Listen to the story of the reed
And when he complains from separation.
When they cut me from reed bed
Men and women have mourned from my sorrow.
I want a chest shredded with separation
Until I say explanation of my desire
Whoever who stayed away from his origin.
Someday he will search for being reunited.
I mourned in front of every company
I befriended every kind of people from good and bad.
Everybody had his own interests
Nobody asked about sorrow of my heart.
And the poem goes on.....
There is a lot of English translation of that poem which is the opening chapter of Mathnavi, his greatest work ever which has tens of thousands of verses. I just tried to be faithful and translate it word by word, I will give you explanations in my own word, or my take from it. Rumi is so great that everybody can take his or her meaning and apply it to his own life and ideas. Even though we should try to get the central idea and stick to it.
I have never seen an explanation that satisfy me, so I try to make it simple and give you something that makes the above poem clear.
Here it is:
First, reed is a grass, thick and strong, tube like, can be compared to bamboo but much thinner. The center is empty and grows tall and straight.
What's the importance of it? For centuries people will cut reed, makes holes in the sides and make a simple flute. They still do in places. So it was first musical instrument. Some people think that’s so simple and everybody understand. In a matter of fact it’s not, and a lot of people especially in west don't know that. I haven't seen it anywhere explained. So I thought when people don't know about first verse of Rumi collection, they cannot understand him. Please forgive me if that’s simple to you. OK, let’s first take it as musical instrument. For thousands of years Shepherds were playing Reed flute while taking care of farm animals, specially sheep and goats and until today they do. Remember most of the prophets were Shepherds.
When Shepherd take their farm animals to meadows, they were and are substantially away from villages and cities. There is no one in the desert meadow with them, only them, their livestock, their reed flute and their God. They don’t play instrument to impress anyone or their lover or girlfriends. So the music comes from their heart and with deep thoughts. That music brings them close to God. Because he is the only one they look into. Think of it as the best kind of meditation ever existed.
Second: Reed is a pen; they cut it in an angle, make a straight end to it, then touch the ink with the tip and start writing. The most natural pen that people used for thousands of years to write ideas, books, philosophy, rules and religion was the pen made of reed. Believe it or not they are still using those pens in Afghanistan. For a long time that was the only pen they were allowed to use for beauty writing. If you did not learn to write beautiful in elementary school, you will write ugly until the end. Pen is so important that no one even God could ignore. The first word ever God said to Mohammad was, READ, then twice in Koran, once talking about teaching men with PEN and second God swears on Pen. That also shows the importance of pen.
Third: reed grows in a pond in standing water. The whole life has started in standing water. Without water, there would have been no life and without standing water there would have been no evolution of life as we know it from theory of evolution, which Rumi knew centuries before anybody else. Yes evolution and God can coexist. Want more explanation, read my blog article about Noah.
Now let’s put that together. When Sheppard plays music of reed flute or a philosopher use reed to write his book and ideas, it is kind of meditation and conversation and interview with God, or whatever you call it.
Now where is the separation? We go back to the idea of I (me) and Thee. I being human and Thee being God. When the reed got cut from that reed bed in a natural pond or wetland, the whole life time after that all it does is moan and complain and scream from why it’s being cut from its origin and the whole time seeks to be reunited. That scream and moaning comes in the shape of meditation or music of flute or writing. So symbolically the reed bed is the whole soul, the Holy Spirit, not the way trinity says it but the only God. So from that time the human got created, it was separated from God. And from that time, it is in constant struggle to get back united with him and be one with him.
So the whole Rumi’s idea circles about cleanness of body and spirit and wanting to get united and be one with God by getting out of his human skin.
Another important idea with reed and reed bed is that God blows through reed and we think we are the ones doing it. Rumi says he talks through our mouth, hear through our ears and see through our eyes, as well as see, hear and talk through any other means he sees fit. He is blowing to reed, means he wants us to get back to him like we do or we should if we want to be free.
Now there are people who may misinterpret every word I say. When I say sacrifice for a lack of better word in English, what Rumi (Mawlana) means is sacrifice of soul. The only concept Rumi knows and teaches is concept of love, across religions and across humanity. When you sacrifice yourself for highest power or God, you don’t hurt yourself, you don’t kill, you don’t harm, but your love should reach everyone and everything around you. I will not over explain this subject here. It’s something that has to be explained by itself. And because of urgency, maybe next post.
Fanatic’s sacrifice maybe is killing yourself and others out of ignorance. But that for me and I am sure for Rumi is no better than Satan worship. Anything that hurt people is not sacrifice. Love and purification are keywords for understanding Rumi.
Now beauty of Rumi’s poem is in that we can use it for a lot less complicated case. Like we miss our country, our Mom, our home, our family when we got separated from them, it’s ok to read that poem about separation and desire to get back and cry.
I hope I was helpful to explain his idea to you. I will try to explain more of his poems once in a while.
Thanks for reading
And when he complains from separation.
When they cut me from reed bed
Men and women have mourned from my sorrow.
I want a chest shredded with separation
Until I say explanation of my desire
Whoever who stayed away from his origin.
Someday he will search for being reunited.
I mourned in front of every company
I befriended every kind of people from good and bad.
Everybody had his own interests
Nobody asked about sorrow of my heart.
And the poem goes on.....
There is a lot of English translation of that poem which is the opening chapter of Mathnavi, his greatest work ever which has tens of thousands of verses. I just tried to be faithful and translate it word by word, I will give you explanations in my own word, or my take from it. Rumi is so great that everybody can take his or her meaning and apply it to his own life and ideas. Even though we should try to get the central idea and stick to it.
I have never seen an explanation that satisfy me, so I try to make it simple and give you something that makes the above poem clear.
Here it is:
First, reed is a grass, thick and strong, tube like, can be compared to bamboo but much thinner. The center is empty and grows tall and straight.
What's the importance of it? For centuries people will cut reed, makes holes in the sides and make a simple flute. They still do in places. So it was first musical instrument. Some people think that’s so simple and everybody understand. In a matter of fact it’s not, and a lot of people especially in west don't know that. I haven't seen it anywhere explained. So I thought when people don't know about first verse of Rumi collection, they cannot understand him. Please forgive me if that’s simple to you. OK, let’s first take it as musical instrument. For thousands of years Shepherds were playing Reed flute while taking care of farm animals, specially sheep and goats and until today they do. Remember most of the prophets were Shepherds.
When Shepherd take their farm animals to meadows, they were and are substantially away from villages and cities. There is no one in the desert meadow with them, only them, their livestock, their reed flute and their God. They don’t play instrument to impress anyone or their lover or girlfriends. So the music comes from their heart and with deep thoughts. That music brings them close to God. Because he is the only one they look into. Think of it as the best kind of meditation ever existed.
Second: Reed is a pen; they cut it in an angle, make a straight end to it, then touch the ink with the tip and start writing. The most natural pen that people used for thousands of years to write ideas, books, philosophy, rules and religion was the pen made of reed. Believe it or not they are still using those pens in Afghanistan. For a long time that was the only pen they were allowed to use for beauty writing. If you did not learn to write beautiful in elementary school, you will write ugly until the end. Pen is so important that no one even God could ignore. The first word ever God said to Mohammad was, READ, then twice in Koran, once talking about teaching men with PEN and second God swears on Pen. That also shows the importance of pen.
Third: reed grows in a pond in standing water. The whole life has started in standing water. Without water, there would have been no life and without standing water there would have been no evolution of life as we know it from theory of evolution, which Rumi knew centuries before anybody else. Yes evolution and God can coexist. Want more explanation, read my blog article about Noah.
Now let’s put that together. When Sheppard plays music of reed flute or a philosopher use reed to write his book and ideas, it is kind of meditation and conversation and interview with God, or whatever you call it.
Now where is the separation? We go back to the idea of I (me) and Thee. I being human and Thee being God. When the reed got cut from that reed bed in a natural pond or wetland, the whole life time after that all it does is moan and complain and scream from why it’s being cut from its origin and the whole time seeks to be reunited. That scream and moaning comes in the shape of meditation or music of flute or writing. So symbolically the reed bed is the whole soul, the Holy Spirit, not the way trinity says it but the only God. So from that time the human got created, it was separated from God. And from that time, it is in constant struggle to get back united with him and be one with him.
So the whole Rumi’s idea circles about cleanness of body and spirit and wanting to get united and be one with God by getting out of his human skin.
Another important idea with reed and reed bed is that God blows through reed and we think we are the ones doing it. Rumi says he talks through our mouth, hear through our ears and see through our eyes, as well as see, hear and talk through any other means he sees fit. He is blowing to reed, means he wants us to get back to him like we do or we should if we want to be free.
Now there are people who may misinterpret every word I say. When I say sacrifice for a lack of better word in English, what Rumi (Mawlana) means is sacrifice of soul. The only concept Rumi knows and teaches is concept of love, across religions and across humanity. When you sacrifice yourself for highest power or God, you don’t hurt yourself, you don’t kill, you don’t harm, but your love should reach everyone and everything around you. I will not over explain this subject here. It’s something that has to be explained by itself. And because of urgency, maybe next post.
Fanatic’s sacrifice maybe is killing yourself and others out of ignorance. But that for me and I am sure for Rumi is no better than Satan worship. Anything that hurt people is not sacrifice. Love and purification are keywords for understanding Rumi.
Now beauty of Rumi’s poem is in that we can use it for a lot less complicated case. Like we miss our country, our Mom, our home, our family when we got separated from them, it’s ok to read that poem about separation and desire to get back and cry.
I hope I was helpful to explain his idea to you. I will try to explain more of his poems once in a while.
Thanks for reading
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