an almost accidental gathering of poets
 
   
 
 
Rumi
1203 - 1276
lived in Persia

Translated by Coleman Barks

On the importance of dancing

One day Rumi went through the bazaar when he approached the section of the silversmiths. They were hammering silver with little hammers. Rumi suddenly recognized the perfect rhythm in what he heard. He spontaneously started turning around and around himself to the rhythm in the middle of the bazaar. Finally he reached ecstasy, fainted and fell down. Later he said that dancing like this is the only way to meet the gods. The complete emptiness created inside oneself furnishes the room for the gods and us to meet. This is said to be the beginning of the dancing of the mad dervishes. Rumi was convinced that madness is the only 'normal' state of mind in this godless world. The German word "verrückt" describes what is meant even more precisely meaning "having been moved away from the center (of what the 'normal' people like to think)".
Gedichte von Rumi
1
In your light I have learned how to love ...
2
I have a thirsty fish in me ...
3
Language and music are only possible ...
4
One night, the moon had just taken off ...
5
We have a huge barrel of wine, but no cups ...
6
There is a community of the spirit ...
7
First when I was apart from you ...
8
In the slaughterhouse of love, they kill ...
9
Inside this new love, die ...
10
You have said what you are ...
11
Dance, when you´re broken open ...
12
Pale sunlight ...
13
When I am with you, we stay up all night ...
14
I am filled with you ...
15
If you want what visible reality ...
16
The minute I heard my first love story ...
17
I have lived on the lip ...
18
Real value comes with madness ...
19
I stand up, and this one of me ...
20
Turn as the earth and the moon turn ...
21
Friend, our closeness is this ...
22
Soul of the world ...
23
Essence is ...
24
Out beyond ideas of ...
25
When I remember your love ...
26
How do we keep our love-secret ...
27
How will you know ...
28
There´s a strange ...
29
In a boat down a fast-running river ...
30
I´ve given up on my brain ...
31
No better love than love with no object ...
32
Don´t try to put out a fire ...
33
The sun is love. The lover ...
34
What strange beings ...
35
I have no more words ...
 
   
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