Their eyes were closed

“So these two were lost in their sexual trance.
They did not care anymore about feasting
or wine. Their eyes were closed like
perfectly matching calligraphy lines.”

—Rumi, Breadmaking, from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, 1995.

a mine of rubies

“I am a naked man standing inside a mine of rubies,
clothed in red silk.
I absorb the shining and now I see the ocean,
billions of simultaneous motions
moving in me.
A circle of lovely, quiet people
becomes the ring on my finger.”

—Rumi, I Have Such A Teacher, from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, 1995.

a ruby held up to the sunrise

“He says, ‘There’s nothing left of me.
I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise.
Is it still a stone, or a world
made of redness—It has no resistance
to sunlight.’

This is how Hallaj said, I am God,
and told the truth!

The ruby and the sunrise are one.”

—Rumi, The Sunrise Ruby, from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, 1995.

the ruby has nothing engraved on it!

“The love-religion has no code or doctrine.
Only God.
So the ruby has nothing engraved on it!
It doesn’t need markings.”

—Rumi, Moses And The Shepherd, from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, 1995.

a seed pearl

“‘Like the moon when it’s getting
smaller, yet knowing the fullness to come.
Like a seed pearl ground in the mortar for medicine,
that knows it will be the light in a human eye.’”

—Rumi, Childhood Friends, from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, 1995.

gold for you

“When someone is counting out
gold for you, don’t look at your hands,
or the gold. Look at the giver.”

—Rumi, Omar and the Old Poet, from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, 1995.

being green

“We began
as a mineral. We emerged into plant life
and into the animal state, and then into being human,
and always we have forgotten our former states,
except in early spring when we slightly recall
being green again.”

—Rumi, The Dream That Must Be Interpreted, from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, 1995.

pieces of silver

“A certain rich man was accustomed to honor a sufi
by giving him pieces of silver.

‘Would you like one piece of silver now,
O Lord of my Spirit, or three at breakfast
tomorrow morning?’

The sufi answered,
‘I love the half a coin that I have already in my hand
from yesterday more than the promise of a whole one
today, or the promise of a hundred tomorrow.
A sufi is the child of this moment.’”

—Rumi, The Long String, from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, 1995.

Become the sky

“Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.”

—Rumi, Quietness, from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, 1995.

Maker of the Blue-Green Bowl

“Sovereign Plumed Serpent,
Heart of the Lake, Heart of the Sea,
Maker of the Blue-Green Plate,
Maker of the Blue-Green Bowl,”

—Popul Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings, translated by Dennis Tedlock, 1985.