By Jalaluddin Rumi
Translated by A.J. Arberry
I have come so that, tugging your ear, I may draw you to me,
unheart and unself you, plant you in my heart and soul.
Rosebush, I have come a sweet springtide unto you, to seize
you very gently in my embrace and squeeze you.
I have come to adorn you in this worldly abode, to convey you
above the skies like lovers' prayers.
I have come because you stole a kiss from an idol fair; give it
back with a glad heart, master, for I will seize you back.
What is a mere rose? You are the All, you are the speaker of
the command "Say." If no one else knows you, since you are I, I know you.
You are my soul and spirit, you are my Fatiha-chanter, be-
come altogether the Fatiha, so that I may chant you in my heart.
You are my quarry and game, though you have sprung from
the snare; return to the snare, and if you will not, I will drive you.
The lion said to me, "You are a wonderous deer; be gone! Why
do you run in my wake so swiftly? I will tear you to pieces."
Accept my blow, and advance like a hero's shield;
give your ear to naught but the bowstring, that I may bend you like a bow.
So many thousand stages there are from earth's bounds to
man; I have brought you from city to city, I will not leave you by the roadside.
Say nothing, froth not, do not raise the lid of the cauldron;
simmer well, and be patient, for I am cooking you.
No, for you are a lion's whelp hidden in a deer's body: I will
cause you suddenly to transcend the deer's veil.
You are my ball, and you run in the curved mallet of my
decree; though I am making you to run, I am still running in your track.
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Dementordelta and I had a long-delayed lunch-and-movie day on Thursday, which got postponed the Monday before last because I had a bunch of pre-college chores to do with older son and earlier this week because she had no power at her store until yesterday courtesy Hurricane Irene. It was worth the wait, though: we went out to Lebanese Taverna, then came back to my house and watched a bunch of Colin Firth movies -- Main Street, Dorian Gray, and Guess What Else (younger son said we had to be kidding him when he got back from cross country practice, plus we started watching Munich, which we had both seen before, but decided we were just not in the mood for a story that grim).
It was Back To School Night at the high school in the evening, which is always fun for me because I run into parents of other kids whom I've known for years but don't see as often now that our kids don't play soccer together etc. This morning we finally managed to get son into painting, meaning that he had to rearrange his schedule and had a different teacher for AP government than he had earlier in the week (whom he likes, so that was a nice side effect). He hates the county English curriculum, which makes me sad because he's a good writer, but he loves Chinese and his honors bio teacher seems very good, plus he's taking photography again.
Speaking of photography, here are some photos of the orangutans at the National Zoo just as the rain started last weekend; one spent some time trying to hide under a piece of cardboard, then gave up and they both went swinging across the O-line to the Think Tank.
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