Performance :: WHIRLING DERVISHES of RUMI
Past Event : 04-11-2007
Event: WHIRLING DERVISHES of RUMI
Date/Time: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 7:30 PM
Location: Pioneer Center
Event type: Performance
Dervishes bring sacred Sufi dance to Reno
by Forrest Hartman
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
The Whirling Dervishes of Rumi, performed one of the most exquisite ceremonies of spirituality. It was a rare opportunity to experience a mesmerizing seventh-century (or seven centuries old) ritual, an incredible performance featuring beautiful costumes, live music with flutes, string and percussion, and the amazing sight of the Dervishes whirling on the stage. The group came from Turkey to perform in Reno. This group has performed several shows in various cities in the US for the past five years and that was the first-time they performed in Reno.
Rumi, the 13th century Anatolian mystic poet, has been called the greatest mystical poet of any age. During a period of 25 years, he composed over 70,000 verses of poetry of divine love, mystic passion and ecstatic illumination. He founded the order of the Mevlevi, the "whirling" dervishes, and created the "Sema", their "turning", sacred dance. Barely known in the West as recently as 15 years ago, Rumi is now one of the most widely read poets in America. The English translations of Rumi's poetry by Coleman Barks have sold more than a half million copies worldwide. Recordings of Rumi poems have made it to Billboard's Top 20 list. His doctrine advocates unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through love. The year 2007 was declared as the "International Rumi Year" by UNESCO in March 2006 to develop inter-faith dialogue and spread his message of humanism throughout the world.
A SAMPLING OF RUMI'S POEMS
This Great Love Inside Me
I am so small I can barely be seen.
How can this great love be inside me?
Look at your eyes. They are small,
but they see enormous things.
Trans./Compiled by Coleman Barks.
The Essential Rumi. Harper San Fransisco, 1997.
The Secret Turning
A secret turning in us
makes the universe turn.
Head unaware of feet,
and feet head. Neither cares.
They keep turning.
Compiled by Coleman Barks, i.b.i.d.
This We Have Now
This we have now
is not imagination.
This is not
grief or joy.
Not a judging state,
or an elation,
or sadness.
Those come and go.
This is the presence
that doesn't.
Compiled by Coleman Barks, i.b.i.d.
The Day I've Died
The day I've died, my pall is moving on -
But do not think my heart is still on earth!
Don't weep and pity me: "Oh woe, how awful!"
You fall in devil's snare - woe, that is awful!
Don't cry "Woe, parted!" at my burial -
For me this is the time of joyful meeting!
Don't say "Farewell!" when I'm put in the grave -
A curtain is it for eternal bliss.
You saw "descending" - now look at the rising!
Is setting dangerous for sun and moon?
To you it looks like setting, but it's rising;
The coffin seems a jail, yet it means freedom.
Which seed fell in the earth that did not grow there?
Why do you doubt the fate of human seed?
What bucket came not filled from out the cistern?
Why should the Yusaf "Soul" then fear this well?
Close here your mouth and open it on that side.
So that your hymns may sound in Where- no-place!
Schimmel, Annemarie. Look! This Is Love: Poems of Rumi.
Boston, Mass.: Shambhala Publications, 1991.
