Rumi

Poem

The opening lines of the Masnavi, in Rumi's own Persian — not the softened English paraphrases that circulate as his. Four lines, transliterated, then read.

Line one

bišnow in nay čun šikāyat mi-konad

Listen to this reed, how it complains — the poem opens mid-sound, as if the reed has already been talking a while.

Line two

az judāyīhā hikāyat mi-konad

It tells the story of separations — plural, not one loss but the condition of being cut from where you began.

Line three

k-az nayestān tā marā bebrīdeand

Since they cut me away from the reed-bed — the reed becomes a voice for anyone taken from their source.

Line four

az nafīram mard o zan nālīdeand

At my cry, man and woman alike have wailed — the sound is said to reach past any one listener's story.

Whole

bišnow in nay čun šikāyat mi-konadaz judāyīhā hikāyat mi-konadk-az nayestān tā marā bebrīdeandaz nafīram mard o zan nālīdeand

The opening of Rumi's six-book Masnavi, composed in Persian in the thirteenth century: a reed cut from its bed, made into a flute, crying to return. Reciting these lines from memory is common among Persian speakers. Note: many "Rumi quotes" online are not his — often reworded English with no original behind them.

His own words, not the ones sold as his.