By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Balkh, northern Afghanistan
Sunday, 30 September 2007
For many years now, the most popular poet in America has been a 13th-century mystical Muslim scholar.
Rumi made Sufi mysticism popular (Courtesy: Haydar Hatemi)
Translations of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi's - better known as Rumi - verse are hugely popular and have been used by Western pop stars such as Madonna.
They are attracted by his tributes to the power of love and his belief in the spiritual use of music and dancing - although scholars stress that he was talking about spiritual love between people and God, not earthly love.
Rumi, whose 800th birth anniversary falls on Sunday, was born in 1207 in Balkh in Central Asia, now part of Afghanistan.
I came here to see whether he has much resonance in his native country which, under the Taleban, went so far as to ban music.
Still standing
A young Afghan archaeologist, Reza Hosseini, took me to the ruins of the mud-and-brick-built khanaqa - a kind of madrassa or religious school - where Rumi's father taught and the young boy is believed to have studied, lying just outside the old mud city walls and probably within yards of his birthplace.
It is a quiet and melancholy place, the structure eroded and encroached on by shrubs and bushes.
An amazing amount of the madrassa is still surprisingly intact
But an amazing amount of it is still standing - the square structure, its four arches with pointed tops, in the Islamic style, and half of the graceful dome.
Mr Hosseini says the floor was originally constructed of baked bricks and lined with carpets donated by those who came to share the learning.
Sufism - or Islamic mysticism - was already enshrined here before Rumi's time and Mr Hosseini imagines that this corner of the town, by the madrassa, would have echoed to the sound of Sufi singing and prayer.
But, he says, it is unclear how widespread, or acceptable, practices such as music and dance were in the wider population.
When Rumi was barely out of his teens, Balkh was reduced to rubble by Genghis Khan's marauding Mongol invaders.
Rumi had fled in advance with his family and settled in Konya, now in Turkey.
After the murder of his close friend, a Persian wandering dervish called Shams-i-Tabriz, he was depressed for years but later wrote his greatest poetic work, the Mathnawi.
It describes the soul's separation from God and the mutual yearning to reunite.
With his injunctions of tolerance and love, he has universal appeal, says Abdul Qadir Misbah, a culture specialist in the Balkh provincial government.
"Whether a person is from East or West, he can feel the roar of Rumi," he says.
Great love
"When a religious scholar reads the Mathnawi, he interprets it religiously. And when sociologists study it, they say how powerful a sociologist Rumi was. When people in the West study it, they see that it's full of emotions of humanity."
The Sufi mystical tradition is not immediately apparent in modern Afghanistan.
But with Mr Hosseini's help, I traced a small group of eight Sufi musicians in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif whose great love is Rumi's poetry.
First there is a solo from Rumi's favoured instrument, the reed flute.
Then the flute player is joined by Mohammed Zakir, usually a shopkeeper, who fills the room with his powerful voice in interpreting the words "I'm a man who's not afraid of love; I'm a moth who's not afraid of burning".
In the third song, all the men join in with an extraordinary, percussive vocal sound which, Mr Zakir says, comes straight from the heart. It continues for nearly 10 intense minutes.
I meet Professor Abdulah Rohen, a local expert on the poet, who says that, regrettably, knowledge of Rumi - also known as Mawlana - has declined recently.
"Forty years ago the economic situation of the people was good. People would work in the summer time collecting food and would eat it in winter. In winter they were free. They would gather in mosques and sing Mawlana's poems.
'Disfavour'
"But in the past 10 or 15 years people's economic situation has deteriorated, so they are far from Mawlana."
He says the advent of communism in Afghanistan brought poetry into disfavour because it was seen as backward-looking.
The reed flute was Rumi's favourite instrument
Then the Taleban attempted to crush Sufism and outlawed all music, but Prof Rohen says it has since regained huge popularity.
According to him, Rumi brought Sufi mysticism away from asceticism and into the heart of the people.
Many western fans of Rumi have secularised his message.
It was in fact a religious one; and, says Prof Rohen, Christians and Jews as well as Muslims flocked to his funeral.
I ask him to sum up the poet's message and he offers a quote.
"Mawlana says - if the sky is not in love, then it will not be so clear. If the sun is not in love, then it will not be giving any light. If the river is not in love, then it will be in silence, it will not be moving. If the mountains, the earth are not in love, then there will be nothing growing."http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7016090.stm
- posted on 10/04/2007
鲁米
玛萨那维(Mathnavi)
第一卷
她是天主的光辉
水能浇灭了火,火不是也能煮开水么?
一口锅隔开了水和火,水便消失在空气里了。
欺压女子的人啊,你就像那灭了火的水,
你渴望女人的欲望将永远焦渴。
人啊,不是只有你才懂得爱么?
不正是爱,让你得以胜过那些野兽么?
先知说,被女人支配的男人是聪明、睿智的男人,
只有愚昧的男人才想制服女人,粗暴而凶恶。
被兽性支配着的人啊,你哪里知道什么是温馨,轻柔。
要知道,懂得爱和关怀的是人,满是怒气和淫欲的是兽。
她岂止是你的爱——她是天主的光辉。
你可以说,她没有被创造——她就是创造者。
八十一子译自英语
English translation by Reynold A. Nicholson
- posted on 10/04/2007
I love Rumi and 8 ye very much :-)))
八十一子 wrote:
鲁米
玛萨那维(Mathnavi)
第一卷
她是天主的光辉
水能浇灭了火,火不是也能煮开水么?
一口锅隔开了水和火,水便消失在空气里了。
欺压女子的人啊,你就像那灭了火的水,
你渴望女人的欲望将永远焦渴。
人啊,不是只有你才懂得爱么?
不正是爱,让你得以胜过那些野兽么?
先知说,被女人支配的男人是聪明、睿智的男人,
只有愚昧的男人才想制服女人,粗暴而凶恶,
被兽性支配着的人啊,你哪里知道什么是温馨,轻柔。
要知道,懂得爱的是人,不懂得爱的是兽。
她岂止是你的爱——她是天主的光辉。
你可以说,她没有被创造——她就是创造者。
八十一子译自英语
English translation by Reynold A. Nicholson
- posted on 10/04/2007
She Is a Ray of The Beauty of God
Mathnawi I: 2429-37
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Water overpowers fire by (its) terror, (yet) it boils when it is
inside a partition.
(For) when a pot becomes the screen between (these) two, it
makes the water vanish (and) turns it (into) air.
If you dominate women outwardly, like water (over fire), you are
dominated inwardly and you are seeking [and boiling in desire for]
women.
This is such a special quality in mankind, (since) love is lacking
in animals, which is due to (their) deficiency.
The Prophet said, "Women become very dominant over wise and
pious (men),
"Yet ignorant (men) become dominant over women"-- because
they go (about) in a rash and very hot-tempered (manner).
They are lacking tenderness, kindness, and love because
animality dominates over (their) nature.
Love and tenderness are qualities of humanity, (while) anger and
lust are qualities of animality.
She is a ray of [the Beauty of] God; she is not a beloved.
She is a creator; you may say that she is not created. - Re: ZT: The roar of Rumi - 800 years onposted on 10/04/2007
July wrote:
I love Rumi and 8 ye very much :-)))
because I am a wise man? :-)) - Re: ZT: The roar of Rumi - 800 years onposted on 10/04/2007
Certainly :-)
八十一子 wrote:
July wrote:because I am a wise man? :-))
I love Rumi and 8 ye very much :-)))
- posted on 10/04/2007
古兰经 第五十五章 至仁主(安赖哈曼)
这章是麦地那的,全章共计七八节
奉至仁慈的真主之名
一 至仁主,
二 曾教授《古兰经》,
三 他创造了人,
四 并教人修辞。
五 日月是依定数而运行的。
六 草木是顺从他的意旨的。
七 他曾将天升起。他曾规定公平,
八 以免你们用称不公。
九 你们应当秉公地仅守衡度,你们不要使所称之物份量不足。
一零 他为众生而将大地放下。
一一 大地上有水果,和有花篦的海枣,
一二 与有秆的五谷和香草。
一三 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
一四 他曾用陶器般的干土创造人,
一五 他用火焰创造精灵。
一六 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
一七 他是两个东方的主,也是两个西方的主。
一八 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
一九 他曾任两海相交而会合,
二零 两海之间,有一个堤防,两海互不侵犯。
二一 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
二二 他从两海中取出大珍珠和小珍珠。
二三 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
二四 在海中桅帆高举,状如山峦的船舶,只是他的。
二五 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
二六 凡在大地上的,都要毁灭;
二七 惟有你的主的本体,具有尊严与大德,将永恒存在。
二八 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
二九 凡在天地间的都仰求他;他时时都有事物。
三零 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
三一 精灵和人类啊!我将专心应付你们。
三二 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
三三 精灵和人类的群众啊!如果你们能通过天地的境界,你们就通过吧!你们必须凭据一种权柄,才能通过。
三四 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
三五 火焰和火烟将被降于你们,而你们不能自卫。
三六 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
三七 当天破离的时候,天将变成玫瑰色,好像红皮一样。
三八 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
三九 在那日,任何人和精灵都不因罪过而受审问。
四零 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
四一 犯罪者将因他们的形迹而被认识,他们的额发将被系在脚掌上。
四二 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
四三 这是犯罪者所否认的火狱。
四四 他们将往来于火狱和沸水之间。
四五 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
四六 凡怕站在主的御前受审问者,都得享受两座乐园。
四七 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
四八 那两座乐园,是有各种果树的。
四九 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
五零 在那两座乐园里,有两洞流行的泉源。
五一 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
五二 在那两座乐园里,每种水果,都有两样。
五三 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
五四 他们靠在用锦缎做里子的坐褥上,那两座乐园的水果,都是手所能及的。
五五 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
五六 在那些乐园中,有不视非礼的妻子;在他们的妻子之前,任何人和任何精灵都未与她们交接过。
五七 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
五八 她们好像红宝石和小珍珠一样。
五九 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
六零 行善者,只受善报。
六一 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
六二 次于那两座乐园的,还有两座乐园。
六三 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
六四 那两座乐园都是苍翠的。
六五 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
六六 在那两座乐园里,有两洞涌出的泉源。
六七 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
六八 在那两座乐园里,有水果,有海枣,有石榴。
六九 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
七零 在那些乐园里,有许多贤淑佳丽的女子。
七一 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
七二 她们是白皙的,是蛰居于帐幕中的。
七三 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
七四 在他们的妻子之前,任何人或精灵,都未曾与她们交接过。
七五 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
七六 他们靠在翠绿的坐褥和美丽的花毯上。
七七 你们究竟否认你们的主的哪一件恩典呢?
七八 多福哉,你具尊严和大德的主的名号!
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