Rumi was a saint and a mystic. He was not a poet in the traditional sense where one sits and composes poetry. He did not write poetry before meeting Shams of Tabriz - that is over thirty-seven years of his life.
His poems are considered sacred verses to those on the Path of Love. These verses were uttered spontaneously through him in a state of ecstasy beyond mind and reason as his students wrote them down.
His two major work of sacred verses include the Masnavi, his magnum opus, which is also referred to as the Quran in Persian and it is filled with stories covering everything imaginable. His other major work, the love poems, meaning poems that were given birth to through the fire of Love inside of him, is the Divān of Shams of Tabriz. The Divān can be understood more as music than poetry. Truth is ultimately beyond speech. Music is beyond speech and reaches higher states. Rumi's sacred verses are like music to one's ears. There's nothing like them and they simply cannot be translated.
Thus, I chose to create the Seasons of Rumi video series to provide opportunities for non-Persian speaking beings around the world to hear Rumi's sacred verses in its original. Many are intoxicated by simply allowing the music of his sacred verses land on their heart.
Seasons of Rumi is a collection of short videos I create with my iPhone while I am sauntering in the mountains and in nature. Then I recite one or two of Rumi's poetry in its original Persian language followed by my English translation of it.
The Metanoia Moments is a collection of even shorter videos intended to act as a visual meditation, to pause and return back to the breath in the heart. It's a returning toward the inner world as we ride the wave of the breath at the threshold between the seen and the unseen worlds.
May they nourish your hearts!
