From these depths depart towards heaven; may your soul be
happy, journey joyfully.
You have escaped from the city full of fear and trembling;
happily become a resident of the Abode of Security*.
If the body’s image has gone, await the image-maker; if the
body is utterly ruined, become all soul.
If your face has become saffron pale through death, become a
dweller among tulip beds and Judas trees.
If the doors of repose have been barred to you, come, depart
by way of the roof and the ladder.
If you are alone from Friends and companions, by the help of
God become a saheb-qeran* [lord of happy circumstance].
If you have been secluded from water and bread, like bread
become the food of the souls, and so become!
Rumi— Translation by A. J. Arberry
“Mystical Poems of Rumi 2”
The University of Chicago Press, 1991
* The Abode of Security seems to be an allusion to heaven which
is sometimes called “the abode of peace” (dar-al salam) by Rumi as
against “the abode of pride” (dar-al gorur) i.e., the world.
*Saheb qeran is a person who is born under a happy conjunction
of the planets.
