Rumi - Masnavi: The Lament of the Bamboo Flute

Listen to the bamboo flute, how it complains,

Lamenting its exile:

Since they separated me from my root,

My plaintive notes draw tears from men and women.

My breast breaks, struggling to release my sighs,

And express the pangs of longing for my home.

Whoever dwells far from his home

Is always yearning for the day he will return.

My lament is heard among all people,

In harmony with those who rejoice and those who weep.

Each one interprets my notes according to his feelings.

But no one penetrates the secrets of my heart.

My secrets do not clash with my plaintive notes,

And yet they are not revealed to the sensual ear (…).

The lament of the flute is fire, not mere air.

Let whoever lacks that fire be considered dead!

It is the fire of love that inspires the flute,

It is love that ferments the wine.

The flute is the confidant of unhappy lovers;

Yes, its melody lays bare my most intimate secrets (…)

The first book of the Masnavi opens with the beautiful prologue of the lament of the flute. The Masnavi is a series of six books of poetry that comprise approximately 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines. It is a spiritual text that teaches Sufis to achieve their goal of being truly in love with God. The Masnavi is a poetic collection of anecdotes and stories derived from the Quran, sources of hadiths, and daily stories. The stories are told to illustrate a point and each moral is discussed in detail. It incorporates a variety of Islamic wisdom, but focuses mainly on emphasizing the personal internal Sufi interpretation.

Rumi (1207-1273) was a Persian poet and spiritual master of the 13th century. Rumi spent most of the last years of his life dedicated to completing his masterpiece of Sufism (mystical and contemplative wisdom of Islam) “Masnavi”, which is one of the most well-known and influential works of Sufism.

References:

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalaladim_Maom%C3%A9_Rumi

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masnavi_Espiritual

http://www.ihu.unisinos.br/78-noticias/599190-o-mar-da-unidade-roteiro-livre-para-a-leitura-do-masnavi-de-rumi