Fifty rubai'yat (poems of Rumi cycle)

 

I never tried to publish the English versions of the rubaiyat, they were a kind if by-product of my work on a Polish translation. However, I sometimes read them at poetry meetings, for example at London's Poetry Café. As it happened, at one of those meetings a publisher was present, Isabel del Rio, owner of "Friends of Alice" publishing house. She liked them enough to suggest that they may be published in a book. Which happened and the book can now be purchased at Amazon.

At one point, long before the book was published, my Persian friend Ziba introduced me to a calligrapher named Morteza. He himself was a dervish, although not of the same order as Maulana Rumi. When I had a proposition to publish my collection of translations, I asked Morteza to illustrate it with his calligraphy. So here it is, the calligraphy in the style called nastaliq, although Morteza sometimes makes modern impression of that.

708.

I glimpsed your face and my sadness is gone;

To your face I am faithful, all others are gone.

I asked my heart about its desire,

But it didn’t have any, all my desires were gone.

708

دیدم رخت از غم سر موییم نماند

جز بندگی ی روی تو روییم نماند

با دل گفتم که آرزویی در خواه

دل گفت که هیچ آرزویی م نماند

1798.

You want goodness, but goodness is not what you bring,

If you’re creating evil, evil you will meet.

The compassion of God cannot change much here:

If you are sowing barley, you will not reap wheat.

1798

بد می‌کنی و نیک طمع می‌داری

هم بد باشد سزای بدکرداری

با این که خداوند کریم و است و رحیم

گندم ندهد بار چو جو می‌کاری

The book "Fifty Rubai'yat" can be purchased at Amazon