Happy is the moment, when we sit together,
With two forms, two faces, yet one soul,
you and I.
The flowers will bloom forever,
The birds will sing their eternal song,
The moment we enter the garden,
you and I.
The stars of heaven will come out to watch us,
And we will show them
the light of a full moon –
you and I.
No more thought of “you” and “I.”
Just the bliss of union –
Joyous, alive, free of care, you and I.
All the bright-winged birds of heaven
Will swoop down to drink of our sweet water –
The tears of our laughter, you and I.
What a miracle of fate, us sitting here.
Even at the opposite ends of the earth
We would still be together, you and I.
We have one form in this world,
another in the next.
To us belongs an eternal heaven,
the endless delight of you and I.
— Version by Jonathan Star
(From a translation by Shahram Shiva)
“A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi”
Bantam Books, 1992
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Blessed time! when we are sitting,
I and thou,
With two forms and only one soul,
I and thou.
Fragrance, song of birds, they quicken
ev’rything
When we come into the garden,
I and thou.
All the stars of heaven hurry
to see us,
And we show them our own moon,
I and thou –
I and thou without words, without
I and thou –
In delight we are united,
I and thou.
Sugar chew the heaven’s parrots
in that place
Where we’re sitting, laughing sweetly,
I and thou.
Strange that I and thou together
in this nook
Are apart a thousand miles, see –
I and thou.
One form in this dust, the other
in that land,
Sweet eternal Paradise there . . .
I and thou.
— Translation by Annemarie Schimmel
“Look! This is Love – Poems of Rumi”
Shambhala, 1991
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh the memory of that moment
In the Palace, You and I,
To the eyes of the beholder,
Separate beings, You and I.
In our hearts, how well we knew it,
We were One soul-You and I
Oh the glory of the garden!
Beauteous birds that sing and fly!
‘Twas for us the Living Fountain,
Paradise, as You and I
Cynosure of all the planets,
Went a-wandering, You and I.
And in us they saw the beauty
Of the full moon, You and I;
You no more you, I no more I,
One enraptured entity,
Joyous, free from all the smallness
Of the little You and I!
At the sight the hawks of heaven
Rend their breasts, with envy torn,
Where the nipple of our laughter
Rends the happy air of morn.
Oh the magic, Oh the power
Of this union, You and I —
Here we sit, we twain together,
In this corner, You and I–
Yet Iraq and Khorasan lie
Here before us–You and I!
— Translation by Sir Colin Garbett
“Sun of Tabriz” (Selected poems of Rumi)
R. Beerman Publishers, Cape Town, 1956
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Happy the moment which we, you and I, sit in the palace,
with two forms and two figures but with one soul, you and I.
The beauty of the garden and the birdson will confer upon us
the water of life at that time when we enter the garden, you and I.
The stars of heaven will come to gaze on us; we shall show
them the moon’s sickle, you and I.
You and I, unselfed, will be collected together in ecstasy,
joyful, and indifferent to idle fable, you and I.
This is still more amazing, that you and I here in one corner
in this very moment are in Iraq and Khorasan, you and I.
In one form upon this earth, and in another form in eternal
paradise and the land of sugar, you and I.
— Translation by A.J. Arberry
“Mystical Poems of Rumi 2”
The University of Chicago Press, 1991
