The reed torn from the reed-bed, crying all night because it remembers where it came from.
A lamp — Subharnab Majumdar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (1207–1273), a jurist and teacher in Konya, met a wandering dervish named Shams of Tabriz in 1244, was undone by the encounter, and spent the rest of his life writing some of the greatest religious poetry there is. His subject is longing—the reed that cries because it remembers the reed-bed. His Sufism is fully Islamic and Qur'anic, which is precisely what the popular English “Rumi” removes; the well-known renderings by Coleman Barks are not translations but reworkings of older translations with most of the Islam taken out. We use R. A. Nicholson's and E. H. Whinfield's translations, which are faithful and free.
Verses to begin with
Masnavi I, 1–2 — The Song of the Reed
بشنو این نی چون شکایت میکند از جداییها حکایت میکند
beshno in ney chun shekāyat mikonad az jodāyi-hā hekāyat mikonad
Listen to this reed how it complains: it is telling a tale of separations. Saying, “Ever since I was parted from the reed-bed, my lament has caused man and woman to moan.”
Translation: R. A. Nicholson (1926)
The opening of the Masnavi. Ramakrishna's “weep for God with a longing heart” is the same cry.
Masnavi III — “I died as mineral”
I died as mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Translation: E. H. Whinfield (1898)
Sri Aurobindo's evolution of consciousness, as a Persian couplet. And Gita 2.22.
Masnavi II — Moses and the shepherd
I look not at the tongue and the speech; I look at the inward spirit and the state of feeling.
Translation: R. A. Nicholson
God rebukes Moses for correcting a shepherd's crude prayer. Ramakrishna's clay image (rk-19) makes the same point.
Masnavi III — The elephant in the dark
Some Hindus had brought an elephant for exhibition and placed it in a dark house. Each felt it with the palm of his hand. The hand fell on the trunk: “this creature is like a water-pipe.” Another touched the ear: “it is like a fan.” Another the leg: “a pillar.” Another the back: “a throne.” … If there had been a candle in each one's hand, the difference would have gone out of their words.
Translation: Aumidhra, after Nicholson
Ramakrishna's chameleon, and Rigveda 1.164.46. The parable of every comparative library, including this one.
Where the translation is marked “Aumidhra”, the English is our own plain rendering from the original, made with the public-domain translations above as reference. Where a translator is named, the wording is theirs.