I've asked Rumi and Heschel to speak to each other - see what they said! - (Juxtaposition 24.12.2012)

Rumi said;

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.  I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.

From Essential Rumi
by Coleman Barks

Heschel said

from another of his books Man is Not Alone Heschel;

The search for reason ends at the shore of the known;

on the immense expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable can glide.

It alone knows the route to that which is remote from experience and understanding. 

Neither is amphibious: reason cannot go beyond the shore,

and the sense of the ineffable is out of place where we measure, where we weigh. 

Citizens of two realms, we must all sustain dual allegiance:

we sense the ineffable in one realm;

we name and exploit reality in another. 

Between the two we set up a system of references,

but can never fill the gap. 

They are as far and as close to each other…as life and 

what lies beyond the last breath.                                                              Man is Not Alone p8.

I hope they speak to you as well as, across time they speak to each other!

-0-

TRANSLATION MATTERS

On issues of translation of course we want the best available, and of course we recognize that cultural resonances get lost - but still our spirit is fed.

On the Rumi poem there are some interesting comments HERE - including from 'Cyrus'

What the Persian verses basically try to impart is that “We human beings give meanings and judgements to everything”. Everything just is. They all exist without having any knowledge of the meaning or judgement that we attribute to them.
Now the Persian word سودا means “Trade, Exchange, barter”. The best meaning here could be Exchange.

Here is my crude interpretation of the Persian verses

Beyond the realm of heresy and faith there is a meadow

Within that space, we each have understandings to bestow

When the sage reaches that juncture, he’ll rest all his conjecture

Since neither heresy, nor faith, not even that place, any longer has a place

-0-

Posted via email from sunwalking's posterous