Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home
On The Tavern
In the tavern are many wines---the wine of delight in color and
form and taste, the wine of the intellect's agility, the fine port of
stories, and the cabernet of soul singing. Being human means
entering this place where entrancing varieties of desire are served.
The grapeskin of ego breaks and a pouring begins. Fermentation
is one of the oldest symbols for human transformation. When
grapes combine their juice and are closed up together for a time
in a dark place, the results are spectacular. This is what lets two
drunks meet so they don't know who is who. Pronouns no longer
apply in the tavern's mud-world of excited confusion and half-
articulated wantings.
But after some time in the tavern, a point comes, a memory of
elsewhere, a longing for the source, and the drunks must set off
from the tavern and begin the return. The Qur'an says, "We are
all returning." The tavern is a kind of glorious hell that human
beings enjoy and suffer and then push off from in their search for
truth. The tavern is a dangerous region where sometimes
disguises are necessary, but never hide your heart, Rumi urges.
Keep open there. A breaking apart, a crying out into the street,
begins in the tavern, and the human soul turns to find its way
home.
"It's 4 A.M. Nasruddin leaves the tavern and walks the town
aimlessly. A policeman stops him. "Why are you out wandering
the streets in the middle of the night?" "Sir," replied Nasruddin,
"if I knew the answer to that question, I would have
been home hours ago!"
Source: The Essential Rumi
On The Tavern
In the tavern are many wines---the wine of delight in color and
form and taste, the wine of the intellect's agility, the fine port of
stories, and the cabernet of soul singing. Being human means
entering this place where entrancing varieties of desire are served.
The grapeskin of ego breaks and a pouring begins. Fermentation
is one of the oldest symbols for human transformation. When
grapes combine their juice and are closed up together for a time
in a dark place, the results are spectacular. This is what lets two
drunks meet so they don't know who is who. Pronouns no longer
apply in the tavern's mud-world of excited confusion and half-
articulated wantings.
But after some time in the tavern, a point comes, a memory of
elsewhere, a longing for the source, and the drunks must set off
from the tavern and begin the return. The Qur'an says, "We are
all returning." The tavern is a kind of glorious hell that human
beings enjoy and suffer and then push off from in their search for
truth. The tavern is a dangerous region where sometimes
disguises are necessary, but never hide your heart, Rumi urges.
Keep open there. A breaking apart, a crying out into the street,
begins in the tavern, and the human soul turns to find its way
home.
"It's 4 A.M. Nasruddin leaves the tavern and walks the town
aimlessly. A policeman stops him. "Why are you out wandering
the streets in the middle of the night?" "Sir," replied Nasruddin,
"if I knew the answer to that question, I would have
been home hours ago!"
Source: The Essential Rumi