From the Masnavi, Rumi’s great poem, in two scholarly translations: R. A. Nicholson’s literal version and E. H. Whinfield’s abridged verse translation (1898). These are faithful renderings, unlike the free modern versions that fill the internet.
“Listen to the reed how it tells a tale, complaining of separations.”Masnavi I.1 (tr. R. A. Nicholson)
All longing is the soul missing its source.
“Every one who is left far from his source wishes back the time when he was united with it.”Masnavi I.4 (tr. R. A. Nicholson)
Homesickness of the soul is the root of seeking.
“Whether love be from this side or from that side, in the end it leads us yonder.”Masnavi I.111 (tr. R. A. Nicholson)
Human love, too, points beyond itself.
“Knowest thou why thy mirror reflects not? Because the rust has not been scoured from its face.”Masnavi, Book I, prologue (tr. E. H. Whinfield)
Clear the heart and it reflects the light.
“I regard not the outside and the words, I regard the inside and the state of heart.”Masnavi, Book II, Moses and the Shepherd (tr. E. H. Whinfield)
God hears the heart, not the grammar.
“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment intuition.”Masnavi (tr. E. H. Whinfield)
Wonder sees further than cleverness.
“Silence is the guide and support of men at sea.”Masnavi (tr. E. H. Whinfield)
In the storm, quiet steers.
Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207–1273) wrote in Persian. His two great works are the Masnavi, a long teaching poem of about 25,000 couplets in six books, full of stories and Qur’anic references, and the Divan-e Shams, thousands of shorter lyric poems. He was a Muslim scholar and teacher, and his poetry is soaked in that faith; a famous Persian couplet calls the Masnavi “the Qur’an in the Persian tongue”.
Most of the “Rumi quotes” shared online come from modern English versions written by poets who worked from earlier English translations rather than from the Persian. Some are beautiful poems in their own right, but they often drop the religious language and sometimes say things Rumi did not. That is why this page sticks to two careful translators:
If a Rumi quote sounds like modern self-help and names no book or translator, treat it with care. Some of the most shared ones are on Fake Rumi Quotes.
These circulate widely under the same name, but don’t hold up:
More, and why it happens: Fake Rumi Quotes
Rumi’s life and ideas · Whinfield’s Masnavi (Internet Archive)
Whinfield’s Masnavi (Internet Archive) · Dar al-Masnavi · Rumi
