When I die—Rumi and al-Ghazali

Two of the most beautiful death-bed poems from two great Sufis. I pray to live in such a way that someone will recite these at my burial.

Rumi

Translation:

When my bier moveth on the day of death

Think not my heart is in this world.

Do not weep for me and cry “woe, woe!”

Thou wilt fall in the devil’s snare: that is woe

When thou seest my hearse, cry not, “gone, gone!”

Union and meeting are mine in that hour

If thou commit me to the grave, say not “Farewell, farewell”

For the grave is a curtain hiding the communion of paradise

After beholding descent, consider resurrection

Why should setting be injurious to the sun and moon?

To thee it seems a setting, but ’tis a rising’

Tho’ the vault seems a prison, ’tis the release of a soul

What seed went down into the earth but it grew?

Why this doubt of thine as regards the seed of man?

What bucket was lowered but it came out brimful?

Why should the Joseph of the Spirit complain of the well?

Shut thy mouth on this side, and open it beyond

For in placeless air will by thy triumphal song.

(From R.A. Nicholson, Selected Poems form the Divani Shamsi Tabriz, p. 94-96)

Original:

به روز مرگ چو تابوت من روان باشد

گمان مبر که مرا درد این جهان باشد

برای من مگری و مگو دریغ دریغ

به دوغ دیو درافتی دریغ آن باشد

جنازه‌ام چو ببینی مگو فراق فراق

مرا وصال و ملاقات آن زمان باشد

مرا به گور سپاری مگو وداع وداع

که گور پرده جمعیت جنان باشد

فروشدن چو بدیدی برآمدن بنگر

غروب شمس و قمر را چرا زبان باشد

تو را غروب نماید ولی شروق بود

لحد چو حبس نماید خلاص جان باشد

کدام دانه فرورفت در زمین که نرست

چرا به دانه انسانت این گمان باشد

کدام دلو فرورفت و پر برون نامد

ز چاه یوسف جان را چرا فغان باشد

دهان چو بستی از این سوی آن طرف بگشا

که های هوی تو در جو لامکان باشد

al-Ghazali

Translation:

Say unto brethren when they see me dead,

And weep for me, lamenting me in sadness:

“Think ye I am this corpse ye are to bury?
I swear by God, this dead one is not I.

I in the Spirit am, and this my body
My dwelling was, my garment for a time.

I am a treasure: hidden I was beneath

This talisman of dust, wherein I suffered.

I am a pearl; a shell imprisoned me,

But leaving it, all trials I have left.
I am a bird, and this was once my cage;
But I have flown, leaving it as a token.
I praise God who hath set me free,

and made For me a dwelling in the heavenly heights.

Ere now I was a dead man in your midst,
But I have come to life, and doffed my shroud.”

(Translation by Martin Lings)