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You Are My Soul

SulTân Walad's Quatrain No. 443

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I am alive because of this, O idol:* you are mine.

I am without pain and sorrow because you are my remedy.

If you become far distant from me, no doubt I will die,

Because in this bodily form, you are my soul.*


-- From "Dîwân-é SulTân Walad" (the son of Jalaluddin Rumi,
died 1312), from the edition of F. Nafiz Uzluk.
--Translated from the Persian by Ibrahim Gamard, 8/6/05
© Ibrahim Gamard (translation, footnotes, &
transliteration)

NOTES

*O idol: a common idiom in Persian literature, meaning a beautiful
beloved.
*you are my soul: this quatrain has the same ending rhyme as in
some famous verses of Jalaluddin Rumi in Ghazal No. 3137 that
end, "you are a hundred of my soul" [sad jân-é man-î].
(See Rumi's Ghazal 3137)

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man zenda az-ân-am Sanam-â k-ân-é man-î
bê-dard-o gham-am z-ân-ke tow darmân-é man-î
gar dûr shaw-î ze-man be-mîr-am bê-shak
z-îrâ ke dar-în qâlib-é tan jân-ê man-î

(rubâ`î meter: XXo oXXo oXXo oX)