Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī

Rumi —
Divan-e Shams

مولانا — دیوانِ شمسِ تبریزی

30 September 1207 — 17 December 1273 CE — Balkh, Konya

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi — known in the Persian world as Mawlana (our master) and in the West simply as Rumi — is one of the most widely read poets in the world. Born in Balkh (present-day Afghanistan), he lived most of his life in Konya (present-day Turkey), and wrote almost entirely in Persian.

The Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi is his lyrical masterwork — over 40,000 verses of ecstatic ghazals and rubaiyat composed in the aftermath of his transformative friendship with the wandering mystic Shams of Tabriz. It is the most passionate, most ecstatic, and most intimate of his works.

~3,230

Ghazals

~70,000

Lines translated

Volumes

750+

Years of reading

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Divan-e Shams — 9 Bilingual Volumes on Amazon

بنمای رخ که باغ و گلستانم آرزوست
بگشای لب که قندِ فراوانم آرزوست

"Reveal your face, for my desire is a garden and a flower-bed —
Open your lips, for my wish is abundant sweetness."

Featured Translation

The Reed's Lament — Masnavi, Book I

The most famous opening in all of Persian literature — the reed flute crying for separation from the reed-bed, an allegory for the soul's longing for its divine origin.

Masnavi, Book I — Opening Couplets Listen to the reed, how it tells a tale of separations — Singing of the time when it was one with the reed-bed.

Ever since I was cut from the reed-bed, men and women have wept at my lament.

I seek a breast torn open by separation to speak of the pain of longing.

Everyone who remained far from his origin seeks again the time when he was one.

Divan-e Shams — Ghazal Reveal your face, for my desire is a garden and a flower-bed — Open your lips, for my wish is abundant sweetness.

Come that the soul may breathe again — Come that the heart may live again.

مثنوی، دفترِ اوّل — آغاز بشنو این نی چون شکایت می‌کند از جدایی‌ها حکایت می‌کند

کز نیستان تا مرا ببریده‌اند در نفیرم مرد و زن نالیده‌اند

سینه خواهم شَرحه شَرحه از فراق تا بگویم شرحِ دردِ اشتیاق

هر کسی کو دور ماند از اصلِ خویش باز جوید روزگارِ وصلِ خویش

دیوانِ شمس — غزل بنمای رخ که باغ و گلستانم آرزوست بگشای لب که قندِ فراوانم آرزوست

بیا که جانِ من از بهرِ تو همی‌آید بیا که دلِ من از بهرِ تو همی‌تپد

About the Poet

Rumi — The Poet of Ecstasy

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi was born on 30 September 1207 in Balkh, in present-day Afghanistan, into a family of theologians and Sufi teachers. As a child he fled westward with his family ahead of the Mongol invasion, eventually settling in Konya (present-day Turkey), where he lived until his death in 1273.

Before meeting Shams of Tabriz, Rumi was a respected Islamic scholar and teacher — learned, composed, and conventional. The encounter with Shams in 1244 transformed everything. The two became inseparable spiritual companions, and Rumi experienced a complete dissolution of his former self. When Shams disappeared (and was likely murdered) in 1248, Rumi channelled his grief, love, and longing into poetry of overwhelming intensity.

The Divan-e Shams is the direct outpouring of that transformation — 3,230 ghazals dedicated to and named after Shams of Tabriz. Unlike the more philosophical Masnavi, the Divan is pure song — spontaneous, ecstatic, and radically intimate. Rumi sometimes signed these poems not with his own name but with the name "Shams" — so completely had his identity merged with that of his teacher.

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing
there is a field. I'll meet you there."

بیرون ز وَهمِ نیک و بد، صحرایی است
آنجا که نه این‌ست و نه آن‌ست، جایی است

Rumi — Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 158

Key Facts — Divan-e Shams

Full NameJalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi (Rumi)

Known AsMawlana (مولانا) — "Our Master"

Born30 September 1207, Balkh (Afghanistan)

Died17 December 1273, Konya (Turkey)

LanguagePersian (Dari) — a few Turkish and Arabic verses

Divan~3,230 ghazals, ~2,000 rubaiyat

Lines~70,000 lines — translated in 9 bilingual volumes

Named AfterShams-e Tabrizi — Rumi's spiritual teacher

MasnaviSeparate 6-book epic poem — 25,000+ couplets

TombMausoleum of Rumi, Konya, Turkey

The Transformative Friendship

Rumi & Shams of Tabriz

The friendship between Rumi and Shams of Tabriz is one of the most celebrated relationships in the history of mystical literature — and the direct cause of the Divan-e Shams.

Shams was a wandering dervish, unconventional, forceful, and spiritually electrifying. When he arrived in Konya in 1244, Rumi recognised in him something that shattered his existing world completely. For months, the two were inseparable — locked in spiritual conversation that excluded everyone else around them.

When Shams disappeared — likely killed by Rumi's jealous disciples in 1248 — Rumi twice travelled to Damascus searching for him. He never found him. He spent the rest of his life transmuting that unbearable grief into poetry. Every ghazal in the Divan-e Shams is, in some sense, addressed to Shams — to his face, his lips, his presence, his absence.

1207 CE

Rumi Born in Balkh

Born into a family of Sufi scholars — his father Baha ud-Din Walad was a respected theologian and mystic.

c. 1215–1220 CE

Family Flees the Mongols

The family departs Balkh ahead of the Mongol invasion — a journey westward through Persia, Anatolia, Arabia. The young Rumi meets Attar in Nishapur.

c. 1228 CE

Rumi Settles in Konya

The family settles in Konya (present-day Turkey) under the patronage of the Seljuq sultanate. Rumi becomes a respected Islamic scholar and teacher.

1244 CE

Shams Arrives in Konya

The wandering mystic Shams of Tabriz arrives and encounters Rumi. Their meeting transforms Rumi entirely — the scholar becomes a poet of ecstasy.

1248 CE

Shams Disappears

Shams is murdered (likely by Rumi's jealous disciples). Rumi searches twice in Damascus. The grief becomes the Divan-e Shams.

1258–1273 CE

The Masnavi & Final Years

Rumi composes the Masnavi — 6 books, 25,000+ couplets of mystical philosophy. Dies in Konya on 17 December 1273. His tomb draws pilgrims to this day.

Literary Legacy

Rumi's Major Works

Rumi was phenomenally prolific. Alongside the Divan-e Shams, he produced the six-book Masnavi, collected discourses, and letters — a body of work that has made him one of the most translated poets in the world.

Our Translation

دیوانِ شمسِ تبریزی

Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

~3,230 ghazals and ~2,000 rubaiyat — the ecstatic lyric poems of divine love. Named after and dedicated to Shams of Tabriz. Translated in 9 bilingual volumes.

Mystical Epic

مثنوی معنوی

Masnavi-ye Manavi
Spiritual Couplets

Six books, 25,700 couplets — a vast mystical poem in rhyming couplets. The "Quran in Persian" as it has been called. Opens with the famous Reed's Lament.

Prose

فیه ما فیه

Fihi Ma Fihi
In It What Is In It

A collection of Rumi's prose discourses — recorded by his son Sultan Walad. Spiritual teachings, commentary on the Quran, and reflections on mystical states.

Prose

مکتوبات

Maktubat
The Letters

Rumi's collected correspondence — letters to patrons, students, and friends, showing a more personal, human side of the poet alongside his mystical persona.

Epic Masnavi

مجالسِ سبعه

Majalis-e Sab'a
Seven Sessions

Seven recorded public sermons by Rumi — a window into his role as a teacher and spiritual guide, before the transformation wrought by Shams.

Lyric

رباعیاتِ رومی

Rubaiyat of Rumi

~2,000 quatrains attributed to Rumi — compact four-line verses that capture single moments of mystical insight with the same intensity as his longer ghazals.

The Most Famous Opening

The Reed Flute —
Beshno in Ney

The Masnavi opens with eighteen couplets known as the "Nay-Nama" (Reed's Letter) or "Beshno in Ney" (Listen to the Reed) — widely considered the most famous opening in all of Persian literature, and perhaps one of the most profound allegories in world poetry.

The reed (ney) has been cut from the reed-bed and cries for separation — just as the human soul has been separated from its divine origin and longs to return. The reed's crying is music, and that music is both the wound of separation and the beauty that comes from it.

Our bilingual edition presents the full Masnavi alongside the Divan-e Shams — allowing readers to experience both dimensions of Rumi's genius: the lyrical ecstasy of the ghazal and the narrative depth of the masnavi.

Masnavi, Book I — The Reed's Letter (Nay-Nama)

بشنو این نی چون شکایت می‌کند
از جدایی‌ها حکایت می‌کند
کز نیستان تا مرا ببریده‌اند
در نفیرم مرد و زن نالیده‌اند
سینه خواهم شَرحه شَرحه از فراق
تا بگویم شرحِ دردِ اشتیاق

Listen to the reed, how it tells a tale of separations —
Singing of the time when it was one with the reed-bed.
Ever since I was cut from the reed-bed,
men and women have wept at my lament.
I seek a breast torn open by separation,
to speak of the pain of longing.

Rumi — Masnavi, Book I, Opening (c. 1258 CE)

Amazon KDP Series

The Essential Rumi — Actual Rumi Poems

Bilingual — Persian Original & English Translation

The actual Farsi ghazals behind Coleman Barks' famous "Essential Rumi" — the real poems, line by line, in the original Persian with faithful English translation.

Kindle Paperback

NEW

Soul of Love

روحِ عشق

Rumi — Soul of Love

46 Selected Ghazals — Line by Line

Forty-six of the most celebrated ghazals from the Divan-e Shams, translated line by line — a perfect introduction to Rumi's lyrical voice for new readers.

Buy on Amazon

Contents — Selected Ghazals

Famous Opening Lines from the Divan

A selection of celebrated opening couplets from the Divan-e Shams — each one the beginning of a complete ghazal available in the bilingual edition.

#	Opening Line — English	Theme	مطلعِ غزل
1	"Reveal your face, for my desire is a garden and a flower-bed — open your lips, for my wish is abundant sweetness."	The Beloved's beauty	بنمای رخ که باغ و گلستانم آرزوست
2	"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field — I'll meet you there."	Transcendence	بیرون ز وَهمِ نیک و بد، صحرایی است
3	"Come, come whoever you are — wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving — it doesn't matter."	Universal welcome	بیا بیا هر که هستی، بیا
4	"I died as mineral and became a plant — I died as plant and rose to animal. I died as animal and I was man."	The soul's evolution	از جمادی مُردم و نامی شدم
5	"This human being is a guest house — every morning a new guest arrives."	Acceptance	این آدمی را مهمان‌خانه دان
6	"Silence is the ocean of knowledge — speech is its shore. The ocean sends waves and the shore is its manifest sign."	Silence & knowledge	خاموشی دریایِ علم است و کلام
7	"You were born with wings — why prefer to crawl through life?"	Human potential	بال داری، چرا خاک می‌خوری؟
8	"The wound is the place where the light enters you."	Suffering & grace	زخم آن جایی است که نورت وارد می‌شود
9	"When I am with you we stay up all night — when you're not here I can't go to sleep. Praise God for these two insomnias."	Love's two faces	شب که با توام نخوابم، شب که نیستی نخوابم
10	"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."	Inner barriers	کارِ تو عشق جستن نیست
11	"Let the beauty we love be what we do — there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."	Worship & beauty	بگذار زیبایی‌ای که دوست داریم کارِ ما باشد
12	"Forget safety — live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation — be notorious."	Spiritual courage	ایمنی را فراموش کن — جایی زی که از آن می‌ترسی
13	"Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?"	Liberation	چرا در زندان می‌مانی که در آن‌چنان باز است؟
14	"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment — cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition."	Beyond reason	زیرکی را بفروش و حیرت بخر
15	"Run from what is comfortable — forget safety, live where you fear to live."	Growth & risk	از آنچه راحت است بگریز

Divan-e Shams

Rumi —Divan-e Shams

The Reed's Lament — Masnavi, Book I

Rumi — The Poet of Ecstasy

Rumi & Shams of Tabriz

Rumi Born in Balkh

Family Flees the Mongols

Rumi Settles in Konya

Shams Arrives in Konya

Shams Disappears

The Masnavi & Final Years

Rumi's Major Works

Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Masnavi-ye ManaviSpiritual Couplets

Fihi Ma FihiIn It What Is In It

MaktubatThe Letters

Majalis-e Sab'aSeven Sessions

Rubaiyat of Rumi

The Reed Flute —Beshno in Ney

The 9‑Volume Series & New Editions

Divan-e Shams — Vol. 1

Divan-e Shams — Vol. 2

Divan-e Shams — Vol. 3

Divan-e Shams — Vol. 4

Divan-e Shams — Vol. 5

Divan-e Shams — Vol. 6

Divan-e Shams — Vol. 7

Divan-e Shams — Vol. 8

Divan-e Shams — Vol. 9