Edward

On Rumi
A Note on the Organization of This Book

The Tavern: Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home

On The Tavern

--Who Says Words with My Mouth?
--We have a huge barrel of wine ...
--A Community of the Spirit
--There's a strange frenzy in my head ...
--Drunks fear the police ...
--A Children's Game
--Gone, inner and outer ...
--The wine we really drink ...
--The Many Wines
--Special Plates
--Burnt Kabob
--The New Rule
--This that is tormented ...

Bewilderment: I Have Five Things to Say

On Bewilderment

--I Have Five Things to Say
--Acts of Helplessness
--Saladin's Begging Bowl
--Late, by myself ...
--Does sunset sometimes look ...
--Be Melting Snow
--The Fragile Vial
--Where Are We?
--The Friend comes into my body ...
--There is a light seed grain ...
--Do you think I know ...

Emptiness and Silence: The Night Air

On Silence

--The Reed Flute's Song
--A Thirsty Fish
--Enough Words?
--This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness
--Quietness
--Sinai
--A Just-Finishing Candle
--Craftsmanship and Emptiness
--Emptiness
--When you are with everyone but me ...
--No Flag
--The Food Sack
--The Night Air
--Only Breath
--There is a way between voice ...

Spring Giddiness: Stand in the Wake of This Chattering and Grow Airy

On Spring Giddiness

--Spring
--Where Everything Is Music
--A Great Wagon
--Today, like every other day ...
--Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing ...
--The breeze at dawn ...
--I would love to kiss you ...
--Daylight, full of small dancing particles ...
--They try to say what you are ...
--Come to the orchard in Spring ...
--Spring is Christ
--Shreds of Steam
--The Steambath
--The Ground Cries Out
--Unfold Your Own Myth
--Not a Day on Any Calendar
--Flutes for Dancing
--The Shape of My Tongue
--The Grasses
--The Sheikh Who Played with Children
--Let the lover be disgraceful ...
--All day and night, music ...

Feeling Separation: Don't Come Near Me

On Separation

--Sometimes I Forget Completely
--A Man and a Woman Arguing
--A night full of talking that hurts ...
--An Empty Garlic
--The Diver's Clothes Lying Empty ...
--Red Shirt
--My Worst Habit
--Don't let your throat tighten ...
--Dissolver of Sugar
--Pale sunlight ...

Controlling the Desire-Body: How Did You Kill Your Rooster, Husam?

On The Desire-Body

--Sexual Urgency, What a Woman's Laughter Can Do, and the Nature of True Virility
--Tattooing in Qazwin
--The Center of the Fire
--Someone who goes with half a loaf ...
--The mystery does not get clearer ...
--Muhammad and the Huge Eater
--Fasting
--Bismillah
--Wean Yourself
--After the Meditation
--The Dog in the Doorway
--The light you give off ...
--Tending Two Shops
--Think that you're gliding out ...

Sohbet: Meetings on the Riverbank

On Sohbet

--Talking in the Night
--Talking Through the Door
--A Mouse and a Frog
--The Long String
--The Force of Friendship
--The Vigil
--Two Friends
--The Servant Who Loved His Prayers
--Imra'u 'l-Qays
--All Rivers at Once
--The Blocked Road
--A Babbling Child
--Who sees inside from outside? ...
--Constant Conversation
--Bonfire at Midnight
--In Between Stories
--The Question
--The Music
--I saw you last night in the gathering ...
--The Tent
--Friend, our closeness is this ...
--Listen to presences ...

Being a Lover: The Sunrise Ruby

On Being a Lover

--The Sunrise Ruby
--Water from Your Spring
--You Sweep the Floor
--Each Note
--Granite and Wineglass
--Buoyancy
--Music Master
--When I am with you ...
--The minute I heard my first love story ...
--We are the mirror as well as the face ...
--I want to hold you close ...
--Someone Digging in the Ground
--The Phrasing Must Change
--The Guest House

The Pickaxe: Getting to the Treasure Beneath the Foundation

On The Pickaxe

--Who Makes These Changes?
--Why Wine Is Forbidden
--On Resurrection Day
--The Dream That Must Be Interpreted
--The Pickaxe
--Zikr
--The Core of Masculinity
--I honor those who try ...
--Dervish at the Door

Art as Flirtation with Surrender: Wanting New Silk Harp Strings

On Flirtation

--Omar and the Old Poet
--An Egypt That Doesn't Exist
--Chinese Art and Greek Art
--In your light I learn ...
--Drumsound rises on the air ...
--Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity? ...

Union: Gnats Inside the Wind

On Union

--Gnats Inside the Wind
--Meadow-sounds
--Ayaz and the King's Pearl
--Put This Design in Your Carpet
--Hallaj
--We Three
--I am filled with you ...

The Sheikh: I Have Such a Teacher

On The Sheikh

--Chickpea to Cook
--I Have Such a Teacher
--Sublime Generosity
--Like This
--A Bowl
--Wax
--No Room for Form
--Childhood Friends
--The Mouse and the Camel
--These gifts from the Friend ...
--The Lame Goat

Recognizing Elegance: Your Reasonable Father

On Elegance

--Father Reason
--A craftsman pulled a reed ...
--Humble living does not diminish ...
--New Moon, Hilal
--Body Intelligence
--The Seed Market

The Howling Necessity: Cry Out in Your Weakness

On Howling

--Love Dogs
--Cry Out in Your Weakness
--The Debtor Sheikh
--You that come to birth ...

Teaching Stories: How the Unseen World Works

On The Unseen

--Nasuh
--Moses and the Shepherd
--Joy at Sudden Disappointment
--If the beloved is everywhere ...
--Story Water

Rough Metaphors: More Teaching Stories

On Roughness

--Rough Metaphors
--Birdwings
--I Come Before Dawn
--Checkmate
--An Awkward Comparison
--Two Kinds of Intelligence
--Two Ways of Running
--The Importance of Gourdcrafting
--Breadmaking

Solomon Poems: The Far Mosque

On Solomon

--Sheba's Gifts to Solomon
--Solomon to Sheba
--Sheba's Hesitation
--Sheba's Throne
--Solomon's Crooked Crown
--The Far Mosque
--A bird delegation came to Solomon ...

The Three Fish: Gamble Everything for Love

On Gambling

--If you want what visible reality ...
--Gamble everything ...
--In a boat down a fast-running creek ...
--The Three Fish
--Send the Chaperones Away
--When I remember your love ...
--All our lives we've looked ...
--The Gift of Water

Jesus Poems: The Population of the World

On Jesus

--I called through your door ...
--Jesus on the Lean Donkey
--What Jesus Runs Away From
--Christ is the population ...
--There's Nothing Ahead

In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: More Teaching Stories

On Baghdad

--In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad
--Dying, Laughing
--Human Honesty
--Dalqak's Message
--The Cat and the Meat
--Sheikh Kharraqani and His Wretched Wife
--The Snake-Catcher and the Frozen Snake
--Polishing the Mirror
--Ali in Battle

Beginning and End: The Stories That Frame the 'Mathnawi'

On The Frame

--The King and the Handmaiden and the Doctor
--The Three Brothers and the Chinese Princess

Green Ears Everywhere: Children Running Through

On Children Running Through

--I used to be shy ...
--Green Ears
--Birdsong brings relief ...
--The way of love is not ...
--Let your throat-song ...
--I have phrases and whole pages ...
--You've so distracted me ...
--I'm Not Saying This Right
--The Least Figure
--I reach for a piece of wood ...

Being Woven: Communal Practice

On Being Woven

--Of Being Woven
--The Waterwheel
--The Granary Floor
--A Song About a Donkey
--Elephant in the Dark

Wished-For Song: Secret Practices

On Secrecy

--A Wished-For Song
--A Basket of Fresh Bread
--When We Pray Alone
--One Who Wraps Himself
--Deliberation
--The Private Banquet
--We are the night ocean ...
--Which is worth more, a crowd ...

Majesty: This We Have Now

On Majesty

--This We Have Now
--The Visions of Daquqi
--The Worm's Waking
--The Freshness
--Judge a Moth by the Beauty of Its Candle
--The morning wind spreads ...
--Slave, be aware ...

Evolutionary Intelligence: Say I Am You

On Evolving

--A Dove in the Eaves
--We have this way of talking ...
--This piece of food ...
--In the slaughterhouse of love ...
--The Witness, the Darling
--In the Arc of Your Mallet
--Unmarked Boxes
--The Milk of Millennia
--The You Pronoun
--Birdsong from Inside the Egg
--Say I Am You

The Turn: Dance in Your Blood

On The Turn

--Inside water, a waterwheel ...
--You have said what you are ...
--A secret turning in us ...
--This moment this love comes to rest ...
--Keep walking, though there's no place ...
--Walk to the well ...
--I circle your nest ...
--No better love than love ...
--Some nights stay up ...
--I am so small ...
--When you feel your lips ...
--The sun is love ...
--Something opens our wings ...
--Held like this ...
--I stand up, and this one of me ...
--I have lived on the lip ...
--Real value comes with madness ...
--Dance, when you're broken open ...

Notes
A Note on These Translations and a Few Recipes
References
Index of Titles and First Lines