Unfold Your Own Myth
Unfold Your Own Myth - meaning Summary
Make Your Own Awakening
The poem urges readers not to live only through inherited religious stories or other people’s transformations. Its examples of sudden revelation lead to a direct command: begin a personal spiritual journey. Turning toward Shams, Rumi’s beloved teacher and symbol of awakening, means accepting hardship until inner growth makes a new freedom possible. The poem presents enlightenment as something discovered through one’s own movement and experience.
Read Complete AnalysesWho gets up early to discover the moment light begins? Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms? Who comes to a spring thirsty and sees the moon reflected in it? Who, like Jacob blind with grief and age, smells the shirt of his lost son and can see again? Who lets a bucket down and brings up a flowing prophet? Or like Moses goes for fire and finds what burns inside the sunrise? Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies, and opens a door to the other world. Soloman cuts open a fish, and there's a gold ring. Omar storms in to kill the prophet and leaves with blessings. Chase a deer and end up everywhere! An oyster opens his mouth to swallow on drop. Now there's a pearl. A vagrant wanders empty ruins. Suddenly he's wealthy. But don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth, without complicated explanation, so everyone will understand the passage, We have opened you. Start walking toward Shams. Your legs will get heavy and tired. Then comes a moment of feeling the wings you've grown, lifting.
translated by Coleman Barks
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