In Conversation with Ramazan Saral – Recording

The thirteenth century Persian poet-prophet Rumi is considered a mystic poet, whose company with Shams of Tabriz inspired him to write some of the most sensational poetry of separation, union and longing. The union with the “friend,” in whose reflection one sees God and he himself becomes the reflection of both, is a constant reminder of the maxim of yet another mystic poet from the nineth century, Hallaj: “Ana’l-Haqq” (I am the Truth [or God]). Through this union and separation from the Friend, Rumi’s views on life and death transform and death becomes not a negation or annihilation but a reawakening. Thereafter, he believes “Death is our wedding with eternity.” The same sentiment that death is not an end, but another form of life is ever present in Blake’s poetry. Life of experience is not the only life; therefore, death is not an end to it. Death, Blake believes, is nothing “but removing from one room to another.” The aim of this talk is to compare these two “mystic” poet-prophets in their outlook on life and death and to depict how this outlook deems death as a union with the “Divine.”