Feb 5, 2019 19:09
5 yrs ago
4 viewers *
English term
the world is too full to talk about
English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
poem by Rumi
Dear colleagues,
I have a problem in understanding the meaning of "the world is too full to talk about" in the following poem by Rumi...
Does it mean “the world is so full that you can't talk about it (“it” meaning “the world)"?
Thank you again!
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I will meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
*** the world is too full to talk about ***
language, ideas, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.
I have a problem in understanding the meaning of "the world is too full to talk about" in the following poem by Rumi...
Does it mean “the world is so full that you can't talk about it (“it” meaning “the world)"?
Thank you again!
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I will meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
*** the world is too full to talk about ***
language, ideas, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.
Responses
Responses
+1
11 mins
Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Ireland
Native in English
&
English
Specializes in field
Ireland
right word, right place. everytime
Native in: English (Variants: US, Canadian, Irish, UK) 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English, and 1 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
317
Selected
Just be one with the world/universe (instead of yakking on!)
We're always labeling things.
Just sit/lie down in your favourite space (beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing) and experience just BEING. The universe has everything you need. It's FULL.
Make no judgments or comparisons or say what's right/wrong etc.
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Note added at 13 mins (2019-02-05 19:23:20 GMT)
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really about exploring oneness with the universe I think. Getting away from mundane affairs and thoughts
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Note added at 3 days 2 hrs (2019-02-08 21:15:50 GMT) Post-grading
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so, with the punctuation like this:
"When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about."
Here, "talk about" grammatically=talk about the world but it (the world) is too full of potential? noise? judgements? chaos? labels of right and wrong? etc. etc. to (be able to) talk about it. However, since your soul is lying down in that field, being at one with cosmic consciousness, there is no need to talk anyway. Just let it go. Feel the union. See Dbox
Glad to have helped
Just sit/lie down in your favourite space (beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing) and experience just BEING. The universe has everything you need. It's FULL.
Make no judgments or comparisons or say what's right/wrong etc.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 mins (2019-02-05 19:23:20 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
really about exploring oneness with the universe I think. Getting away from mundane affairs and thoughts
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 days 2 hrs (2019-02-08 21:15:50 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------
so, with the punctuation like this:
"When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about."
Here, "talk about" grammatically=talk about the world but it (the world) is too full of potential? noise? judgements? chaos? labels of right and wrong? etc. etc. to (be able to) talk about it. However, since your soul is lying down in that field, being at one with cosmic consciousness, there is no need to talk anyway. Just let it go. Feel the union. See Dbox
Glad to have helped
Note from asker:
| Thank you so much, Yvonne, for your help! |
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Tina Vonhof (X)
5 hrs
|
|
Thank you Tina!
|
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Dear colleagues,
First of all, I wish to apologize for having posted a version of the poem without proper punctuation: I’m really sorry.
Despite my oversight, all of your suggestions were really very useful: they helped me a lot!
Unfortunately, I can give points only to one of you, but I’ve found your interpretations really interesting and useful.
My sincere thanks to all of you!
"
5 mins
Nothingness
All said and done, when we get to the last point the soul rests, wrong n right left in the mortal world all is left nothingness
Note from asker:
| Thank you, Raja, for your contribution. Actually, I was thinking that "full" here might mean "full of potential"... |
12 mins
Sina Salehi
Germany
Germany
Germany
My two mottos, punctuality and precision
Native in: Persian (Farsi)
Works in: English to Persian (Farsi), Persian (Farsi) to English, English, and 4 more.
Difficult to comprehend/impossible to understand
He means the world we live in and the humans are not easy to comprehend and each of them are full of conflicting meanings and. Simply, he means we cannot understand this world the way it deserves. Anyway, Rumi was a Persian mystic and I know him very well.
Note from asker:
| Thank you, Sina, for your explanation! |
13 mins
Vinícius da Silva
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil
Law/Bachelor and English Translator
Native in: Portuguese (Variant: Brazilian)
Works in: English to Portuguese, Portuguese to English, Portuguese, and 1 more.
Nothing is good or bad. It's just that we formed the perspective towards each and every thing around
Nothing is good or bad. It's just that we formed the perspective towards each and every thing around us.
We need to be unbiased while judging things and people in our surroundings.
As the thing we usually term as wrong might be right in someone else's perspective and vice versa.
We need to be unbiased while judging things and people in our surroundings.
As the thing we usually term as wrong might be right in someone else's perspective and vice versa.
Note from asker:
| Thank you, Vinicius, for your contribution! |
57 mins
The (real) world is beyond the distinctions we place upon it
Open to much interpretation...
In the context of the poem, I read it as meaning the world beyond judgement may not be defined by language...it is not defined by it.
As many mystics and philosophers have said, language defines and judges, it separates the fullness, the original oneness that is the world before it is categorised and broken down into parts.
There is no language without judgement and no judgement without language...
In the context of the poem, I read it as meaning the world beyond judgement may not be defined by language...it is not defined by it.
As many mystics and philosophers have said, language defines and judges, it separates the fullness, the original oneness that is the world before it is categorised and broken down into parts.
There is no language without judgement and no judgement without language...
Note from asker:
| Thank you, Lisa Jane! Very interesting! |
19 days
Alex Hamada
Brazil
Brazil
Specializes in field
Brazil
Bachelor in Linguistics
Native in: Portuguese 
Works in: English to Portuguese, Portuguese to English, Portuguese, and 1 more.
about language, ideas
Considering that the author seems to preserve traditional punctuation and capitalization, I don't see why we wouldn't assume that the last four verses form one single sentence, so that it's actually saying "the world is too full to talk about language and ideas", just like the author separates verb and object in the final two verses (the phrase "each other" - doesn't make any sense).
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Note added at 19 days (2019-02-25 17:57:48 GMT) Post-grading
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The poem establishes a contrast between natural and artificial, and poses that morals are a human creation, as opposed to a universal truth. It uses images of nature (field, grass) to present this idea of a natural world where social constructs like morals and languages aren't a given.
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Note added at 19 days (2019-02-25 17:57:48 GMT) Post-grading
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The poem establishes a contrast between natural and artificial, and poses that morals are a human creation, as opposed to a universal truth. It uses images of nature (field, grass) to present this idea of a natural world where social constructs like morals and languages aren't a given.
Note from asker:
| Thank you very much, Alex, for your interesting contribution! |
Discussion
Well, I've been pretty much sick since finishing another job, so my answer is a bit late, I apologize.
"I'm not going to attack you as Björn did..."
Come on, I thought safe spaces were for Twitter users, not to mention that I did clarify my statements in a subsequent post. As said, I'm a bit surprised, that's all.
"...should be followed by the plural of the verb..."
Yes, I've noticed that as well. Plus, thanks for the video! The problem is that most of the quotes online do end right after "full to talk about." I've watched the video and while the pause is not that long, it does indicate a period (or full stop) to me.
Also, I don't disagree with your conclusion. I merely wanted people not to think of this as a run-on sentence, because of what I said above.
"I don't understand why you get involved if you hate analysis of poetry?"
That is not what I said: I hated it in school. I don't have much faith in the "system" when it comes to these kinds of analyses, but that's a story for another day.
Have a good night, all of you!
Despite this, your answer helped me a lot!!
Thank you so much for your patience
Enjoy your afternoon!
I don't understand why you get involved if you hate analysis of poetry? I, on the other hand am trained to do this in my 3 working languages as I studied literature as well as language of all three. I then trained my students but some hated poetry, indeed literature in general and some hated books and/or languages, so not always successfullly. I enjoy reading literature without doing a critical analysis but I often find myself automatically analysing something in my head. In other words, I enjoy it! BTW I also studied art history but that doesn't mean I think everything is good or is indeed Art but anyway, that's going off topic. As to whether this needs to be treated as an (American) English or Persian poem, obviously the former since we are not dealing with the original and this is quite probably not a faithful rendition.
Cosmic consciousness/oneness. I'm not alone in reading it like this. Here P127
https://books.google.ie/books?id=FMYC2yk1AlkC&pg=PA127&lpg=P...
p 127 after talking about oneness/cosmic spirituality "The poet Rumi called this cosmic place of true knowledge a field"
and here is an analysis by a swami
https://swaminarayanglory.wordpress.com/2017/10/28/out-beyon...
@ Haribert, @Björn
I've been very busy with my own work so didn't have time to get involved in this yesterday. Haribert, I'm not going to attack you as Björn did but I do think you need to frame your questions more carefully. You did not ask about grammar in this question but about MEANING! Anyway, to me the full stop doesn't make any big difference to the meaning (as I understand it). However, in terms of grammar, surely if it is "Language, ideas, even the phrase each other" should be followed by the plural of the verb=DON'T? BTW I'd found a video of Barks reading this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-AX6_YrsWM and he pauses briefly but then treats it rather like a run-on line. But let's deal with it as the sentence: "When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about." Here, "talk about" grammatically=talk about the world but it's too full of potential? noise? judgements? etc. to (be able to) talk about it but, since you're lying down in that field, being at one with cosmic consciousness there is no need to talk anyway. Just let it go.
ps. I wanted to say "unheimlich" not "unbehagen"...sorry, I am really too tired...
I see what you mean: there is a similar problem also in the field of psychology. for instance for the concept of "Unbehagen" by Freud. The original Italian translation has been criticized, but it has now become so "familiar" (!!) that some prefer not to change it!!
We have a huge responsibility!!
This situation may be similar. Do you interpret the poem based on your limited understanding of Persian literature (mine isn't any better, just saying!) or do you separate it from its origins and look at it in the context of American poetry written in the 1980s and 1990s?
Third, grammar rules are there to be broken. If you can't handle this (haha), don't try reading the following poem:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/anyone-lived-pretty-how-...
Best wishes
What I've learned from all of this is that you can certainly overanalyze things and it won't do you any good. The second point is you can slap the art label on everything you want. Just take a look at this:
https://www.apnews.com/96975eb8af6b4fc0903053be362d8e3a
Try finding the meaning in this. One possible approach I can suggest is that you "average" all those opinions you got from my dear colleagues and see if you can find some smallest common denominator and watch for implicit bias on your part (everyone has that). It's difficult to be sure.
Second, as Yvonne had pointed out earlier (if I may quote from the second link): "Barks is going well beyond trancreation and is essentially doing a new version of the poem..."
If that one is also by Barks, then you're most likely going to end up playing the Telephone Game here.
[...]
The world is too full to talk about: I think it means "literally" and in extremely simple terms: you can't talk about the world because it is too full.... Interpretations about the real meaning can be many, and that's also the beauty of poems, I think. But, when I was looking for an "official" translation (I'm really not good with poems!), I found actual mistakes, or at least so it seemed to me... That's why I posted the question...because I wasn't sure that I've understood it correctly...from a grammatical point of view...
Thus, I'm not looking for a fight; rather, color me surprised.
In any case, we've had questions about Rumi before. First, some poems aren't even by him (see d-box at https://www.proz.com/kudoz/english/poetry-literature/6598591... ) and second, the translation is pretty far removed from the original. See d-box at https://www.proz.com/kudoz/english/poetry-literature/6597614...
Moreover, I agree with Lisa and Phil; you can't really explain this. There is too much room for interpretation. This is true in any language and will get worse with each translation.
Best wishes
This morning I wasn't at work, but I did want to say here in the Discussion, that the sentence was actually "the world is too full to talk about"...
Do you ever make mistakes, Bjorn? If so, you're really a lucky guy!!
...because I can get you interviews(!) with the author in question and they will show you "a new sense of vitality" is just not right.
And what we have here is a poem that has people confused because the punctuation seems to be wrong. A properly punctuated version:
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.
https://www.elephantjournal.com/2016/12/the-rumi-poem-we-sho...
I say "properly" because other links will confirm it's not a run-on sentence.
The people who answer your questions aren't supposed to spend their time looking this up. You quoted from a Wiki page, where everyone can write what they want. You can even search GoogleBooks--all authors quote the line the same way.
Best
No, I didn't miss it. This is not particularly difficult to understand.
"The world (too full)" is the subject of that run-on
"to talk about language" . Otherwise it's not a full sentence.
"When the soul lies down in that grass"=getting away from the mundane "ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing" and getting in touch with spirituality instead.
Surprised you haven't done any critical analyses of poetry. Not a question of "explaining" but of trying to understand the intent of the poet.