The Reed-Flute

FROM reed-flute 1 hear what tale it tells;

What plaint it makes of absence’ ills:

"From jungle-bed since me they tore,

Men's, women's, eyes have wept right sore.

My breast I tear and rend in twain,

To give, through sighs, vent to my pain.

Who's from his home snatched far away,

Longs to return some future day.

I sob and sigh in each retreat,

Be’t joy or grief for which men meet.

5

They fancy they can read my heart;

Grief's secrets I to none impart.

My throes and moans form but one chain,

Men's eyes and ears catch not their train.

Though soul and body be as one,

Sight of his soul hath no man won.

A flame's the flute's wail; not a breath,

That flame who feels not, doom him death.

The flame of love, ’tis, prompts the flute,

10

Wine's ferment, love; its tongue not mute.

The absent lover's flute's no toy;

Its trills proclaim his grief, his joy.

Or bane, or cure, the flute is still;

Content, complaining, as you will.

It tells its tale of burning grief;

Recounts how love is mad, in brief.

The lover lover's pangs best knows;

As ear receives tongue's plaint of woes.

Through grief, his day is but a dawn;

15

Each day of sorrow, torment's pawn.

My days are waste; take thou no heed,

Thou still are left; my joy, indeed.

Whole seas a fish will never drown;

A poor man's day seems all one frown.

What boot from counsel to a fool?

Waste not thy words; thy wrath let cool.

Cast off lust's bonds; stand free from all.

Slave not for pelf; be not greed's thrall.

Pour rivers into one small gill,

20

It can but hold its little fill.

The eye's a vase that's ne’er content;

The oyster's filled ere pearl is sent.

1

The heart that's bleeding from love's dart,

From vice of greed is kept apart.

Then hie thee, love, a welcome guest;—

Physician thou to soothe my breast.

Thou cure of pride and shame in me;

Old Galen's skill was nought to thee

Through love, this earthly frame ascends

25

To heaven; a hill, to skip pretends.

In trance of love, Mount Sinai shakes,

At God's descent; 'and Moses quakes.'

1

Found I the friend on whom I dote,

I'd emulate flute's dulcet note.

But from my love, while torn away,

Unmeaning words alone I say.

The spring is o’er; the rose is gone;

The song of Philomel is done.

His love was all; himself, a note.

His love, alive; himself, dead mote.

30

Who feels not love's all-quick’ning flame,

Is like the bird whose wing is lame.

Can I be quiet, easy, glad,

When my delight's away? No! Sad.

Love bids my plaint all bonds to burst.

My heart would break, with silence curst.

A mirror best portrays when bright;

Begrimed with rust, its gleam grows slight.

Then wipe such foul alloy away;

Bright shall it, so, reflect each ray."

35

Thou’st heard what tale the flute can tell;

Such is my case; sung all too well.

Footnotes

m1:1

The reed-flute is the sacred musical instrument of the Mevlevī dervishes, commonly known

as the Dancing Dervishes, from their peculiar religious waltz to the sound of the reed-flute, &c.,

with outstretched arms and inclined head, in their special public services of commemoration.

They love the reed-flute as the symbol of a sighing absent lover.

m2:1

There is a poetical Eastern notion by dewdrops or raindrops falling into that pearls are

formed in the oysters them at a certain season.

m3:1 Qur’ān vii. 139, where the words are: "And Moses fell down, swooning."

Who is Mevlana?

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (Persian: جلال‌الدین محمد بلخى), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (Persian: جلال‌الدین محمد رومی) and popularly known as Mevlānā in Turkey and Mawlānā[1] (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 “Rumi” (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 theSultanate of Rum.
He was born in Balkh Province in Afghanistan. a small town located at the river Wakhsh in Persia (in what is now Tajikistan). Wakhsh belonged to the larger province of Balkh, and in the year Rumi was born, his father was an appointed scholar there. Both these cities were at the time included in the greater Persian cultural sphere of Khorasan, the easternmost province of Persia and was part of theKhwarezmian Empire.
His birthplace and native language both indicate a Persian heritage. His father decided to migrate westwards due to quarrels between different dynasties in Khorasan, opposition to the Khwarizmid Shahs who were considered devious by Bahā ud-Dīn Walad (Rumi’s father),[18]or fear of the impending Mongol cataclysm. Rumi’s family traveled west, first performing the Hajj and eventually settling in the Anatolian city Konya (capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, in present-day Turkey). This was where he lived most of his life, and here he composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature which profoundly affected the culture of the area.
He lived most of his life under the Sultanate of Rum, where he produced his works and died in 1273 AD. He was buried in Konya and his shrine became a place of pilgrimage.[22] Following his death, his followers and his son Sultan Walad founded the Mevlevi Order, also known as the Order of the Whirling Dervishes, famous for its Sufi dance known as the Sama ceremony.
Rumi’s works are written in the New Persian language. A Persian literary renaissance (in the 8th/9th century) started in regions of Sistan,Khorāsān and Transoxiana[23] and by the 10th/11th century, it reinforced the Persian language as the preferred literary and cultural language in the Persian Islamic world. Rumi’s importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. His original works are widely read in their original language across the Persian-speaking world. Translations of his works are very popular in other countries. His poetry has influenced Persian literature as well as Urdu, Punjabi and other Pakistani languages written in Perso/Arabic script e.g. Pashto and Sindhi. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages and transposed into various formats. In 2007, he was described as the “most popular poet in America.”