From the recording Say I Am You
Inspired by this lovely poem of the same name by 13th century Sufi poet Jalal ad-Din Rumi
Say I Am You
I am dust particles in sunlight.I am the round sun.
To the bits of dust I say, Stay.To the sun, Keep moving.
I am morning mist,and the breathing of evening.
I am wind in the top of a grove,and surf on the cliff.
Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,I am also the coral reef they founder on.
I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.Silence, thought, and voice.
The musical air coming through a flute,a spark off a stone, a flickering in metal.
Both candle and the moth crazy around it.Rose and nightingale lost in the fragrance.
I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,the evolutionary intelligence, the lift and the falling away.
What is and what is not.You who know Jelaluddin,
You are the one in all, say who I am.Say I am you.
Translation by Coleman Barks. Reprinted with permission. From Rumi: The Big Red Book. The Great Masterpiece Celebrating Mystical Love & Friendship; Odes and Quatrains from “The Shams,” ed. and trans. Coleman Barks (New York: Harper One, 2010), 280.
Lyrics
Say I Am You
Kelly Brightwell © 2014
Say I’m the rocks and you are the sea
The waves come a racing and crash into me
For a moment we meet, then we’re parting again
Crumbling into the sand
Say I’m a forest and you are the wind
You move through the valleys, I bow and I bend
‘Til I’m stirring the sky with a howl and moan
Until you blow over and go
Say my name slowly now, say something true
Say you are me, I am you
Say I’m a mountain and you are the rain
The clouds gather slowly, but they never stay
Leaving part of me thirsty, part of me green
And only a shadow between
Say my name slowly now, say something true
Say you are me, I am you
Roses and nightingales, a candle and moth
We’re drawn to the beauty of what we are not
All of us searching and all of us lost
Say I’m the round sun and you are the moon
We gaze at each other across all the blue
But the closer we get, the less I can see
Until you dissolve into me
Say my name slowly now, say something true
Say you are me, I am you