Rumi’s Quatrain –
Our drunkenness does not come from wine.
The joy of our gathering
does not come from the harp or rubaab.
With no celestial beauty to fill our cup,
Without friends, without singing, without wine,
We burst out like madmen,
rolling drunk on the floor.
— Version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva
A Garden Beyond Paradise
Bantam Books, 1992
Two more versions of this Quatrain
We don’t need wine to get drunk,
or instruments and singing to feel ecstatic.
No poets, no leaders, no songs,
yet we jump around totally wild.
— Version by Coleman Barks
“Unseen Rain”
Threshold Books, 1986
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i don’t really need wine
to get drunk
i don’t really need music
to feel delight
without a wine pal
music and dance
i’m intoxicated
happy and gone
–Translation by Nader Khalili
Rumi, Dancing the Flame
Cal-Earth Press, 2001
