A Journal of Oriental Studies Sayı/Issue - Doğu Edebiyatı

DOĞU ARAŞTIRMALARI 4, 2009/2 57
thine eyes
By looking back what I have
left behind
Stroy’d in dishonor. (Act 3,
scene 9)
Perhaps that is the reason why Antony asks his intimate friends to leave him,
as he has also left himself:
MARK ANTONY: … take the hint
Which my despair proclaims; let that be left
Which leaves itself (Act 3, scene 9)
Antony seems to be fully aware of the perfection within himself:
MARK ANTONY: I have
offended reputation,
A most unnoble swerving.
(Act 3, scene 9)
Cleopatra also shares Antony's infamy. She consciously turns down Caesar's
offer to continue her rule over Egypt while keeping her wealth. As she tells
Antony about this fully self-conscious notoriety, "
CLEOPATRA: No more, but e’en a woman, and commanded
By such poor passion as the maid that milks
And does the meanest chares. (Act 4, scene 13)
Choosing the path of infamy and ill repute, they prepare themselves for the
final phase of love and perfection – death and unity. When they reach the end,
the infamy is replaced by inner serenity and bliss.
9. Perdition
Perdition and death is among the highest of mystical levels which only the
greatest of mystics can achieve and experience. This level is the all-time
aspiration of any mystical journeyman. Such inexistence is possible only
through total rejection of the world and infamy among people. Few mystics
are truly capable of achieving such a feat; it is like the thirty birds which,
having become a simurgh, realize that its nature is but the aggregation of the
thirty birds. This is also shown in one of Rumi's most vibrant verses in
Mathnavi:
(You will see) that the lover perished and the beloved too: they are naught
and their passion also is naught. (Mathnavi V:1205)
One of the most exquisite descriptions of the lover's demise in Rumi's poetry
– and perhaps in Persian literature – is the story of the butterfly and the
candle. "The butterfly voluntarily hits the flame, sacrificing itself to reach a
more elevated life." (Schimmel) The renowned phrase "die before your death"
is a fine illustration of this notion – "dying prior to physical death," in which
one achieves a level of elevation and eternity far beyond imagination. The
story of Mansoor Hallaj, one of Rumi's favorites, is an example of death in
order to reach divinity and become a part of the whole existence.
The notion of demise is exclusive to mystic love, arising out of the beloved's
divine nature; as Qazali sees it, "It is inevitable: the lover and the beloved are