In the world of poetry, many poets have beautifully captured the essence of love and and one of those is Rumi.
His words resonate with truth and emotion, revealing how love shapes our experiences and guides our journeys.
Here are 10 intoxicating poems by Rumi that illuminate the many ways love influences our lives.
Let’s get right to it!
My favorite poem by Rumi
#1 “Description of Love” by Rumi
A true lover is proved such by his pain of heart;
No sickness is there like sickness of heart.
The lover’s ailment is different from all ailments;
Love is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries.
A lover may hanker after this love or that love,
But at the last he is drawn to the KING of love.
However much we describe and explain love,
When we fall in love we are ashamed of our words.
Explanation by the tongue makes most things clear,
But love unexplained is clearer.
When pen hasted to write,
On reaching the subject of love it split in twain.
When the discourse touched on the matter of love,
Pen was broken and paper torn.
In explaining it Reason sticks fast, as an ass in mire;
Naught but Love itself can explain love and lovers!
This poem by Rumi is my favorite because it captures the profound complexity of love and the deep emotions that accompany it.
I appreciate how he highlights the struggle to articulate feelings that are often beyond words, reminding me that love can be both beautiful and painful.
Rumi’s insight that only love itself can truly explain love resonates with my own experiences and makes me reflect on the mysteries of connection and intimacy.
9 more poems by Rumi
#2 “My Body Is Like the Moon” by Rumi
My body is like the moon which is melting for love,
My heart like Zuhra’s lute—may its strings be broken!
Look not on the moon’s waning nor on Zuhra’s broken state;
Behold the sweetness of his affliction—may it wax a thousandfold!
#3 “I am Thine, and Thou Art Mine!” by Rumi
Thus it is that eternal life is gained by utter abandonment
of one’s own life.
When God appears to His ardent lover the lover is
absorbed in Him, and not so much as a hair of the lover
remains. True lovers are as shadows, and when the sun
shines in glory the shadows vanish away. He is a true
lover of God to whom God says,
“I am thine, and thou art mine!”
#4 “Journey In Yourself” by Rumi
Tho’ you have no feet choose to journey in yourself,
Like the ruby-mine receive a print from the sunbeams.
Make a journey out of self into self, O master,
For by such a journey earth becomes a quarry of gold.
From sourness and bitterness advance to sweetness,
Even as from briny soil a thousand sorts of fruit spring up.
From the Sun, the pride of Tabriz, behold these miracles,
For every tree gains beauty by the light of the sun.
#5 “Hail to thee, then, O Love, sweet madness!” by Rumi
Hail to thee, then, O LOVE, sweet madness!
Thou who healest all our infirmities!
Who art the physician of our pride and self-conceit!
Who art our Plato and our Galen!
Love exalts our earthly bodies to heaven,
And makes the very bills to dance with joy!
O lover, ’twas love that gave life to Mount Sinai,
When “it quaked, and Moses fell down in a swoon.”
Did my Beloved only touch me with his lips,
I too, like the flute, would burst out in melody.
#6 “The Secrets of My Heart” by Rumi
“…My wailing is heard in every throng,
In concert with them that rejoice and them that weep.
Each interprets my notes in harmony with his own feelings,
But not one fathoms the secrets of my heart.
My secrets are not alien from my plaintive notes,
Yet they are not manifest to the sensual ear.
Body is not veiled from soul, neither soul from body,
Yet no man hath ever seen a soul.”
#7 “The Sect of Lovers” by Rumi
The sect of lovers is distinct from all others,
Lovers have a religion and a faith of their own.
Though the ruby has no stamp, what matters it?
Love is fearless in the midst of the sea of fear.
#8 “The Reply of the Lover When Asked by His Mistress” by Rumi
“The city wherein my love dwells.
In whatever nook my queen alights,
Though it be as the eye of a needle, ’tis a wide plain;
Wherever her Yusuf-like face shines as a moon,
Though it be the bottom of a well, ’tis Paradise.
With thee, my love, hell itself were heaven.
With thee a prison would be a rose-garden.
With thee hell would be a mansion of delight,
Without thee lilies and roses would be as flames of fire!”
#9 “The Beloved’s Love” by Rumi
No lover ever seeks union with his beloved,
But his beloved is also seeking union with him.
But the lover’s love makes his body lean,
While the beloved’s love makes hers fair and lusty.
When in this heart the lightning spark of love arises,
Be sure this love is reciprocated in that heart.
When the love of God arises in thy heart,
Without doubt God also feels love for thee.
#10 “For Love Casts Its Own Light” by Rumi
When love of God kindles a flame in the inward man,
He burns, and is freed from effects.
He has no need of signs to assure him of love,
For love casts its own light up to heaven.