‘Dervish at the Door’ | Farage and His Tired Jokes

Migrant3

‘We haggle and make jokes, to keep what we own for ourselves’

This poem by Jelaluddin Rumi (1207 – 1273) speaks rather beautifully, I think, to a picture of modern Britain these past few days, to our too-often selfish and soulless relationship to those who have come to our borders in need.

‘A deserted place.’ Sterile. Infertile.

This is what we risk when Farage stands in Brussels and laughs.

Dervish At The Door

A dervish knocked at a house
to ask for a piece of dry bread,
or moist, it didn’t matter.

“This is not a bakery,” said the owner.
“Might you have a bit of gristle then?”
“Does this look like a butchershop?”
“A little flour?”
“Do you hear a grinding stone?”
“Some water?”
“This is not a well.”

Whatever the dervish asked for,
the man made some tired joke
and refused to give him anything.
Finally the dervish ran in the house,
lifted his robe, and squatted
as though to take a shit.

“Hey, hey!”
“Quiet, you sad man. A deserted place
is a fine spot to relieve oneself,
and since there’s no living thing here,
or means of living, it needs fertilizing.”

The dervish began his own list of questions and answers.

“What kind of bird are you? Not a falcon,
trained for the royal hand. Not a peacock,
painted with everyone’s eyes. Not a parrot,
that talks for sugar cubes. Not a nightingale,
that sings like someone in love.

Not a hoopoe bringing messages to Solomon,
or a stork that builds on a cliffside.

What exactly do you do?
You are no known species.
You haggle and make jokes
to keep what you own for yourself.
You have forgotten the One
who doesn’t care about ownership,
who doesn’t try to turn a profit
from every human exchange.”

___

From: The Essential Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks