Friendship: Rumi's Ode to Shams of Tabris
At dawn a moon appeared from the wavesAnd ascended, gazing down at me. Then,Like a falcon snatching a bird in flight,It snatched me up and flew away.When I looked up I no longer saw myself:Into that moon my body had eased, by graceOf the soul in which I travelled, moon-drivenUntil the secret of God’s revelation halted me.Nine spheres of Heaven had merged in that moon;And the sea washed over the ship of my being,Breaking against me in waves. Again Wisdom’sVoice boomed; as it happens so it occurs. At every foam-fleck of the ocean a figureEmerged and slowly disappeared, just as My foam-flecked body, receiving a sea-sign,Melted within and slowly turned to spirit. Without the regal power of Shams of Tabriz,Holding...