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blackbootz  ·  4256 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Robert Bly reads "the scolding Rumi" (I don't like it here)

That does sound like a good explication. I felt I had the most general gist of the poem; don't fall for short-term hedonism in exchange for your dignity or adulthood.

I don't know the cultural context with which Rumi employs wren or great Chinese Simurgh Bird, or what distinction he makes between [good wine and rich chocolate] and [mirages and faux milk]. I feel that wine and chocolate are the more pleasurable and hard-to-defend habits.

But I like the ending. "Chill out, young man... You're on the edge of a roof"