Where Everything is Music

by Jalal al-Din Rumi

ISBN: 978-0-241-75236-4

112 pages

First published late 1240s–1260s

Modern publication 17 April 2025

First published as The Essential Rumi in 1995

Publisher: www.penguin.com

Translated by Coleman Barks

6 / 5 Stars

A joy to read. A book of poetry unlike any other I have come across. Magical and realistic at once. Humanist and spiritual at the same time. Insightful, majestic, soaring and yet detailed and intricate.

Here are my favourite quotes,

The Milk of Millennia

… every human being streams at night
into the loving nowhere, or during the day,
in some absorbing work.

Joy at Sudden Disappointment

Mary’s pain made the baby Jesus
Her womb opened its lips
and spoke the Word.

(Ed: Rumi combines both Christian and Islamic traditions)

Love Dogs

Your pure sadness
that wants help
is the secret cup.

In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo:
In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad

It may be the satisfaction I need
depends on my going away, so that when I’ve gone
and come back, I’ll find it at home.

‘… Listen how passionate he is!
That torn-open cry is the way he should live.’

The energy of passion is everything!

(Ed: A great quote, I am reminded of The Alchemist)

Where are we?

Do you think I know what I’m doing?
That for one breath or half-breath I belong to
myself?
As much as a pen knows what it’s writing,
or the ball can guess where it’s going next.

Craftsmanship and Emptiness

Workers rush toward some hint
of emptiness, which they then
start to fill. Their hope, though,
is for emptiness, so don’t think
you must avoid it. It contains
what you need!

(Ed: Is this the beauty of boredom?)

Judge a moth by the beauty of its candle.

Judge a moth by the beauty of its candle.

Bouyancy

The Sky is blue. The World is a blind man
squatting on the road.

A Great Wagon

… Spring begins to move
like a great wagon.

The Vigil

… The day is for work
The night is for love. Don’t let someone
bewitch you.

Like This

If someone asks how tall I am, frown
and measure with your fingers the space
between the creases on your forehead.
This tall.

(Ed: I love the way the concept of measuring a person is inverted here).

Each Note

Advice doesn’t help lovers!

(Ed: No, it never does!!!)

One laughs at famous mustaches!

(Ed: Ha, ha, ha!)

Let everyone climb on their roofs
and sing their notes!

Sing loud!

Music Master

We rarely hear the inward music,
but we are all dancing to it nevertheless

A Dove in the Eaves

Whoever’s not killed for love is dead meat.

(Ed: Wow! Dramatic!)

Enough Words?

No matter how fast you run,
your shadow more than keeps up.
Sometimes, it’s in front!

My Worst Habit

Don’t let your throat tighten
with fear. Take sips of breath
all day and night, before death
closes your mouth.

Dervish at the Door

…
Finally the dervish ran in the house,
lifted his robe, and squatted
as though to take a shit.

(Ed1: In Sufism — the mystical dimension of Islam — dervishes are seekers of divine truth)
(Ed2: The poem’s vivid image may look like literal obscenity, but within the mystical tradition it’s meant to shock the ego, wake up the reader to deeper truth. Source: Various. )

Tending Two Shops

Everyone is half and half

(Ed: Yin and Yang?)

The Waterwheel

The waterwheel accepts water
and turns and gives it away,
weeping.

(Ed: Early industrialisation? D. H. Lawrence anyone?)

This is one of my favourite poems, reprinted here in full,

Elephant in the Dark

Some Hindus have an elephant to show.
No one here has ever seen an elephant.
They bring it at night to a dark room.

One by one, we go in the dark and come out
saying how we experience the animal.

One of us happens to touch the trunk.
“A water-pipe kind of creature.”

Another, the ear. “A very strong, always moving
back and forth, fan-animal.”

Another, the leg. “I find it still,
like a column on a temple.”

Another touches the curved back.
“A leathery throne.”

Another, the cleverest, feels the tusk.
“A rounded sword made of porcelain.”
He’s proud of his description.

Each of us touches one place
and understands the whole in that way.

The palm and the fingers feeling in the dark are
how the senses explore the reality of the elephant.

If each of us held a candle there,
and if we went in together,
we could see it.

(Ed: Also used as a project management analogy!)

Note to reader: The popular English title “Where Everything Is Music” is modern; the piece corresponds to Ghazal 110 in critical listings (rendered by A. J. Arberry and later retitled by Coleman Barks). (Source: Wikipedia)