Rumi’s poem, “The Ascending Soul”

Rumi's poem, "The Ascending Soul"

I died as mineral and became a plant, I died as plant

and rose to animal,

 

I died as creatures on hoofs and with feathers and look,

look…I became a beautiful woman, I became a

beautiful man.

 

What should we fear, darlings? When were we ever less

by dying?

 

Though, once again, I will know the demise of my senses

and thoughts, so as to mingle more with angel ways.

 

Yet, even from these heavenly realms we must pass on,

for all except God does perish.

 

When I have relinquished every aspect of self, I shall

become what the mind cannot conceive.

 

Oh, let me not exist in any form that is limited by names!

There is a divine non-existence that proclaims, in exquisite

organ tones,

 

back to the source of the Immaculate we shall return, back 

to the cause of every god…we are.