YOU WAKE THE DEAD TO LIFE — free as the sky

By Rumi (Translated by Haleh Liza Gafori)

You wake the dead to life,
you fountain of grace,
you fire in thickets of tangled thought.

Today you arrived beaming with laughter—
that swinging key that unlocks prison doors.

You are hope’s beating heart.
You are a doorway to the sun.
You are the one I seek and the one who seeks me.
Beginning and end.

You greet need with generous hands.
You flood us with spirit,

rising from the heart,
lifting thought.

Rare one, you reveal the pleasure
of wisdom and practice.

Beyond these, what is there
but excuses and deceit?

We lust after the afterlife.
We stew over trinkets.
We stage battles between black and white.
Our ears are plugged with twisted delusions.

You carry the cure.

Silence!
I’m in a hurry. Leave the paper. Break the pen.
The cupbearer is here, jug in hand.

Meet us in the land of insight,
camped under ecstasy’s flag.”

Being an avid listener of Poetry Unbound, with Pádraig Ó Tuama as the unparalleled host, I gifted myself the book, 50 Poems to Open Your World. I have not opened the book as I am planning to digest the book during my travels next year.

A couple of weeks ago, the above poem by Rumi was read and interpreted by Ó Tuama, an Irish poet. Rumi is still considered one of the most beloved poets, more than 700 years after his death. As a mystic, his voice still reverberates widely and his inspiration finds common ground with other mystics around the world. Since his poems are time and culture-bound, they are not easy to comprehend. I have appreciated and resonated with a handful of his poems over the years.

This poem first of all is a poem of friendship, as I learned that “you” in the above poem is Shams, one of Rumi’s closest friends. “You” also can and do mean God or Allah, I am sure, in Rumi’s mind.

Today, I take time to reflect on friendship, friendship with fellow pilgrims, and with God. I will share a couple of reflections. “The key that unlocks prison doors” is the very key of true friendship. True friendship does not control or take captive each other’s soul but allows our souls to be free. Freedom of our souls exists for one grand purpose—love. Love that is not born out of freedom is not true love. Freedom from “whatever holds us captive” clears distractions and obstacles, but freedom to love, which to me is a deeper freedom, bestows existential meaning and value. The very gift of friendship gifts each other the freedom to love.

I love the crescendo of “You flood us with spirit, rising from the heart, lifting thought.” Our spirit gets flooded, and our hearts rise as a result, impacting how we think, how we see, and how we behave. Our thought (chatterbox, really) or ego does not run our life anymore. It’s the act of generosity from the friendship that corrects and restores how we live our lives, from spirit to heart to thought, not the other way around. Thank you, friends! Thank you, God!