{"id":108271,"date":"2017-03-01T12:46:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T17:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=108271"},"modified":"2017-03-02T10:32:29","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T15:32:29","slug":"rumi-machado-and-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/01\/rumi-machado-and-co\/","title":{"rendered":"Rumi, Machado, and Co."},"content":{"rendered":"

A guide to \u201cgetting\u201d Rumi.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A number of my poetry-loving friends have asked me over the years what Rumi\u2019s poetry is really like. They\u2019re all coming from the same place: they want to know if his stuff is as New Agey in Persian as it is in the translated quotations they\u2019ve seen on the Internet. Is Rumi really such a sweetheart. Is he funny. Would he really use a construction like \u201cI caught the happy virus.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy enough to answer the question as to whether Rumi is funny.\u2014No.\u2014 Or, I would say\u00a0\u2026 he\u2019s about as funny as the protagonist of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. (Perhaps someone with superior gifts, both of ingenuity and of defiance, would be able to wring some measure of hijinks out of both Rumi and Jesus, but the rest of us muggles have to content ourselves with conventional sublime holiness.) As for \u201cthe happy virus,\u201d what can I say. I doubt it.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Rumi really was a sweetheart, and his poetry does have a certain self-help aura. He loves to traffic in homely metaphors, and he definitely does have \u201cdesigns on your understanding\u201d (or whatever it was that Keats said was preeminently resistible to him). At the same time, he\u2019s friendly and encouraging. He does not get up in your face. He is seldom grumpy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I say all this without real satisfaction, though, because I\u2019m convinced abstract descriptions such as these are not the thing when you\u2019re trying to get across the style of a very alien poetry. The right thing to do is to point to poetry with which people are already more or less familiar, or at least something from their tradition, and say: \u201cRumi is like that<\/em>.\u201d I shall therefore adduce two items that, taken in tandem, will probably give you more Rumi than you would get from translations, scholarly or not, of actual Rumi poems. Hear me out.<\/p>\n

First, to deliver the tenderness of his tone, and his deal with homely metaphors, and also his God-on-the-brain-ness, have a look at this famous poem by the Spanish poet Antonio Machado (circa <\/em>1907):<\/p>\n

[Anoche cuando dorm\u00eda …\u00a0<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Anoche cuando dorm\u00eda
\nso\u00f1\u00e9, \u00a1bendita ilusi\u00f3n!,
\nque una fontana fu\u00eda
\ndentro de mi coraz\u00f3n.
\nDi, \u00bfpor qu\u00e9 acequia escondida,
\nagua, vienes hasta m\u00ed,
\nmanantial de nueva vida
\nen donde nunca beb\u00ed?<\/p>\n

Anoche cuando dorm\u00eda
\nso\u00f1\u00e9, \u00a1bendita ilusi\u00f3n!,
\nque una colmena ten\u00eda
\ndentro de mi coraz\u00f3n;
\ny las doradas abejas
\niban fabricando en \u00e9l,
\ncon las amarguras viejas,
\nblanca cera y dulce miel.<\/p>\n

Anoche cuando dorm\u00eda
\nso\u00f1\u00e9, \u00a1bendita ilusi\u00f3n!,
\nque una ardiente sol luc\u00eda
\ndentro de mi coraz\u00f3n.
\nEra ardiente porque daba
\ncalores de rojo hogar,
\ny era sol porque alumbraba
\ny porque hac\u00eda llorar.<\/p>\n

Anoche cuando dorm\u00eda
\nso\u00f1\u00e9, \u00a1bendita ilusi\u00f3n!,
\nque era Dios lo que ten\u00eda
\ndentro de mi coraz\u00f3n.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m hoping many people reading this will know enough Spanish to bumble through the above without assistance, savoring the rhythm and the rhymes, but here\u2019s a free-ish crib of what it says, just to fill in the gaps:<\/p>\n

Last night, as I lay sleeping, I dreamt\u2014bless\u00e8d illusion!\u2014that a fountain was flowing in my heart. And I said: \u201cFrom what hidden channel, water, have you traveled unto me, from what fountainhead of new life, of which I\u2019ve never tasted?\u201d<\/p>\n

Last night, as I lay sleeping, I dreamt\u2014bless\u00e8d illusion!\u2014that I had a beehive settled inside my heart. And the golden honeybees traversed it to and fro, making out of my old bitternesses sweet honey and white wax.<\/p>\n

Last night, as I lay sleeping, I dreamt\u2014bless\u00e8d illusion!\u2014that a burning sun was shining deep inside my heart. I knew it was burning because it gave heat as from a hearth; I knew it was the sun for it gave off light, and made me cry.<\/p>\n

Last night, as I lay sleeping, I dreamt\u2014bless\u00e8d illusion!\u2014that it was God that I had, deep inside my heart.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It hurts me to type \u201cbless\u00e8d illusion\u201d there. You can\u2019t beat the original\u2019s bendita illusi\u00f3n<\/em>. If I were really translating this thing I would just leave that part in Spanish.<\/p>\n

At any rate, the above piece, written about 110\u00a0years ago, is SO RUMI. Read it over again and pretend it was written in Persian in the thirteenth century. The fact that it\u2019s in Spanish will actually help with this.<\/p>\n

Now, observe how the following, copied straight out of the old Arberry translation of Rumi\u2019s ghazals is quite similar in technique and tone:<\/p>\n

The heart is like a grain of corn, we are like a mill; how does the mill know why it\u2019s turning?<\/p>\n

The body is like a stone, and the water its thoughts; the stone says, \u201cThe water knows what is toward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The water says: \u201cAsk the miller, for it was he who flung the water down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The miller says to you: \u201cBread-eater, if this does not turn, how shall the crumb broth be?\u201d<\/p>\n

Much business is in the making; silence! ask God, that He may tell you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One reads the above thinking: OK, I like this, I can see how this is something, but what would it sound like if it were graceful? <\/em>Try reading it through the \u201clens\u201d of the Machado. Pretend the above translation rhymed and swooped smoothly like the Spanish poem. You can do this.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I\u2019ll close with an artistic analogy that\u2019s probably more ready-to-hand, not as much work, and which might help skeptics \u201cget\u201d Rumi\u2019s special appeal.<\/p>\n

You know how David Bowie\u2019s album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars <\/em>(1972) sent the message to a huge portion of the gay world that they weren\u2019t alone, that they were wonderful, that Bowie understood and wanted to help\u2014? Everything in the tonal register of encouragement and intimate conspiracy is consistent (and much more than consistent) with Rumi\u2019s attitude.<\/p>\n

Snatch up your guitar and play \u201cStarman<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u2014Well, I had to phone someone, so I picked on you-oo-oo
\n\u2014Hey, that\u2019s far out, so you heard him too-oo-oo
\n\u2014Turn on your TV, you may pick him up on Channel 2<\/p>\n

Look out your window, you may see his li-i-ight
\nif you can\u2019t sparkle, you may learn toni-i-ight
\ndon\u2019t tell your papa or he\u2019ll get us locked up in fright<\/p>\n

[CHORUS]<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a starman
\nwaiting in the sky
\nhe\u2019d like to come and meet us
\nbut he thinks he\u2019d blow our minds<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a starman
\nwaiting in the sky
\nhe told us not to blow it
\n\u2019cuz he knows it\u2019s all worthwhile<\/p>\n

He told me
\nlet the children lose it
\nlet the children use it
\nlet all the children boogie<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All you have to do is switch out \u201cstarman\u201d with \u201cGod\u201d and all the kids in Tehran will say, \u201cThat is SO RUMI!\u201d<\/p>\n

Stay on message, people: If you can\u2019t sparkle, you may learn tonight<\/span><\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anthony Madrid<\/a> lives in Victoria, Texas. <\/em>His second book of poems is called <\/em>Try Never\u00a0(Canarium Books, 2017). He is a correspondent for the\u00a0<\/em>Daily.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The right thing to do is to point to poetry with which people are already more or less familiar, or at least something from their tradition, and say: \u201cRumi is like \u2018that\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1005,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22700],"tags":[27592,2911,27596,22905,23246,27229,7221,165,27593,53,9099,27594,27591,27595,21097,530],"class_list":["post-108271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-correspondents","tag-antonia-machado","tag-david-bowie","tag-getting-rumi","tag-in-translation","tag-new-age","tag-persian-poetry","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-guide","tag-reading","tag-rumi","tag-starman","tag-tehran","tag-the-rise-and-fall-of-ziggy-stardust-and-the-spiders-from-mars","tag-translating","tag-translation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Guide to 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