The Masnavi, Book One (Oxford World's Classics)

Rumi,
288–91.
Introduction
xxii

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jurisprudence, and medicine. Most of his stories are very humorous
at least in parts, and he does not hesitate to use whatever may convey
his point in as memorable a way as possible to his contemporaries,
including jokes about sexuality and ethnic and gender stereotypes.
The arrangement of material in Book One, as in the 
Masnavi as a
whole, does not suggest the use of a plan or a single principle of
order. Rather, juxtaposed material is associated by virtue of a com-
mon theme, a key word, or an association between the characters of
narratives. Moreover, these associations tend to be between the very
final part of one section and the very beginning of the next one,
reinforcing the traditional view that Rumi produced the 
Masnavi
extemporaneously. This could also account for Rumi’s propensity to
explain and illustrate speci
fic details of a passage, even at the cost of
breaking o
ff in the course of a narrative, to resume it only after the
explanations (and any other material that they may have generated)
have been completed. This tendency has made parts of the 
Masnavi
multi-layered (as indicated by means of indentation in the Contents
of this translation).
The frequency of breaks in the 
flow of narratives in the Masnavi
reveals that, although Rumi has earned a reputation as an excellent
storyteller, none the less his primary concern was to convey his
teachings as e
ffectively as possible to his Sufi disciples. The Masnavi
leaves the impression that he was brimming with ideas and symbolic
images which would over
flow when prompted by the subtlest of
associations. In this way, free from the constraints of a frame narra-
tive or a strict principle of order, Rumi has been able to produce a
work that is far richer in content than any other example of the
mystical 
masnavi genre. That this has been achieved often at the
expense of preserving continuity in the narratives seems to cor-
roborate Rumi’s opinion on the relative importance of the content of
his poetry over its form, as reported in his discourses.
17
If it were not
for the fact that his digressive ‘over
flowings’ are expressed in simple
17
In a famous passage among Rumi’s discourses, he is reported to have compared
writing poetry with serving to a guest something which one 
finds unpleasant like tripe,
because that is what the guest wants (Rumi, 
Signs of the Unseen,
77–8). The main theme
of the sixteenth discourse (pp. 
74–80), in which this passage is found, is the relationship
between form and content, and it includes Rumi’s response to the charge that he is ‘all
talk and no action’ (p. 
78). The statement should therefore be understood in its proper
context, rather than as evidence that Rumi disliked the art of writing poetry.
Introduction
xxiii

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language and with imagery that was immediately accessible to his
contemporary readers, they would have constituted an undesirable
impediment to understanding the poem. Where this leads Rumi to
interweave narratives and to alternate between di
fferent speakers
and his own commentaries, the text can still be di
fficult to follow,
and, for most contemporary readers, the relevance of citations and
allusions to the Koran and the traditions of the Prophet will not be
immediately obvious without reference to the explanatory notes that
have been provided in this edition. None the less, it should be evi-
dent, not least from the lengthy sequences of analogies that Rumi
often provides to reinforce a single point, that he has striven to
communicate his message as e
ffectively as possible rather than to
write obscurely and force the reader to struggle to understand him.
By far the best-known passage in the entire 
Masnavi is the pro-
logue of Book One, where one 
finds what is often called ‘The Song
of the Reed’. Dick Davis has pointed out that the form this prologue
takes is highly innovative; in preference to following the established
convention of beginning mystical 
masnavi poems with an invocation
of the Transcendent and Omnipotent Creator and His Prophet,
Rumi chooses to focus on the humble reed-
flute, and addresses the
reader in the second person, with ‘Listen!’ (v. 
1).
18
These initial
eighteen verses have been thought by many to contain the essential
message of the entire work.
19
There is some validity to this point,
since the 
Masnavi is a poem that repeats in a kaleidoscope of di
ffer-
ent ways and with ever-increasing nuances the same message about
the human condition and the means of recognizing this reality and
achieving ful
filment through Sufi mysticism.
The reed that mourns having been cut from the reed-bed may be
understood as a symbol representing the mystic who feels inwardly a
strong sense of separation from his origin with God, and yearns to
return to that state. Love is the force that intensi
fies this yearning in
the mystic (v. 
10), increasing his perception of reality, from which he
has become veiled through his attachment to the world of phenom-
enal existence. Rumi further illustrates the power of this divine love
18
See D. Davis, ‘Narrative and Doctrine in the First Story of Rumi’s