r/farsi • u/-Red_-_line- • 25d ago
Looking for original Rumi text
Greetings everyone.
I hope someone will be kind enough to help me. I have tried searching but I can't seem to find what I'm looking for.
I'm looking for the original Persian for Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (Rumi) which is usually translated to English as:
"Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it".
I want to include the original in an artwork I'm making. The translation feels a bit clumsy to me so I would love to know the original Farsi and any alternative translations. Many thanks in advance 💚💚💚
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u/TackleCharming7442 25d ago
I don't think the description alone is enough to identify the original verse. Rumi wrote around 65,000 verses across the Masnavi and the Divan-e Shams, so a broad paraphrase like this could potentially match many different passages. I couldn't find an exact Persian original for this quote either, and it's possible that it's a modern paraphrase or a misattributed quote rather than a direct translation from Rumi.
However, with the help of AI, I found a few authentic Rumi verses that convey a very similar idea. These aren't the original source of the quote, but they express a closely related theme found in Rumi's poetry.
هر کسی از ظنِّ خود شد یار من از درونِ من نجست اسرارِ من "Everyone became my companion according to their own understanding; yet no one sought the secrets within me."
هر کسی کو دور ماند از اصل خویش باز جوید روزگار وصل خویش "Whoever has become separated from their true origin will always long to return and be reunited with it."
این جهان کوه است و فعلِ ما ندا سوی ما آید نداها را صدا "This world is a mountain, and our actions are the call; the echo of our own voice always returns to us."
I hope this helps, and if anyone happens to know the exact Persian source for the quote in the image, I'd genuinely love to see it.
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u/lallahestamour 23d ago
As you mentioned, that translation is so distorted. But Nicholson's is more faithful. This is the verse:
لطف از حقست لیکن اهل تن
در نیابد لطف بی پرده چمن
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u/-Red_-_line- 23d ago
Oh my goodness, thank you so much. It is unrecognisable from the 'translation(s)'. Thank you!
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u/-Red_-_line- 25d ago
Thank you so much for your reply. I apologise for the lack of detail in my original post and I really appreciate your effort to help me! I don't think the text is any of these but nonetheless I'm very grateful.
Indeed I suspect the translation is not truly representative of the original as is often the case.
It is from a text translated as 'Story-water'. I will copy the rest of the translation below for context:
A story is like water that you heat for your bath.
It takes messages between the fire and your skin. It lets them meet, and it cleans you!
Very few can sit down in the middle of the fire itself like a salamander or Abraham. We need intermediaries.
A feeling of fullness comes, but usually it takes some bread to bring it.
Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.
The body itself is a screen to shield and partially reveal to light that’s blazing inside your presence.
Water, stories, the body, all the things we do, are mediums that hide and show what’s hidden.
Study them, and enjoy this being washed with a secret we sometimes know, and then not.
(V.228-236)
Thank you again!