How long will you hide
your beautiful
festive smile

Teach your laughter
to a flower
manifest an eternity

Why do you think
the door to the sky
is closed on your face

It allures and invites
your magical touch
to open and arrive

An entire caravan
is waiting in ecstasy
for your coming and leading

Come on my friend
use your talisman and
harness all their souls

Today is the day to unite
with your longing beloved
wait no more
for an unknown tomorrow

A tambourine is in a corner
begging your playing hands
a flute is sitting dormant
begging your happy lips

— Ode (Ghazal) 253
Translation by Nader Khalili
“Rumi, Fountain of Fire”
Burning Gate Press
Los Angeles, 1994

Toward the gardens,
Toward the orchards,
I am going.
If you want to stay here,
Stay here -
I am going!
My day is dark without His Face,
Toward that bright flame
I am going.

My soul is racing ahead of me.
It says, The body is too slow for me -
I am going.

The smell of apples arises
from the orchard of my soul.
One whiff and I am gone -
Toward a feast of apples
I am going.

A sudden wind won’t blow me over.
Toward Him, like a mountain of iron,
I am going.

My shirt is ripped open
with the pain of loss.
Searching for a new life,
with my head held high,
I am going.

I am fire, though I seem like oil -
Seeking to be the fuel of His fire,
I am going.

I appear as a steady mountain
Yet bit by bit,
Toward that tiny opening
I am going.

— Ode 1668
Version by Jonathan Star from a translation by Shahram Shiva
“A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi”
Bantam Books, 1992