Disillusionment

Disillusionment

This Rumi poem turns to a realized being:

از کفر و ز اسلام برون صحرائیست

ما را به میان آن فضا سودائیست

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Out beyond right and wrong*,

there is a desert

The desert beckons us

as if it were the oasis

We long to hold one another

in its lush grass

and drink from the clear spring

The moon whispers in my ear:

I have one foot in that desert

But don’t ask me to meet you there

For in that desert of disillusionment,

just as with right and wrong,

you and I and even oneness

cease to exist

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*In the original text, Rumi uses “idolatry” for wrong and “Islam” for right

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Copyright © 2015 Carmen Costello and Ari Honarvar