In the Middle East, Rumi’s great work, the
Mathnavi, is often spoken of as being on a level of revelation second
only to the Koran. It came forth spontaneously, and fully formed as
complex densely rhymed and metered poetry.
All his work is full of subtleties, word-play, puns
and cultural references which are only fully understandable in Farsi,
the language in which it arrived. Obviously to convey the quality of
the original—in English is impossible.
Rather than translations, the poems in ONE SONG
should be considered as “renderings,” cups of water scooped
from a great and unknowable mystical river.
Rather than try and capture every nuance, I have
contemplated these portions, in scholarly translation, tried to fathom
the essential point therein–and give voice to that. For authority to meddle like this in such revered
discourse, I can only point to many years spent sitting with the great
Sufi master and sage who sat in the highest realms of non-dualit, His Holiness M. R. Bawa
Muhaiyaddeen.
While I am sure the renderings in ONE SONG hardly
do justice to the original, they do, it is my fervent hope, convey
particles of Truth. If one smells smoke, sometimes it is adequate to
simply holler “Fire!” Desperate times call for desperate
measures. Nevertheless, if there are any inaccuracies or untruths in
these renderings, they are mine, not Rumi's. And I beg the
reader’s—and Rumi’s—forgiveness.
Michael Green
