Rumi, the greatest mystic poet of Islam, was born in Balkh, in what was then known as the province of Khorassan (now Afghanistan), in 1207. He died in Konya in southern Turkey in 1273. He left Mathnawi, a mystical epic in six volumes; the Divan-i-Kabir, a collection of thirty-five hundred odes and two thousand quatrains; a book of discourse; and several volumes of letters.

鲁米，伊斯兰神秘主义诗人，1207年出生于呼罗珊省的巴尔赫，即现今阿富汗境内，1273年逝世于土耳其南部的科尼亚。他身后留下了6卷本的神秘主义长诗《玛斯纳维》，以及收入了3500首颂诗和2000首四行体的《神迷之诗》，另有一本论理著作和几本书信集。

冯冬，1979年生于重庆，南京大学英文系博士毕业，现任教于暨南大学，译有《未来是一只灰色海鸥：西尔维娅-普拉斯诗全集》（2013）、小说《蛛网与磐石》（2011）、游记《中华帝国纪行》（2006）等，在海内外诗刊发表作品，与友合著诗集《残酷的乌鸦》（2011），主要研究诗歌、精神分析和当代哲学。

Peter Feng was born in Chongqing, China, in 1979. He has received a Ph.D degree in literature from Nanjing University and currently teaches English at Jinan University. He has translated The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath (2013), The Web and the Rock (2011), A Journey through the Chinese Empire (2006), and co-written a book of poems: Cruel Raven (2011). His study includes poetry, psychoanalysis, and contemporary philosophy.

Answers from the Elements

元素的回答

A whole afternoon field inside me from one stem of reed.
The messenger comes running toward me, irritated:
Why be so hard to find?

Last night I asked the moon about the Moon, my
one question for the invisible world, Where is God?
The moon says, I am dust stirred up
when he passed by. The sun, My face is pale yellow
from just now seeing him. Water: I slide on my
head and face like a snake, from a spell he said. Fire: His 
lightning, I want to be that restless. Wine, why so light?
I would burn if I had a choice. Earth, quiet
and thoughtful? Inside me I have a garden
and an underground spring.

This world hurts my head with its answers,    
wine filling my hand, not my glass.
If I could wake completely, I would say without speaking
Why I'm ashamed of using words.
			

因一支芦苇，整个午后的田野在我体内。
信使向我跑来，面带恼怒：
“为何如此难找？”

昨晚我向月亮询问月亮的事，
我问看不见的世界，神在哪里？
月亮说，我是他行走时
掀起的灰尘。太阳说，我的脸
苍白泛黄，因为刚看见他。
水说，我在自己的头和脸上滑行
如一条蛇，都因他的魔咒。火说，
他的闪电，我欲同样的不安。
酒说，为何如此味淡？
若有选择我宁愿燃烧。大地说：宁静
而沉思？我体内有一座花园
和一条地下河。

这个世界用它的答案伤我的脑筋，
手上的酒溢出杯子。
如果我能完全醒来，我将
无言地说出
为何我羞于使用词语。