Rumi · From the Song of the Reed
Three couplets from the opening of the Masnavi, on companionship, assumptions and listening.
Poem of the Day · 3 November 2026
Rumi · Masnavi, Book One — an excerpt from the opening (couplets 5–7)
English rendering
I lamented in every gathering; I kept company with the troubled and the joyful. Each became my friend through their own surmise; none sought the secrets within me. My secret is not far from my lament; yet eye and ear lack that light.
A reading for today
In the opening “Song of the Reed” of the Masnavi, Rumi lets the reed speak: an instrument lamenting separation. It has found its way into different gatherings, but the company of others has not led them to understand its inner life. The word “surmise” reveals the reason for this distance: each person approaches it through an assumption of their own.
In the line “My secret is not far from my lament,” the reed’s secret is present in its sound; the listener needs a deeper kind of attention. For our Newmarket community today, we can take this image as a practice in listening: before interpreting someone’s silence or worry, ask what they are going through and make time for their answer.
Understanding another person begins when we are willing to hear something beyond our own assumptions.
Poem source: Masnavi, Book One, section 1 — the opening.