The Centre Clears

Here are some translations of quatrains (four-line poems) by the 13th century Sufi Mystic Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi (often referred to simply as 'Rumi'). Many of his poems call to mind the Way or Tao that can be encountered with the heart in T'ai Chi.

Walk to the well.
turn as the earth and moon turn,
circling what they love.
Whatever circles comes from the centre.

I stand up, and this one of me
Turns into a hundred of me.
They say I circle around you.
Nonsense. I circle around me.

Happy, not from anything that happens.
Warm, not from fire or a hot bath.
Light, I register zero on a scale.

I honour those who try
to rid themselves of any lying,
who empty the self
and have only clear being there.

No better love than love with no object,
no more satisfying work than work with no purpose.
If you could give up tricks and cleverness,
that would be the cleverest trick!

The centre clears. Knowing comes:
The body is not singular like a corpse,
but singular like a salt grain
still in the side of a mountain.