Jacket art from the back cover of “The Glance: Songs of Soul Meeting by Rumi,” translated by Coleman Barks; published by Viking in October 1999. Original Filename: RUMI2.JPG ORG XMIT: ; 11

There can’t be anyone, anywhere, who, having come across the writings of Rumi for the first time, does not immediately fall in love with the sheer beauty of it. Whether you refer to his works as poetry, philosophy, or simply a soul expressing itself from the depths of its being, his writing is truly incredible.

A colleague of mine told me about the piece below a couple of years back. I originally thought that it contained only the first verse. It is apparently, a much longer piece, however, when I found this two-verse version recently I felt quite pleased with myself for finding an extra verse. I haven’t seen the complete version yet; that will be something for me to look up on the good old internet in the near future. But I was really struck by these two verses together and it inspired me to reach within my own soul and retrieve this interpretation. I hope it does the great man justice!

Out beyond ideas of wrong doing
and right doing 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.

Rumi

Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing (beyond relativity and human logic) There is a field (the inner wilderness of bliss, or Consciousness) I’ll meet you there (in Consciousness there is no duality; there are no others, we will be as the One and only)

When the soul lies down in that grass (when we finally realise that all there is, is realisation) The world is too full to talk about (in the All That Is, we will abide in the Silence; the eternal language of the soul)