'm not going to read this, and if I tried, i would just come here and be soooo negative. This kind of ecstatic poetry doesn't need a naysayer to spoil the fun.
Here is some of what I found. I can accept that, since he's so popular, apparently "one of the most widely read poets in America," there must be something in him. But not for me. grrrr. And to add annoyance to annoyance, the forward was written by Depak Chopra, whom I've read and heard speak on TV, and who by my lights is utterly specious as a thinker and moral/philosophical guru.
But I am out of step with the culture! Or subculture, whichever it is! I know this!
Here's a link that talks about him, his poetry, his brand of mysticism, and about whirling. As for his 70,000 poems, I think i read 70k, the claim is that he is as great as Shakespeare and Dante. How f-ing dare they. (See what I mean? I can't join the Rumi discussion!)
Three sample verses:
1. To Love is to reach God.
Never will a Lover's chest
feel any sorrow.
Never will a Lover's robe
be touched by mortals.
Never will a Lover's body
be found buried in the earth.
To Love is to reach God.
2. The Lovers
will drink wine night and day.
They will drink until they can
tear away the veils of intellect and
melt away the layers of shame and modesty.
When in Love,
body, mind, heart and soul don't even exist.
Become this,
fall in Love,
and you will not be separated again.
3. Love rests on no foundation.
It is an endless ocean,
with no beginning or end.
Imagine,
a suspended ocean,
riding on a cushion of ancient secrets.
All souls have drowned in it,
and now dwell there.
One drop of that ocean is hope,
and the rest is fear.
There is lots of stuff at this link, so people less easily annoyed than I can decide if they'd like to read him:
rumi.net
SORRY!
'Night. |
