To the house, To the house! Ode 2345

It’s dark and it’s raining: to the house! To the house!
Calling all of our friends: homewards, homewards!

Like the owls; how much longer this deprivation?
Wandering about the ruins; to the house, to the house!

Calling all bright-hearted friends: make haste
In spite of the sore eyes of all the blind (of heart)
to the house, to the house!

Calling you O wise and vigilant; full of concern
Don’t make us worry; to the house, to the house!

Enough of loveplay with these ogre-like appearances
So-called beauties; to the house, to the house!

You are seeing the grain and not the harvest
Such is the way ants are. To the house, to the house!

Don’t argue: let it go , o good friend
Grazing is for horses! To the house, to the house!

In that house there is dance (sama) and celebration
But only with the pure; so to the house, to the house!

Shams Al-din of Tabriz has built this house
So the "one-eyed" ones can get together;
Thus, to the house, to the house!


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To the house, to the house! I opted for that instead of possible alternatives such as “ homewards, homewards!” or “to home, to home” or “come on in” or “come inside the house” or even the simple and error-prone interpretation of the literal “home, home” or “the house, the house”.
I like and will keep Arberry’s interpretation of “roshan del” to be bright-hearted; (less appealing: heart-aglow or heart-lit)
Rumi contrasts, “rosham –del” with “kooran”. Today, in fact they are considered synonymous; but when he contrasts them he is contrasting the bright-hearted friends who have the inner divine light inside with those that are “blind” inside and do not have this inner light.

Don’t debate, don’t ask why or how…
Play on the word “chera”. Rumi starts with “chum o chera”, most likely pronounced in his time, “chara”, and uses the pun or double meaning of the word “chara” which is also to graze, and jokes with the image of a four-footed animal (

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