Selected Poems

by Jalalu'ddin Rumi, excerpted from Coleman Barks' translation in The Essential Rumi




Listen to the story told by the reed,

of being separated.



"Since I was cut from the reedbed,

I have made this crying sound.



Anyone apart from someone he loves

understands what I say.



Anyone pulled from a source

longs to go back.



At any gathering I am there,

mingling in the laughing and grieving,