The Mesnevi (Masnavi)
Rumi, 13th c.
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A long Persian poem of spiritual teaching, here in Redhouse's English verse rendering of the first book. It opens with a reed flute crying for the reed bed it was torn from, a picture of the soul longing for God. Stories follow one after another, each stopping for talk and comment: a prince who falls in love with a handmaid and sends for healers, an oilman who beats his parrot, a harper who plays for the dead. The tales warn against pride, the lower self and empty talk, and point to love and surrender as the way to God.
Where it happens
- Balkh Greater Balkh was a centre of Persian culture and Sufism, and the family's origin; Rumi's family left it as a child.2
- Baghdad One of the cities the family passed through while fleeing the Mongols.2
- Damascus Another stop on the family's journey west.2
- Konya Capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, where Rumi settled, composed the Masnavi, died and was buried.2
Through time
- 1207Rumi is born on 30 September, in the Balkh region.2
- 1228Baha ud-Din Walad and his family finally settle in Konya.2
- 1244Rumi meets the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on 15 November.2
- 1258Rumi begins dictating the first book of the Masnavi to Husam al-Din Chalabi.1
- 1273Rumi dies in Konya on 17 December, leaving the sixth book incomplete.12
- 1881James Redhouse publishes the first book in English verse, with anecdotes from Eflaki.1
- 1924R. A. Nicholson begins issuing the first complete English translation, finished in 1940.1
Who is in it, and behind it
Jalal al-Din Rumi author
Sufi poet and founder of the Mevlevi Order, born in 1207 and died in Konya in 1273.2
Husam al-Din Chalabi scribe
Rumi's favourite disciple, who asked for the work and wrote the verses down as Rumi spoke them.12
Shams-e Tabrizi subject
Wandering dervish whom Rumi met in 1244 and whose disappearance in 1248 brought out an outpouring of lyric poetry.2
James W. Redhouse translator
British lexicographer who published the first book of the Mesnevi in English verse in 1881.13
Baha ud-Din Walad subject
Rumi's father, a preacher and jurist who led the family west and settled in Konya in 1228.2
Sana'i and Attar subject
Earlier Persian poets whose didactic works Rumi's followers read, and in whose style he composed the Masnavi.12
Sultan Walad subject
Rumi's son, who with his followers founded the Mevlevi Order after Rumi's death.2
Moses character
Personifies reason and knowledge in the third and fourth books.1
What it is about
The soul's longing for home
The reed flute cries for the bed it was cut from, an image of the soul parted from God.13
Mastering the lower self
The first two books are chiefly concerned with the nafs, the lower self, and its self-deception.1
Stories that teach
Each tale illustrates a point, often with side stories and analogies breaking in to explain a claim.1
Love as the way to God
The poem is a spiritual text teaching Sufis how to reach the goal of being in love with God.1
In its own words
From reed-flute 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.
A prince there was, long since in time it is. Of Church and State the power and wealth were his. The chase on horse one day to follow, bent; With pompous courtier-train afield he went. A handmaid fair was wand’ring near a grove. Her he espied, and straightway fell in love.
An oilman there was, who a parrot possessed, Soft-voiced, and green-coated; could talk with the best. The oilshop her charge when the man was away; The customers coaxed she the whole live-long day.
Kalīl’ and Dimna’s book relates a charming tale, From which males may a moral draw;—and eke, female. Within a shelter’d vale, four-footed game in droves, Were kept in tremor by a lion from its groves.
Great Princes all! We’ve killed our dread external foe. Within us, still, a worse than he remains, I trow. To slay this inner foe is not the task of mind; Our moral lion’s not destroyed by tricks refined.
Give ear to this advice from one who’s well informed: “Lay down your head where’er by wine you’ve been transformed.
Alas! By one poor morsel, tasted through a sin, The fount of thought’s congealed; heart’s blood diluted thin. One grain of wheat has cast eclipse o’er sun of mind, As “dragon’s tail” doth dull the full moon, when inclined.
Jelāl was five years old when they left Balkh. By way of Bagdād they went to Mekka, thence to Damascus,
The shape of the book
33 chapters, 118,767 words. Point at a bar.
How it came to be here
Rumi began dictating the Masnavi around 1258, when he was about 54, and kept at it until he died in 1273. His disciple Husam al-Din Chalabi prompted it and wrote down the verses. The work has six books of about 25,000 verses, and the sixth was left unfinished. James Redhouse, a British lexicographer, translated the first book into English verse in 1881 and added anecdotes from the life of Rumi taken from the chronicle of Eflaki. This text is that edition. Later translators completed the whole poem.
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Sources
Text: PG 61724 | translator: James W. Redhouse. US public domain (Project Gutenberg licence).