ways_back_room | Because quoting poetry is a long tradition around here

dredpiratejenny's gorgeous fic has given me the seeds of a fic involving Rumi's poetry, and so I've been reading through it to find a good one to work into an A/C story.

And, ye gods, it's all perfect.

Jalaluddin Rumi was a 13th century Anatolian poet, a Sufi (i.e. Muslim mystic) who wrote ecstatic verses about love, God, separation from the beloved (who is also God), and the omnipresence of God and love. I give you excerpts from the very first poem I read today:

We Can See the Truth in Your Eyes
translated by Jonathan Star

For ages you have come and gone
courting this delusion.
For ages you have run from the pain
and forfeited the ecstasy.
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

Although you appear in earthly form
Your essence is pure Consciousness
You are the fearless guardian
of Divine Light.
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

...

You were born from the rays of God's Majesty
when the stars were in their perfect place.
How long will you suffer from the blows
of a nonexistent hand?
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

You are a ruby encased in granite.
How long will you deceive Us with this outer show?
O friend, We can see the truth in your eyes!
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

After one moment with that glorious Friend
you became loving, radiant, and ecstatic.
Your eyes were sweet and full of fire.
Come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

Shams-e Tabriz¹, the King of the Tavern,
has handed you an eternal cup,
And God in all His glory is pouring the wine.
So come! Drink!
Return to the root of the root
of your own soul...

¹Shams-e Tabriz was Rumi's teacher; whether or not they had a sexual relationship is hotly debated, but at any rate Rumi portrays Shams as the personification of the Beloved who consumes the poet's thought and leads him to union with God (who is also the Beloved.)

Because quoting poetry is a long tradition around here

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