Honor Thy Father, a Poem by Rumi

Honor Thy Father
~ by Rumi ~ my translation ~


Though a mother's love is filled with kindness,
a father's harshness is God's amazing grace.

Look at him, look at him as your father, 
and not as the husband of your mother.

Cherish your relationship with your father 
while he is still alive and still around,
not talking to him is a wrong thing to do.

You won't become a righteous son
by blaming all your failures on your father.

Blaming him to hide your own bad choices
will only make you stay in total denial. 

Listen to your father since you are his son,
and he considers you as his sultan and king.

Give your father a hand, help him out
until the break of dawn if you have to.
See the divine beauty emanating from
your father's ragged old face. 

If you've become successful and prosperous,
it's thanks to your father's constant prayers
and supplications to hundreds of saints and prophets.

O the son of enlightenment, 
learn from your devout father who constantly 
begs the Almighty for your sins to be forgiven:
"Forgive us O Lord! We have wronged ourselves."

The world has inherited this irrefutable fact
for thousands of years now:
When a father dies, his son becomes the father.


گزیده اشعار مولانا در وصف پدر

مادر اگر چه که همه رحمتست
رحمت حق بین تو ز قهر پدر
مرا همچون پدر بنگر نه همچون شوهر مادر
پدر را نیک واقف دان از آن کژبازی مضمر
تو گردی راست اولیتر از آنک کژ نهی او را
وگر تو کژ نهی او را به استیزت کند کژتر
ز بابا بشنو و برجه که سلطانیت می‌خواند
که خاک اوت کیخسرو بمیرد پیش او سنجر
دعای یک پدر نبود دعای صد نبی باشد
کز این سان دولتی گشتم بدین دولت رسیدستم
از پدر آموز ای روشن‌جبین
ربنا گفت و ظلمنا پیش ازین
دست پدر گیر ای پسر با او وفا کن تا سحر
جمال روی پدر درنگر اگر پسری
میراث مانده است جهان از هزار قرن
چون شد به زیر خاک پدر شد پسر پدر