Rumi Love Quotes and Sayings, Credit: Wikipedia
Rumi Love Quotes and Sayings
#1 Do You Love Me?
1. If I love myself I love you. If I love you I love myself.
#2 Open Secret: Versions of Rumi
2. The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.
#3-4 The Essential Rumi
3. When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep. Praise God for these two insomnias! And the difference between them.
4. Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absent-minded. Someone sober will worry about events going badly. Let the lover be.
#5 Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work, 2000, Linda J. Ferguson, p. 51
5. Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.
#6 Diwan-e Shams-e Tabriz-i
6. This is Love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First, to let go of life. In the end, to take a step without feet.
#7 The Essential Rumi, An Empty Garlic, Translated by COLEMAN BARKS with JOHN MOYNE
7. Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.
#8 Quoted in The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi by Andrew Harvey
8. Reason is powerless in the expression of Love. Love alone is capable of revealing the truth of love and of being a lover.
#9 Looking for love, Farsi scholar Fereydoun Kia
9. A strange passion is moving in my head. My heart has become a bird which searches in the sky. Every part of me goes in different directions. Is it really so that the one I love is everywhere?
#10 The Rubaiyat of Jalal Al-Din Rumi, Union, Select translations into English Verse’ by A.J. Arberry, 1949
10. There is a door, say some, from heart to heart: What need they doorways, whom no wall doth part?
#11 Rumi: Fountain of Fire, Nader Khalili
11. Look at love how it tangles with the one fallen in love.
#12-13 Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing, Coleman Barks
12. There are lovers content with longing. I’m not one of them.
13. Drumsound rises on the air,
its throb, my heart.
A voice inside the beat says,
“I know you’re tired,
but come, this is the way.”
Are you jealous of the ocean’s generosity?
Why would you refuse to give
this love to anyone?
Fish don’t hold the sacred liquid in cups!
They swim the huge fluid freedom.
#14 Chinese Art and Greek Art, The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
14. In your light I learn how to love,
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you,
but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art
#15 A Dove in the Eaves, The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
15. I don’t care about the marvelous sights!
I only want to be in your presence.
#16 All Rivers at Once, The Essential Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
16. Don’t ask what love can make or do!
Look at the colors of the world.
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Excerpt from Wikipedia: Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (Persian: جلالالدین محمد بلخى), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (جلالالدین محمد رومی) and popularly known as Mevlānā in Turkey and Mawlānā (Persian: مولانا) in Iran and Afghanistan but known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273) was a 13th-century Persian Muslim poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. Rūmī is a descriptive name meaning “Roman” since he lived most of his life in an area called “Rûm” (then under the control of Seljuq dynasty) because it was once ruled by the Eastern Roman Empire. He was one of the figures who flourished in the Sultanate of Rum.
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Sayings by Rumi
#1-4 Rumi Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance (1990) translations by Camille Adams Helminsk and Kabir Helminski
1. If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?
2. Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader, are your own nature reflected in them.
3. If you are wholly perplexed and in straits, have patience, for patience is the key to joy.
4. The lion who breaks the enemy’s ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.
#5 Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity, 1997, Jan Phillips, p. 75
5. Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.
#6 In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad
6. It may be that the satisfaction I need depends on my going away, so that when I’ve gone and come back, I’ll find it at home.
#7-8 The Essential Rumi, CRY OUT IN YOUR WEAKNESS, Translated by COLEMAN BARKS with JOHN MOYNE
7. The hard rain and wind are ways the cloud has to take care of us. Be patient. Respond to every call that excites your spirit.
8. Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back toward disease and death.
#9 The Glance: Songs of Soul-Meeting
9. When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.
#10 The Essential Rumi, CHILDHOOD FRIENDS, Translated by COLEMAN BARKS with JOHN MOYNE
10. Let a teacher wave away the flies and put a plaster on the wound. Don’t turn your head. Keep looking at the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you.
#11 The Essential Rumi, IN BETWEEN STORIES, Translated by COLEMAN BARKS with JOHN MOYNE
11. Don’t think of him as a seeker, though. Whatever he’s looking for, he is that himself. How can a lover be anything but the beloved?
#12 Hush Don’t Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi, translated by Sharam Shiva
12. There is a candle in your heart,
ready to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul,
ready to be filled.
You feel it, don’t you?
#13 The Essential Rumi, BODY INTELLIGENCE, Translated by COLEMAN BARKS with JOHN MOYNE
13. Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.
#14 The Essential Rumi, GREEN EARS, Translated by COLEMAN BARKS with JOHN MOYNE
14. The tree limbs will move like people dancing, who suddenly know what the mystical life is
#15 The Essential Rumi, A GREAT WAGON, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
15. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn’t make any sense.
#16 UNMARKED BOXES, The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
16. Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round
in another form. The child weaned from mother’s milk
now drinks wine and honey mixed.
#17 The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi, Andrew Harvey
17. I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.
#18 The Essential Rumi, The Guest House, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
18. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
#19 Rumi: The Book of Love, Doves, Translations and Commentary by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
19. People want you to be happy. Don’t keep serving them your pain! If you could untie your wings and free your soul of jealousy, you and everyone around you would fly up like doves.
#20 The Essential Rumi, The Guest House, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
20. Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought! Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?
#21 The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, 1983, William C. Chittick
21. Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more — more unseen forms become manifest to him.
#22 Rumi: The Book of Love, THE PRINCE OF KABUL, Translations and Commentary by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
22. Make peace with the universe. Take joy in it. It will turn to gold. Resurrection will be now. Every moment a new beauty, and never any boredom.
#23 Unfold Your Own Myth
23. But don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.
#24 The Mystics of Islam, 1914, Reynold Alleyne Nicholson
24. I died as a 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?
#25 The Essential Rumi, BURNT KABOB, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
25. But listen to me: for one moment, quit being sad. Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you.
#26 The Essential Rumi, CHAPTER 27. THE TURN, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
26. I am so small I can barely be seen. How can this great love be inside me? Look at your eyes. They are small, but they see enormous things.
#27 Rumi: The Book of Love, THE SOUL’S FRIEND, Translations and Commentary by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
27. Be like a mountain in the wind. Do you notice how it moves? There are sweet illusions that arrive to lure you away.
#28 The Essential Rumi, ENOUGH WORDS?, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
28. Don’t try to put out a fire by throwing on more fire! Don’t wash a wound with blood!
#29 Light Upon Light: Inspirations from Rumi
29. Do not stray into the neighborhood of despair. For there are hopes: they are real, they exist – Do not go in the direction of darkness – I tell you: suns exist.
#30 Jewels of Remembrance: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance
30. Everything you possess of skill, and wealth and handicraft, wasn’t it first merely a thought and a quest?
#31-32 Rumi Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance, 1990, Camille Adams Helminsk and Kabir Helminski
31. If you wish mercy, show mercy to the weak.
32. If you dig a pit for others to fall into, you will fall into it yourself.
#33-34 The Essential Rumi, THE SUNRISE RUBY, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
33. Work. Keep digging your well. Don’t think about getting off from work. Water is there somewhere.
34. Keep knocking, and the joy inside will eventually open a window and look out to see who’s there.
#35 Ode #3090, translation by Coleman Barks
35. Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder
help someone’s soul to heal.
#36 Rumi’s Quatrain 77
36. “Yek chand be Taqlîd ghôzîdam khûd râ,
Dar khûd bûdam, zân nasazîdam khûd râ.
Nâdîdeh hamî nâm shanîdam khûd râ,
Az khûd cho borôn shudam, bédîdam khûd râ.”
Below are several translations:
For years, copying other people, I tried to know myself.
From within, I couldn’t decide what to do.
Unable to see, I heard my name being called.
Then I walked outside.
— Coleman Barks Translation
“Open Secret”
Threshold Books, 1984
——
Doing as others told me,
I was blind.
Coming when others called me,
I was lost.
Then I left everyone,
myself as well.
Then I found everyone,
myself as well.
– Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva Translation
“A Garden Beyond Paradise”
Bantam Books, 1992
——
for awhile
i chose myself to adore
losing me in me
i deserved no more
it seemed i couldn’t
see myself
yet i knew
when i stepped out
then me and myself
i beheld
— Nader Khalili Translation
“Rumi, Dancing the Flame”
Cal-Earth Press, 2001
——
Imitating others,
I failed to find myself.
I looked inside and discovered
I only knew my name.
When I stepped outside
I found my real Self.
— Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi Translation
“Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved”
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1999
#37 The Essential Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, A. J. Arberry and Reynold Nicholson
37. Never ignore those intuitions.
When you feel some slight repugnance about doing something,
listen to it. These premonitions come from God.
#38 Dying, Laughing, The Essential Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, A. J. Arberry and Reynold Nicholson
38. …but listen to me.
All this is the decor of love, the branches
and leaves and blossoms. You must live
at the root to be a true lover.
#39 A Man and A Woman Arguing
39. These pains that you feel are messengers. Listen to them. Turn them to sweetness. The night is almost over
#40 Unseen Rain: Quatrains of Rumi, Translations: John Moyne and Coleman Barks [S]
40. You are cold, but you expect kindness.
What you do comes back in the same form.
God is compassionate, but if you plant barley,
don’t expect to harvest wheat.
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Unsourced Rumi Quotes
1. Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.
2. Love is the bridge between you and everything.
3. Only from the heart Can you touch the sky.
4. Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.
5. Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
6. What you seek is seeking you.
7. The lion is most handsome when looking for food.
8. Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.
9. Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.
10. I looked in temples, churches and mosques. But I found the Divine in my heart.
11. Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain which grows flowers, not thunder.