Jami

The Loved One is quite colourless, O heart,
Be not engrossed with colours, then, O heart
All colours come from what is colourless,
And 'who can dye so well as God,' O heart?

My birthplace is Jam, and my pen
Has drunk from (knowledge of) Sheikh-ul-Islam Ahmad Jam,
Hence in the books of poetry
My pen nam is Jami for these two reasons.

Nūr ad-Dīn 'Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī (Persian: نورالدین عبدالرحمن جامی‎), also known as Mawlanā Nūr al-Dīn 'Abd al-Rahmān or Abd-Al-Rahmān Nur-Al-Din Muhammad Dashti, or simply as Jami or Djāmī and in Turkey as Molla Cami (7 November 1414 – 9 November 1492), was a Persian poet who is known for his achievements as a prolific scholar and writer of mystical Sufi literature.

Quotes

• Were Women all like those whom here I name,
  Woman to man I surely would prefer;
  The Sun is feminine, nor deems it shame;
  The Moon, though masculine, depends on her.
  • Alluding to Rabia of Basra, Nafahat al-Uns, as quoted in A Literary History of Persia by E. G. Browne, p. 299.

about himself

• My birthplace is Jam, and my pen
  Has drunk from (knowledge of) Sheikh-ul-Islam Ahmad Jam,
  Hence in the books of poetry
  My pen nam is Jami for these two reasons.
  • Jami's Divan, p. 70-80

Extracted from Baharīstān-e- Jami

Happy is the man who knows the true from the false, and refuses to accept less.

• Good intentions are useless in the absence of common-sense.
  • An argosy of fables, p. 240
• The wise man refuses to be led beyond his own depth.
  • An argosy of fables, p. 242
• Those who live by bread alone will submit, for the sake of it, to the vilest abuse, like a hungry dog.
  • An argosy of fables, p. 242
• Happy is the man who knows the true from the false, and refuses to accept less.
  • An argosy of fables, p. 243
• It is best to avoid low company, whether they come in peace or in war.
  • An argosy of fables, p. 245

Poetry

Poetry from Joseph and Zuleika

• Heart is not free from love pain
  Painless body is only soil and water
  Everybody vecomes lover
  O, there is no leveless heart in the worls.
  • Joseph and Zuleika, p. 78
• The pain night will be ended
  And separation pain will be remedied
  Unaware of this fact that this night is so long
  And from that night to morning there are hundred years.
  • Joseph and Zuleika, p. 113
• How a pleasant word of an old lover that said
  When there is lovem there is no comfort.
  • Joseph and Zuleika, p. 254

Poetry from Haft Awrang

• I was trapped in love
  And this trap is enough for me.
  • Haft Awrang, p. 101

Poetry from Lawāih

• My Love stood by me at the dawn of day,
  And said, 'To grief you make my heart a prey,
  What I am casting looks of love at you,
  Have you no shame to turn your eyes away?
  All my life long I tread love's path of pain,
  It peradventure 'union' I may gain
  Better to catch one moment's glimpse of Thee
  Than earthly beauties' love through lite retain.
  • Lawāih, Flash III, p. 21
• Thou, for whose love I've sacrifice existence,
  Art, yet art not, the sum of earth's existence,
  Earth lacks true Being, yet depends thereon—
  Thou art true Being, Thou art pure existence
  The Loved One is quite colourless, O heart,
  Be not engrossed with colours, then, O heart
  All colours come from what is colourless,
  And 'who can dye so well as God,' O heart?
  • Lawāih, Flash XIII, p. 28

Lawāih

• God has not made with two hearts within him. The incomparable Majesty who has conferred the boon of existence upon thee has placed within thee but one heart, to the end that with single heart thou mayest love Him alone, and mayest turn thy back on all besides and devote thyself to Him alone, and refrain from dividing thy heart into a hundred portions, each portion devoted to a different object.
  • Lawāih, p. 20
• Those who fancy that collectedness results from the collecting of wordly goods remain in perpetual distraction, whilst those who are convinced that amassing wealth is the cause of distraction renounce all wordly goods.
  • Lawāih, p. 20
• The essence of the 'Truth' most glorious and mose exalted is nothing but Being His Being is not subject to defect or diminution. He is untouched by change or variation, and is exempt from plurality and multiplicity, He transcends all manifestations, and is unknowable and invisible, Every 'how' and 'why' have made their appearance through Him, but in Himself He transcends every 'how' and 'why'. Everything is perceived by Him, while he is beyond perception. They outwaid eye is too dull to behold His beauty, and the eye of the heart is dimmed by the contemplation of His perfection.
  • Lawāih, Flash XIII, p. 27-28

External links

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has an article about:

Jami

• Nūr ad-Dīn 'Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī: Lawāih, A treatise on Sufism: translated by Mirza Muhammad Kazvini, Royal Asiatic Society, London, 1906
• Cooper, Frederic Taber: An argosy of fables; a representative selection from the fable literature of every age and land, Selected and edited by Paul Bransom, New York, 1921
• Mohammad Roshan: Jami's Divan by introduction of Mohammad Roshan, Negah Publications, Tehran, 2001
• Jami: Haft Awrang, edited by Morteza Modares Gilani, Entezarat Ahora-Mahtab, Tehran, 2007
• Jami: Joseph and Zuleika, correction by Naser Nikoobakht, Avaye Noor Publications, Tehran, 1998