Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?
Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty
and sees the moon reflected in it?
Who, like Jacob, blind with grief and age,
smells the shirt of his son and can see again?
Who lets a bucket down
and brings up a flowing prophet?
Or like Moses goes for fire
and finds what burns inside the sunrise?
Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies,
and opens a door to the other world.
Solomon cuts open a fish, and there's a gold ring.
Omar storms in to kill the prophet
and leaves with blessings.
Chase a deer and end up everywhere!
An oyster opens his mouth to swallow one drop.
Now there's a pearl.
A vagrant wanders empty ruins
Suddenly he's wealthy.
But
don't be satisfied with stories,
how things
have gone with others.
Unfold your
own myth,
without
complicated explanation,
so everyone
will understand the passage,
We have
opened you. . . .
Start
walking toward Shams. Your legs will get heavy
And
tired. Then comes a moment
Of
feeling the wings you’ve grown,
Lifting.
From
The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks. Rumi didn't title his poems but this is how this one has come to be known. "Shams" was Rumi's mentor or guru. In his devotion to this teacher he was in search of himself, which is the "point" behind all of the examples he gives (I think). In each, the searcher finds something that surpasses his intended goal or purpose. Moses goes out for firewood, for example, and finds a burning bush, God, instead. Beautiful yes? As is the suggestion that the divine mysteries and deepest secrets of our existence are all around us.
