these poems by John Keats pair nicely with the following poems by Ibn al-Farid and Hafez John Keats “Fill for me a brimming bowl” What wondrous beauty! From this moment I efface from my mind all women. Terrence, Eunuch, II.3.296 Fill for me a brimming bowl And in it let me drown my soul: But put therein…
Nightingale: Keats and Hafez
Hafez sang: بلبلى خون جگر خورد و گلى حاصل كرد باد غيرت به صادش خار پريشان دل كرد طوطيى را به خيال شكرى دل خوش بود ناگهش سيل فنا نقش امل باطل كرد Gertrude Bell’s translation: The nightingale with drops of his heart’s blood Had nourished the red rose, then came a wind, And catching…
I carry your heart
This lovely poem by e.e. cummings sounds like it could have been written by Rumi: [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by e.e. cummings i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your…
Bright Night, Dark Day
Shabistari The Rose Garden of Mystery (verses 122-130) Reason’s light applied to the Essence of Lights is like the eye of the head looking at the brilliance of the Sun when the object seen is very close to the eye The eye is darkened so that it cannot see it This blackness, if you know it, is…
Like a Candle…
from Figs and Thistles: First Fig BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends— It gives a lovely light! Source: Poetry (June 1918). Hafez Translation: In faithfulness to your love, I am famous like the candle In…
Flee
❊ ففرّوا الى الله ❊ So flee to God… (Qur’an 51:50) اعوذ بك منك I seek refuge in You from You (Hadith) Rumi Flee to God’s Qur’an, take refuge in it there with the spirits of the prophets merge. The Book conveys the prophets’ circumstances those fish of the pure sea of Majesty. …
Shakespeare, Shushtari, and the Sultan
Sonnet 29 When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself, and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man’s art, and…
Lovers never die
Hafez: هرگز نمیرد آن که دلش زنده شد به عشق ثبت است بر جریده عالم دوام ما He whose heart has been revived by love will never die Our eternity has been written in the record of the world Me: Lips scalded by love’s tongues of…
Compasses
Abu Sa’īd Abu’l Khayr (10th-11th C) Translation: You and I, my love, are a pair of compasses though divided in twain, in body we are one We circle on a point, anon like compasses at the end we bring our heads together as one. Translation: Reza Ourdoubadian. The Poems of Abu Sa’id Abu’l…
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips, bidding adieu
Hafez Come tell me what it is that I have gained From loving you, Apart from losing all the faith I had And knowledge too? Though longing for you scatters on the wind All my life’s work Still, by the dust on your dear feet, I have kept faith with you And even…