Notes on the text:

¹Ghazal 1786: Compare to the translation by A. J. Arberry, "Mystical Poems of Rumi," 2009, pp. 227-28.

²secretly [dozdîda]: lit., "in the manner of a thief or burglar," strealthily. This refers to the unseen entry of the soul into the body of the human fetus.

³flowing [kharâmân]: lit., "gracefully walking."

⁴astonished: lit., "head-spinning." Means dizzy, confounded, amazed.

⁵my heart [bar-am]: lit., "my chest," "bosom."

⁶This verse refers to a state of overwhelming love for the spiritual master in which mental concepts about the (true) faith [îmân] or rejection and denial [kufr] of the faith are transcended, and in which pure spiritual love for the master is here compared to faith and religion [dîn]. This kind of provocative verse, which appears to be irreligious (but is not, because it is a mystical interpretation of Islam) is not uncommon in Sufi poetry. As Mawlana Rumi said elsewhere: "Because the (mystic) lover is drunk in the immediate moment, therefore he is superior to (both) unbelief and belief [kufr-o îmân]. (Masnavi IV: 3280).

⁷helpless [bê-pâ wo sar]: lit., "without foot and head." An idiom.

⁸drunk and laughing: refers to an ecstatic spiritual state.

⁹Joseph of Canaan [yusûf-e kan`ân]: the Prophet Joseph, depicted in the Qur'ân as uncommonly beautiful.

¹⁰This verse expands on the theme of the first verse about how the soul of the spiritual master has entered the soul of the disciple in a hidden manner.

¹¹the rose tears its garment: an idiom referring to how the petals fall off the rose.

¹²the narcissus eye: an idiom meaning beautiful eyes.

¹³drunk [mast]: means joyful, ecstatic. (It does not mean intoxicated from an alcoholic beverage--which is forbidden in Islam.)

¹⁴the branches are pregnant: an idiom meaning prepared to blossom.

¹⁵you pull me to the brand... to the garden: A pun on "brand" [dâgh] and "garden" [bâgh].

¹⁶soul prior to (all) souls: this may be a reference to the Universal Soul [nafsu 'l-kull], viewed as the origin of particular souls.

¹⁷O time [ay ân]: a pun with "O mine" [ay ân-e man].

¹⁸your union [WaSl-e tô]: This means being united with the beloved and, on another level, being "united with God" (a mystical metaphor meaning nearness to God).

¹⁹the highest heaven [kaywân]: lit., Saturn, the ruler of the seventh heaven in the sky.

²⁰the Water of (Everlasting) Life [âb-e Haywân]: A fabled spring of water said to confer immortality on the one who drinks from it.

²¹sea [`Ummân]: The Sea of Oman, a metaphor for "sea."

²²scent [bôy]: There is a pun with a metaphor of "hope" [bôy], as in a "scent of hope."

²³possibility: May also be translated as potentiality. There is a word-play with two related Arabic words, "possibility" [imkân] and "authority" [tamkîn].

²⁴Salahuddin: This refers to SalâHu 'd-dîn Zarkôbî, who was Mawlana Rumi's closest disciple after the final disappearance of his beloved master, Shams-i Tabrizi. This poem shows how Mawlana showered the same devotional love upon Salahuddin as he had upon Shams. It also expresses Mawlana's psth of mystical love: showering spiritual love upon a human beloved as a means of attaining a lofty state of love for God, the Divine Beloved. This path is known in sufism as attaining annihilation in God [fanâ fî 'llâh] via annihilation in the human master [fanâ fî 'sh-shaykh].