This we have now
is not imagination.
This is not grief,
or joy, not a judging state,
or an elation, or a sadness.
Those come and go.
This is the presence
that doesn't.
It's dawn, Husam,
here is the splendor of coral,
inside the Friend, in the simple truth
of what Hallaj said.
What else could human beings want?
When grapes turn to wine,
they're wanting this.
When the night sky pours by,
it's really a crowd of beggars,
and they all want some of this.
This we are now
created the body, cell by cell,
like bees building a honeycomb.
The human body and the universe
grew from this, not this
from the universe and the human body.
*translated by Coleman Barks
The idea of the Presence not containing emotion in the first four lines was fabulous. The idea of grief and happiness must mean there has been something to compare it to. Even the idea of beauty...we must know it is beautiful because we have seen the not beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHe examines the coral color of the dawn and relates it to the "simple truth"...
opposite of emotion being present...but color is?
Husam & Hulaj- seems to be names? He is talking to someone.
We are "like bees building the honeycomb" we have a present, a future, and a past...product. There was a beginning..."the human body and the universe grew from this" [the Present?]. Not [the Present] from the universe and the human body. Comparing the idea of the "Source" to the present moment. The present moment is supernatural...
"When grapes turn to wine, they're wanting this."....? The grapes are aging...they want to be Present? "what else could human beings want?" This was interesting to me...a lot of the times we strive for wisdom and knowledge and this poem possibly suggests for us not to age as grapes into wine, but to want to be presence. To not have the awareness even of emotion...to be like the color of the dawn.
I didn't understand the night sky of beggars. The stars yearning for what humans have? The stars are aging, dying as we speak...they want presence too? How does the universe here relate to human life? The universe ages....but he compares it to the human body. The chicken/egg...
http://thechalk.blogspot.com/2011/01/rumi-and-husam.html
ReplyDeleteHusan wrote Rumi's poems according to this blogger. Al-Hallaj was a Persian mystic in the like Rumi.
He seems to be about God. No God but God. God is above the universe and people. It all comes from him.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansur_Al-Hallaj
Just added more complexity to the poem. Hallaj said "I am the Truth."
Human beings want Truth? From my brief searches Rumi was a Muslim and Al-Hallaj was too. It'd be interesting to know what Islam was like then because it would probably at the the message.
But back to the poem, it suggests people wanting Truth and God being the keeper or answer to that Truth.
Eastern philosophy poetry versus Western philosophy is ringing with me...this poem really reminds me of what my Dad said to me last year, "once you know the Source, then everything else will make sense". He assumes there is a Source. Is there, indeed, a beginning to everything? In a linear world, yes. But we know, as quantum physics suggests, that there is a lot more than human life in this universe. Everything does not operate on a linear scale. So, in the end, if the universe is not linear, how can human life be linear too? Is there really a Source at all? Or is, God, as Rumi suggests, the present. The presence of life. We die, but we remain. We are linear but then we are not.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the purpose of consciousness in a linear world? To only become aware that we are not? Then consciousness disappears.
There seems to be patterning to life and randomness. There seems to be such a perfection (the more I study nutrition and the perfection of whole foods and their effects on the human body versus reductionist ideas of individual vitamins never being able to satisfy us) the more fascinating the whole idea seems. Animals and Earth and Humans are so perfect...
a lot of ancient biblical texts state, "man was made in the image of god"...so god therefore has consciousness and not consciousness? lives and dies or is the idea of a higher power eternal? if so, are we?
Rumi says, "this we are now created the body"....life created from the present state.
Human's perceive their lives to be linear. But how often are our perceptions wrong? Almost always...
ReplyDeleteThis ties back to the Plato allegory a bit.
Evolution shapes things to appear perfect. But if we looked closer, we could find many imperfections. Even nutrition, it seems perfect because we evolved in certain conditions that favored certain traits and genes.
We could look at this closer, but I'd have to double check and do a little research. The last 5 things I typed I deleted because I wasn't sure I knew what I was talking about. And I'm at the airport on my iPad which is about to die