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Selected excertps of poems from Rumi taken from Kulliyat-e Shams, 21 and Ode 314 - translated by Nevit Oguz Ergin. Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian poet, faqih, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran. Rumi's influence transcends national borders and ethnic divisions.
The springtime of Lovers has come,
that this dust bowl may become a garden;
the proclamation of heaven has come,
that the bird of the soul may rise in flight.
The sea becomes full of pearls,
the salt marsh becomes sweet as abundance
the stone becomes a ruby from the mine,
the body becomes wholly soul.
The intellectual is always showing off,
the lover is always getting lost.
The intellectual runs away
afraid of drowning;
the whole business of love
is to drown in the sea.
Intellectuals plan their repose;
lovers are ashamed to rest.
The lover is always alone
even surrounded by people;
like water and oil, they remain apart.
The man who goes to the trouble
of giving advice to a lover
gets nothing.
He’s mocked by passion
Love is like musk. It attracts attention
Love is a tree, and the lovers are its shade.
Those who don’t feel this Love
pulling them like a river,
those who don’t drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don’t want to change,
let them sleep.
This Love is beyond the study of theology,
that old trickery and hypocrisy.
If you want to improve your
mind that way, sleep on.
I’ve given up on my brain.
I’ve torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away.
If you’re not completely naked,
wrap your beautif
