Real Rumi quotes can be traced to a Persian original in his two great works, the Masnavi and the Divan-e Shams. Below are 14 verified lines with the Persian text, a transliteration, a literal translation and the exact book and line or ghazal number, followed by six famous “Rumi quotes” that are misattributed, unsourced or heavily rewritten.
Who Rumi was, in two minutes
Jalâl al-Din Mohammad, known in Iran as مولانا (Mowlânâ, “our master”) or مولوی (Mowlavi), was born around September 30, 1207, in Balkh, in today’s Afghanistan, and died on December 17, 1273, in Konya, in today’s Turkey. He wrote in Persian. His two best-known works are:
- The مثنوی معنوی (Masnavi-ye Ma’navi): a long teaching poem in six books, nearly 26,000 couplets of stories, commentary and reflection.
- The دیوان شمس (Divan-e Shams): his lyric poems, with about 30,000 verses of ghazals plus many quatrains. Instead of signing these poems with his own name, Rumi usually put in the name of his friend and teacher, Shams of Tabriz.
That is why a real Rumi line can almost always be given a precise address: “Masnavi, Book 2, line 1529” or “Divan-e Shams, ghazal 441”. If a quote has no address and nobody can produce the Persian, be careful.
How we checked these Rumi quotes
Every Persian line below was checked against Ganjoor, the largest online library of classical Persian poetry, and the Masnavi lines were also checked against Masnavi.net, which numbers the text following R. A. Nicholson’s standard edition. Ghazal numbers follow the Foruzanfar edition used by Ganjoor. Other printed editions can differ by a few lines, so if your book shows line 1530 instead of 1529, that is normal. The translations are our own literal versions, close to the Persian rather than poetic. A tip for reading the transliteration: â is the long “aa” sound, gh covers both غ and ق, and an apostrophe marks ع.
14 real Rumi quotes in Persian with sources
From the Song of the Reed (Masnavi, Book 1)
The Masnavi opens with a reed flute, نی (ney), that cries because it was cut from its reed bed. These are the most quoted lines Rumi ever wrote, and if you are a learner, they are the best place to start.
1. Masnavi, Book 1, line 1
بشنو این نی چون شکایت می‌کند / از جدایی‌ها حکایت می‌کند
Beshno in ney chon shekâyat mikonad, az jodâyi-hâ hekâyat mikonad.
Literal: “Listen to this reed, how it complains; it tells a story of separations.”
Note: many people quote the line as بشنو از نی (“listen to the reed”). Nicholson’s edition and Ganjoor read بشنو این نی (“listen to this reed”).
2. Masnavi, Book 1, line 3
سینه خواهم شرحه‌شرحه از فراق / تا بگویم شرح درد اشتیاق
Sine khâham sharhe-sharhe az farâgh, tâ beguyam sharh-e dard-e eshtiâgh.
Literal: “I want a chest torn strip by strip by separation, so that I can explain the pain of longing.”
Note the wordplay: شرحه (sharhe, a strip) and شرح (sharh, an explanation).
3. Masnavi, Book 1, line 4
هر کسی کو دور ماند از اصل خویش / باز جوید روزگار وصل خویش
Har kasi ku dur mând az asl-e khish, bâz juyad ruzgâr-e vasl-e khish.
Literal: “Everyone who is left far from their origin seeks again the time of their union.”
4. Masnavi, Book 1, line 6
هر کسی از ظن خود شد یار من / از درون من نجست اسرار من
Har kasi az zann-e khod shod yâr-e man, az darun-e man najost asrâr-e man.
Literal: “Everyone became my friend out of their own assumption; no one looked for my secrets inside me.”
5. Masnavi, Book 1, line 18
درنیابد حال پخته هیچ خام / پس سخن کوتاه باید والسلام
Dar nayâbad hâl-e pokhte hich khâm, pas sokhan kutâh bâyad, vassalâm.
Literal: “No raw one understands the state of the cooked one; so the talk must be short, and that is all.”
Iranians still use والسلام (vassalâm) in everyday speech to mean “end of story”.
6. Masnavi, Book 1, line 29
چون که گل رفت و گلستان درگذشت / نشنوی زان پس ز بلبل سرگذشت
Chon ke gol raft o golestân dar gozasht, nashenavi zân pas ze bolbol sargozasht.
Literal: “When the rose has gone and the rose garden has passed, after that you will not hear the nightingale’s story.”
Other famous lines from the Masnavi
7. Masnavi, Book 1, line 215
این جهان کوه است و فعل ما ندا / سوی ما آید نداها را صدا
In jahân kuh ast o fe’l-e mâ nedâ, su-ye mâ âyad nedâ-hâ râ sadâ.
Literal: “This world is a mountain and our action is the call; the echo of the calls comes back to us.”
It is a real Rumi line on the idea that what we do comes back to us.
8. Masnavi, Book 2, line 277
ای برادر تو همان اندیشه‌ای / مابقی تو استخوان و ریشه‌ای
Ey barâdar, to hamân andishe’i, mâbaghi to ostokhân o rishe’i.
Literal: “O brother, you are that very thought; the rest of you is bone and fiber.”
You will often see the variant تو همه اندیشه‌ای (“you are all thought”). The editions we checked read همان (“that very”).
9. Masnavi, Book 2, line 1529
از محبت تلخ‌ها شیرین شود / از محبت مس‌ها زرین شود
Az mohabbat talkh-hâ shirin shavad, az mohabbat mes-hâ zarrin shavad.
Literal: “Through love, bitter things become sweet; through love, pieces of copper become gold.”
The next lines (1530 and 1531) keep the same pattern, starting each half with از محبت.
10. Masnavi, Book 3, line 3212
آب کم جو تشنگی آور به دست / تا بجوشد آب از بالا و پست
Âb kam ju, teshnegi âvar be dast, tâ bejushad âb az bâlâ o past.
Literal: “Seek water less; get thirst, so that water may gush up from above and below.”
From the Divan-e Shams (ghazals)
11. Divan-e Shams, ghazal 1393, line 1
مرده بدم زنده شدم، گریه بدم خنده شدم / دولت عشق آمد و من دولت پاینده شدم
Morde bodam zende shodam, gerye bodam khande shodam, dowlat-e eshgh âmad o man dowlat-e pâyande shodam.
Literal: “I was dead, I became alive; I was weeping, I became laughter; the good fortune of love came, and I became lasting good fortune.”
بدم (bodam) is an old form of بودم (budam), “I was”.
12. Divan-e Shams, ghazal 441, line 1
بنمای رخ که باغ و گلستانم آرزوست / بگشای لب که قند فراوانم آرزوست
Benamây rokh ke bâgh o golestânam ârezust, bogshây lab ke ghand-e farâvânam ârezust.
Literal: “Show your face, for I long for the garden and the rose garden; open your lips, for I long for plenty of sugar.”
آرزوست (ârezust) is آرزو است, “is a wish”, and the ـم in گلستانم means “my”: “the rose garden is my wish”.
13. Divan-e Shams, ghazal 441, lines 14 and 15
دی شیخ با چراغ همی گشت گرد شهر / کز دیو و دد ملولم و انسانم آرزوست
گفتند یافت می‌نشود جسته‌ایم ما / گفت آنک یافت می‌نشود آنم آرزوست
Di sheykh bâ cherâgh hami gasht gerd-e shahr, kaz div o dad malulam o ensânam ârezust. Goftand yâft mi-nashavad, josteim mâ; goft ânk yâft mi-nashavad, ânam ârezust.
Literal: “Yesterday the sheikh was going around the town with a lamp, saying: I am tired of demons and beasts, and I long for a human being. They said: it cannot be found, we have searched. He said: the one that cannot be found is the one I long for.”
14. Divan-e Shams, ghazal 2219, line 1
من غلام قمرم غیر قمر هیچ مگو / پیش من جز سخن شمع و شکر هیچ مگو
Man gholâm-e ghamaram, gheyr-e ghamar hich mago; pish-e man joz sokhan-e sham’ o shekar hich mago.
Literal: “I am the servant of the moon; say nothing except the moon. In front of me, say nothing except words of candle and sugar.”
Which of these 14 lines would you put on your wall? Tell us in the comments, and tell us if your family recites one we left out.
Try it yourself
Look at line 9 again: از محبت تلخ‌ها شیرین شود. Without scrolling up, what do تلخ and شیرین mean, and what does the ending ـها add?
تلخ (talkh) means “bitter” and شیرین (shirin) means “sweet”. The plural ending ـها (-hâ) turns the adjective into a noun: تلخ‌ها (talkh-hâ) is “bitter things”. Both words are still everyday Persian: چای شیرین (chây-e shirin) is sweet tea.
Flashcards: key words from real Rumi lines
Tap a card to flip it.
reed, reed flute
separation
complaint
story, tale
origin, root
union, joining
love, kindness
bitter
sweet
thought
fire
wish, longing
Famous “Rumi quotes” that are fake or heavily rewritten
Much of what circulates as Rumi in English comes from a few sources: older translators who worked from shaky texts, modern “versions” by poets who do not read Persian, and social media posts with no source at all. In a 2017 New Yorker essay, Rozina Ali pointed out that Coleman Barks, whose books introduced Rumi to millions of American readers, does not read or write Persian and reworks earlier English translations into American verse, and that Islamic references in the originals often disappear along the way. Here are six well-known cases.
1. “Come, come, whoever you are…”
This may be the most famous “Rumi” invitation of all. The Persian quatrain behind it is:
باز آ باز آ، هر آنچه هستی باز آ / گر کافر و گبر و بت‌پرستی باز آ / این درگه ما درگه نومیدی نیست / صد بار اگر توبه شکستی باز آ
Bâz â, bâz â, har ânche hasti bâz â; gar kâfer o gabr o bot-parasti bâz â. In dargah-e mâ dargah-e nowmidi nist; sad bâr agar towbe shekasti bâz â.
Literal: “Come back, come back, whatever you are, come back; even if you are an unbeliever, a Zoroastrian or an idol worshipper, come back. This court of ours is not a court of despair; even if you have broken your repentance a hundred times, come back.”
What is known: Ibrahim Gamard, a translator of the Masnavi, notes that the quatrain is not in the earliest Persian manuscripts of Rumi’s poems or in Foruzanfar’s critical edition, and that scholars attribute it to the Sufi Abu Sa’id-e Abolkheyr, who died about 160 years before Rumi was born. Ganjoor lists it as quatrain 1 in Abu Sa’id’s collection. The English versions also soften it: the Persian names unbelievers, Zoroastrians and idol worshippers, not “whoever you are”.
2. “Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, sufi, or zen…”
Coleman Barks’ poem is based on R. A. Nicholson’s 1898 translation of a ghazal that begins چه تدبیر ای مسلمانان که من خود را نمی‌دانم (“What can be done, O Muslims, for I do not know myself”).
What is known: Nicholson himself admitted that the original text did not appear in any of the editions or manuscripts he used. Gamard calls it a forgery that imitates Rumi’s style, and it is not in Foruzanfar’s edition. A.J. Arberry left it out when he retranslated Nicholson’s selection.
3. “I go into the Muslim mosque and the Jewish synagogue and the Christian church…”
What is known: According to Gamard, this one was not written in Persian at all. The German poet and scholar Friedrich Rückert wrote it in German for his Ghaselen of 1819, imitating the form of a Persian ghazal. It was translated into English as Rumi by William Hastie in 1903 and later reworked by Barks. There is no Persian original.
4. “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
This is a real Rumi quatrain, very freely rewritten. On Ganjoor it is quatrain 157 of the Divan-e Shams:
از کفر و ز اسلام برون صحرایی است / ما را به میان آن فضا سودایی است / عارف چو بدان رسید سر را بنهد / نه کفر و نه اسلام و نه آنجا جایی است
Az kofr o ze eslâm borun sahrâyi ast, mâ râ be miân-e ân fazâ sowdâyi ast; âref cho bedân resid sar râ benahad, na kofr o na eslâm o na ânjâ jâyi ast.
Literal: “Beyond unbelief and Islam there is an open plain; in the middle of that space we have a passion. When the knower reaches it, he lays down his head; there is neither unbelief nor Islam, nor any place there.”
What is known: The New Yorker essay notes that the original says nothing about “rightdoing” or “wrongdoing”. It is about going beyond religious categories (the essay gives them as iman, faith, and kufr, unbelief; the Ganjoor text has Islam and unbelief). The field is real; the moral vocabulary is Barks’.
5. “Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”
What is known: When this line went viral in 2019, Jezebel asked Rumi scholars about it. Fatemeh Keshavarz of the University of Maryland said she did not know the line and that quotes without a reference are often suspicious, and Franklin Lewis of the University of Chicago said many Rumi quotes online are unrecognizable translations. The reporter could not find it in the popular Rumi books either. No one has produced a Persian original, so treat it as unsourced.
6. Chopra’s “love poems” and Barks’ “Like This”
What is known: The New Yorker reports that Deepak Chopra has said his popular “Rumi” love poems are not Rumi’s words but “moods” captured from the original Farsi. It also shows how Barks’ version of the ghazal known in English as “Like This” replaces the Houris of Paradise, which appear in A.J. Arberry’s translation, with “the perfect satisfaction of all our sexual wanting”. These are new poems inspired by Rumi, not translations.
Did one of these surprise you? Which “Rumi quote” have you seen most often on social media? Tell us in the comments.
How to check a Rumi quote yourself
- Ask for the address. A real line has a book and line number (Masnavi) or a ghazal or quatrain number (Divan-e Shams).
- Ask for the Persian. Search a distinctive phrase on Ganjoor. If nobody can show you the Persian, be skeptical.
- Look for Rumi’s world. Real lines are full of the reed, the reed bed, Shams, the Qur’an, prophets and stories. A modern self-help tone with no images is a warning sign.
- Compare with a literal translation. Nicholson’s English Masnavi and Arberry’s translations are plain, but close to the Persian.
Quick quiz: Real Rumi or not?
1. “Listen to this reed, how it complains; it tells a story of separations.”
- Real: Masnavi, Book 1, line 1
- Not Rumi: a modern paraphrase
- Real, but by Hafez
Explanation
It is the opening line of the Masnavi: بشنو این نی چون شکایت می‌کند.
2. “Come, come, whoever you are…”
- Real: Divan-e Shams, ghazal 1
- Not in the earliest Rumi manuscripts; usually attributed to Abu Sa’id-e Abolkheyr
- Real: Masnavi, Book 6
Explanation
Gamard notes it is missing from the earliest manuscripts and from Foruzanfar’s edition. Ganjoor lists the quatrain under Abu Sa’id.
3. “Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”
- Real: Masnavi, Book 2, line 1529
- Real: a Barks translation of a quatrain
- Unsourced: no Persian original has been found
Explanation
Rumi scholars contacted by Jezebel did not recognize it, and no Persian source has been produced.
4. “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.”
- Completely invented
- A real quatrain, heavily rewritten: the original speaks of unbelief and Islam
- An exact literal translation
Explanation
The quatrain begins از کفر و ز اسلام برون صحرایی است, “beyond unbelief and Islam there is an open plain”.
5. “Through love, bitter things become sweet; through love, copper becomes gold.”
- Real: Masnavi, Book 2, line 1529
- Not Rumi: a greeting-card line
- Real, but by Saadi
Explanation
از محبت تلخ‌ها شیرین شود / از محبت مس‌ها زرین شود
6. “I go into the Muslim mosque and the Jewish synagogue and the Christian church…”
- Real: Divan-e Shams, ghazal 441
- Real: Masnavi, Book 1, line 4
- Written in German by Friedrich Rückert in 1819
Explanation
Gamard traces it to Rückert’s Ghaselen. There is no Persian original.
7. In most of his ghazals, whose name does Rumi put in the final lines?
- His own, Jalâl al-Din
- Shams of Tabriz, his friend and teacher
- Hafez
Explanation
That is why his lyric collection is called the Divan-e Shams.
8. “When the rose has gone and the rose garden has passed, you will not hear the nightingale’s story.”
- Real: Masnavi, Book 1, line 29
- Not Rumi: from an Instagram account
- Real, but by Khayyam
Explanation
چون که گل رفت و گلستان درگذشت / نشنوی زان پس ز بلبل سرگذشت
How to start reading Rumi in Persian
You do not need years of study to enjoy the real thing. The Song of the Reed uses many words you will meet in modern Persian (جدایی, آتش, عشق), and the meter carries you along once you hear it read aloud. The harder parts are older verb forms like بدم for بودم, Arabic loanwords and dense allusions to the Qur’an and older stories. A line-by-line text with translation and notes makes all the difference.
How would you like to read Rumi?
Start by learning to read the script, then come back to the reed. Our free beginner lessons and Read and Write Persian in 7 Days get you sounding out words quickly. Meanwhile, read the Song of the Reed with translation and listen to the first lines above.
Read the Song of the Reed line by line, then move on through our free Masnavi pages. Our intermediate lessons will help with the grammar you meet along the way.
Read the poem in full with Masnawi in Farsi with English Translation (6 books), alongside our free Masnavi pages and advanced lessons.
Real Rumi quotes in Persian: the short version
| Quote (short) | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| “Listen to this reed…” | Real | Masnavi 1:1 |
| “Through love, bitter things become sweet” | Real | Masnavi 2:1529 |
| “This world is a mountain and our action the call” | Real | Masnavi 1:215 |
| “I was dead, I became alive” | Real | Divan-e Shams, ghazal 1393 |
| “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing…” | Real quatrain, heavily rewritten | Divan-e Shams, quatrain 157 (Ganjoor) |
| “Come, come, whoever you are” | Not in early Rumi manuscripts | Attributed to Abu Sa’id-e Abolkheyr |
| “I am not Christian or Jew or Muslim…” | Not in early manuscripts | Imitation ghazal (per Nicholson and Gamard) |
| “I go into the mosque and the synagogue…” | Not Rumi | Friedrich Rückert, German, 1819 |
| “Raise your words, not voice” | Unsourced | No Persian original found |
Sources: Ganjoor: Masnavi, Book 1, proem, Masnavi.net: Book 1, lines 1 to 10 (Nicholson), Masnavi.net: Book 1, lines 18 to 42, Masnavi.net: Book 1, line 215, Masnavi.net: Book 2, line 277, Masnavi.net: Book 2, line 1529, Masnavi.net: Book 3, line 3212, Ganjoor: Divan-e Shams, ghazal 1393, Ganjoor: ghazal 441, Ganjoor: ghazal 2219, Ganjoor: Divan-e Shams, quatrain 157, Ganjoor: Abu Sa’id, quatrain 1, Encyclopaedia Britannica: Rumi, Rozina Ali, The New Yorker: The Erasure of Islam from the Poetry of Rumi, Poetry Foundation: summary of the New Yorker essay, Ibrahim Gamard: Three Fake Rumi Verses, Jezebel: Did Tiffany Trump Post a Fake Rumi Quote?
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