Meaning of the poem “What Was Told, That” by Jalal Al-Din Rumi?

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I am confused about what this poem means. It would be enormously helpful if someone could tell me what they believe the meaning of the poem is and the theme. Thanks 🙂

 

Link to the Poem (If Needed)

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16372

 
 

5 Answers

 

  1. One of my favorite poets ever :3 If you like him, take a look at Hafiz of Shiraz as well

     

    As for the poem, you have to keep in mind when reading Rumi that he was a Sufi. Sufism is considered a mystical sect of Islam. The majority of his poetry (as well as Hafiz) is about spirituality. Often he does not come out and say he is talking about God, often referring to him as “the beloved” or other such names. That’s who he is referring to in the final line of this poem.

     
     

    Look at the poem within this context of a Sufi poet. Every blessing, strength, etc, given to anything is also given to him. The great warehouse could be him opening himself to God or God opening everything to him.

     

    This is something else about Rumi and Hafiz. What we are reading are translations. In the originals, many of the poems were written in such a way that more than one meaning could be taken from a line or image they’ve given us. It’s more about what it means to the individual. 🙂

  2. Jalal Al Din Rumi Poems

  3. I venture a guess that the same `whoever` throughout,

    Who created the attributes/ inner/ outer properties he (Rumi) is writing about

    is God

    and the narrator is delighting in God`s store, never emptied by life.

    <3

     

    The theme is the attributes created, not invented, in the beings mentioned…their essential

    given features.

     

    Both Jalal-Al-Din Rumi and Hafiz of Shiraz were devout Sufis – to our Blessing imho.

  4. Rumi did no longer use the be conscious talisman as a results of fact he wrote in Persian, no longer English. So I have no concept what Rumi meant! yet as for what the poem capacity, hmmm… a talisman is a fortunate allure, so it is of course an attachment that provides its wearer capacity. The poem says you could basically discover the great ingredient with reference to the coronary heart while the talisman is shattered. so which you would be able to artwork it out what it capacity for you? it might desire to be the ego, yet quite it is any ‘fake idol’, something that provides you with something exterior, and so doing veils you from the authentic source, or God. So for me, my talisman would be my cellular telephone and my low-priced digital watch. without those, existence would sense very different.

  5. It is a harkening to a simpler time when flowers were free to do as they pleased.

     

What Was Told, That Jalal al-Din Rumi

What was said to the rose that made it open was said
to me here in my chest.
What was told the cypress that made it strong
and straight, what was
whispered the jasmine so it is what it is, whatever made
sugarcane sweet, whatever
was said to the inhabitants of the town of Chigil in
Turkestan that makes them
so handsome, whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush
like a human face, that is
being said to me now. I blush.

Whatever put eloquence in

language, that’s happening here.
The great warehouse doors open; I fill with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugarcane,
in love with the one to whom every that belongs!

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