Jelaluddin Rumi: “Where Everything Is Music”


This poem arrived in my inbox from Washington Poets Association president Victory Lee Schouten, who often forwards such gems to the folks on her email list.

Where Everything Is Music
by Jelaluddin Rumi

Don’t worry about saving these songs!
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it doesn’t matter.

We have fallen into the place
where everything is music.

The strumming and the flute notes
rise into the atmosphere,
and even if the whole world’s harp
should burn up, there will still be
hidden instruments playing.

So the candle flickers and goes out.
We have a piece of flint, and a spark.

This singing art is sea foam.
The graceful movements come from a pearl
somewhere on the ocean floor.

Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge
of driftwood along the beach, wanting!

They derive
from a slow and powerful root
that we can’t see.

Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest,
and let the spirit fly in and out.

from Rumi – Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)
Translated by Coleman Barks and John Moyne

4 comments on “Jelaluddin Rumi: “Where Everything Is Music”

  1. zhenimsja says:

    Hi, comrade! I am absolutely acclaim that way of thinking and everything joined.

  2. Arman says:

    Hello dear,
    I would love to see the Persian version of where everything is music.
    Could you kindly please inform me.
    Many thanks
    Khaled Arman

  3. Marco Oros says:

    Hello.
    My name is Marco Oros. I am from Slovakia and I have some blogs on internet, for example in Slovak language.
    I have one blog about music with various views. Please, can I translate this article to Slovak and publish It on this blog?
    Ofcourse, I’ll linked You, as source for this article.
    Thank You.
    Best regards
    Marco Oros

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