“Beyond Islam and unbelief…” ☪️

“Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing / There is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

...is apparently a very loose “translation” of Rumi's original Persian poetry, which is more like:

“Beyond Islam and unbelief there is a ‘desert plain’.
For us, there is a ‘yearning’ in the midst of that expanse.
The knower of God who reaches that plain will prostrate in prayer. 
For there is neither Islam nor unbelief, nor any ‘where’ in that place."

I can’t read Persian, but I’m starting to get the gist that the popular Coleman Barks books on Rumi should be considered inspired rather than translated. Which is totally fine, but I prefer the experiential contemplative transmission I get from the higher fidelity translation. It speaks to me and feels simultaneously more personal and more universal.

With love, Jordan