Day 29 - The Awakening - by Rumi

I love love love Rumi's poetry. Everytime I read it - his writings and his poems, posted on the internet or in books - I get a chill or spill a tear or feel enveloped with some glimmer of a deeper understanding. This man, born in Persia in 1207 AD in what would today be Afganistan, this man understood life, he understood something greater than life, he understood some deep mysterious spiritual connection.

When Rumi was 18, he and his family migrated west due to the mongol invasion. On this journey, he met Attar, one of the most renowned poets of the time. This quote is from Wikipedia:

"Rumi encountered one of the most famous mystic Persian poets, Attar, in the Iranian city of Nishapur, located in the province of Khorāsān. Attar immediately recognized Rumi's spiritual eminence. He saw the father walking ahead of the son and said, "Here comes a sea followed by an ocean." He gave the boy his Asrārnāma, a book about the entanglement of the soul in the material world. This meeting had a deep impact on the eighteen-year-old Rumi and later on became the inspiration for his works."

Rumi passed through Bagdad, made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and finally settled in Turkey. Rumi is buried in Konya, Turkey, where I visited his mausoleum at the Mevlana Musem in 2004.

Here is my spoken version of this poem:
https://soundcloud.com/raindrop-11/the-awakening

THE AWAKENING

In the early dawn of happiness
you gave me three kisses
so that I would wake up
to this moment of love

I tried to remember in my heart
what I’d dreamt about
during the night
before I became aware
of this moving
of life

I found my dreams
but the moon took me away
It lifted me up to the firmament
and suspended me there
I saw how my heart had fallen
on your path
singing a song

Between my love and my heart
things were happening which
slowly slowly
made me recall everything

You amuse me with your touch
although I can’t see your hands.
You have kissed me with tenderness
although I haven’t seen your lips
You are hidden from me.

But it is you who keeps me alive

Perhaps the time will come
when you will tire of kisses
I shall be happy
even for insults from you
I only ask that you
keep some attention on me.

- Rumi