With the somber news out of my sister's alma mater Virginia Tech today, it seems appropriate to go back to the 13th century for today's 'dead poets' entry. Rumi, who is known as Mevlana in my late father's native Turkey (Rumi lived in what is now modern day Konya, Turkey), is adored by an unlikely alliance of Islamic fundamentalists and new agers. The poem "Silkworms" which will be discussed here was translated by Coleman Barks.
"Silkworms"
The hurt you embrace becomes joy.
Call it to your arms where it can
change. A silkworm eating leaves
makes a cocoon. Each of us weaves
a chamber of leaves and sticks.
Silkworms begin to truly exist
as they disappear inside that room.
Without legs, we fly. When I stop
speaking, this poem will close,
and open its silent wings............
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