{"id":6403,"date":"2019-03-29T06:37:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T13:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=6403"},"modified":"2019-03-29T06:49:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T13:49:28","slug":"yunus-emre-one-who-is-real-is-humble-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/29\/yunus-emre-one-who-is-real-is-humble-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Yunus Emre – One Who Is Real Is Humble"},"content":{"rendered":"

One Who Is Real Is Humble
\nby Yunus Emre<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by Jennifer Ferraro & Latif Bolat<\/font><\/p>\n

To be real on this path you must be humble \u2014
\nIf you look down at others you\u2019ll get pushed down the stairs.<\/em><\/p>\n

If your heart goes around on high, you fly far from this path.
\nThere\u2019s no use hiding it \u2014
\nWhat\u2019s inside always leaks outside.<\/p>\n

Even the one with the long white beard, the one who looks so wise \u2014
\nIf he breaks a single heart, why bother going to Mecca?
\nIf he has no compassion, what\u2019s the point?<\/p>\n

My heart is the throne of the Beloved,
\nthe Beloved the heart\u2019s destiny:
\nWhoever breaks another\u2019s heart will find no homecoming
\nin this world or any other.<\/p>\n

The ones who know say very little
\nwhile the beasts are always speaking volumes;
\nOne word is enough for one who knows.<\/p>\n

If there is any meaning in the holy books, it is this:
\nWhatever is good for you, grant it to others too \u2014<\/p>\n

Whoever comes to this earth migrates back;
\nWhoever drinks the wine of love
\nunderstands what I say \u2014<\/p>\n

Yunus, don\u2019t look down at the world in scorn \u2014<\/p>\n

<\/em>Keep your eyes fixed on your Beloved\u2019s face,
\nthen you will not see the bridge
\non Judgment Day.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from Quarreling with God: Mystic Rebel Poems of the Dervishes of Turkey<\/a>, Translated by Jennifer Ferraro \/ Translated by Latif Bolat<\/font><\/p>\n


\n\/ Image by Hossein Ghodsi<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

Yunus Emre gives us several wonderful lines in this poem\u2026<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no use hiding it \u2014
\nWhat\u2019s inside always leaks outside.<\/i><\/p>\n

That just about sums up the spiritual perspective of everything, doesn\u2019t it? One way or another, the inner world always reveals itself. Whatever masks we wear eventually fall away or slowly take the shape of what lies beneath. Why hide what\u2019s inside? We should cultivate and celebrate that inner self. It will show itself anyway.<\/p>\n

This poem in general seems to be a critique of religious hypocrisy, and specifically it deflates the idea of religious superiority. Those first lines give us a strong image:<\/p>\n

To be real on this path you must be humble \u2014
\nIf you look down at others you\u2019ll get pushed down the stairs.<\/i><\/p>\n

I imagine a stern imam (or bishop or preacher or rabbi) who has spent his life carefully studying the minutia of religious law and has come to see everyone as falling short. He casts a cold eye on flawed and worldly humanity and judges them all to be far beneath him. It\u2019s as if he is looking down a long staircase at the world.<\/p>\n

That figure is in far greater spiritual danger than most of the people he looks down upon. The thing he hasn\u2019t recognized is how unstable those stairs are. Any distance of spiritual perfectionism we construct in our minds is inherently rigid and brittle, yet it must stand on a living, shifting ground. Those stairs will always collapse in the end.<\/p>\n

The more people \u201clook down on the world in scorn,\u201d the further they fall. This is simple gravity.<\/p>\n

Even the one with the long white beard, the one who looks so wise \u2014
\nIf he breaks a single heart, why bother going to Mecca?
\nIf he has no compassion, what\u2019s the point?<\/i><\/p>\n

Yunus Emre gives us the essential keys: humility and compassion. Everything else leads to pretense, which disjoints the soul. False superiority enforces the illusion of separation and leads to collapse.<\/p>\n

Yunus, don\u2019t look down at the world in scorn \u2014
\nKeep your eyes fixed on your Beloved\u2019s face,
\nthen you will not see the bridge
\non Judgment Day.<\/i><\/p>\n

We shouldn\u2019t miss the logic of the first two lines: When we cast scornful eyes on the world, we can\u2019t possibly see the Beloved\u2019s face. The opposite is true, as well; when we are transfixed by the beauty of the Beloved, we see nothing but beauty. This is a clue\u2026 any religious figure who speaks with scorn, is not engulfed by the vision of the Divine and should be avoided.<\/p>\n

The final couple of lines are also worth understanding. What does he mean about not seeing a bridge on Judgment Day? According Muslim tradition, in order to enter Paradise, one must cross as-Sirat, a bridge that is as thin as a hair and as sharp as a blade. But the purest never have to encounter the bridge. Yunus Emre is saying that it is only when we are not already lost in the vision of the Beloved that we must face the bridge. It is only when we cling to separation and duality that we encounter that cutting bridge. With that hair-thin bridge waiting, wasting focus on scorn is a dangerous thing, indeed.<\/p>\n

To me, this is a powerful poem on the importance of compassion, humility, and proper spiritual focus. And it is a good reminder to us all that everything returns to the Golden Rule:<\/p>\n

If there is any meaning in the holy books, it is this:
\nWhatever is good for you, grant it to others too \u2014<\/i><\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Yunus Emre<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology)<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nPoetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nMusic of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish & Hebrew Poems<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Drop That Became the Sea: Lyric Poems of Yunus Emre<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nQuarreling with God: Mystic Rebel Poems of the Dervishes of Turkey<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\"Yunus<\/a><\/td>\n\nYunus Emre<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Turkey (1238 \u2013 1320) Timeline<\/a>
\nMuslim \/ Sufi<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em><\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Yunus Emre is considered by many to be one of the most important Turkish poets. Little can be said for certain of his life other than that he was a Sufi dervish of Anatolia. The love people have for his liberating poetry is reflected in the fact that many villages claim to be his birthplace, and many others claim to hold his tomb. He probably lived in the Karaman area.<\/p>\n

His poetry expresses a deep personal mysticism and humanism and love for God.<\/p>\n

He was a contemporary of Rumi, who settled in the same region after having moved from what is today Afghanistan. Rumi composed his collection of stories and songs for a well-educated urban circle of Sufis, writing primarily in the literary language of Persian. Yunus Emre, on the other hand, traveled and taught among the rural poor, singing his songs in the Turkish language of the common people.<\/p>\n

A story is told of a meeting between the two great souls: Rumi asked Yunus Emre what he thought of his great work the Mathnawi. Yunus Emre said, \u201cExcellent, excellent! But I would have done it differently.\u201d Surprised, Rumi asked how. Yunus replied, \u201cI would have written, \u2018I came from the eternal, clothed myself in flesh, and took the name Yunus.'\u201d That story perfectly illustrates Yunus Emre\u2019s simple, direct approach that has made him so beloved.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Yunus Emre<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One Who Is Real Is Humble by Yunus Emre English version by Jennifer Ferraro & Latif Bolat To be real on this path you must be humble \u2014 If you look down at others you\u2019ll get pushed down the stairs. If your heart goes around on high, you fly far from this path. There\u2019s no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[416,1451,1984,1511,474,193,19,252,530],"class_list":["post-6403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-compassion","tag-humility","tag-inner-and-outer","tag-judgment-day","tag-lover-and-beloved","tag-muslim-poetry","tag-sufi-poetry","tag-turkish-poetry","tag-yunus-emre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6403"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6405,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6403\/revisions\/6405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}