Let The Beauty We Love Be What We Do | Rumi Poem

Rumi’s poem touches on the quiet emptiness we often feel at the start of each day. The poem speaks to the power of simplicity, finding beauty and the sacred not in grand gestures, but in the small, mindful acts of everyday life. Through this, we are reminded that the divine is always close, waiting to be discovered in the ordinary.

Mawlana Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi, popularly known as "Rumi", is a 13th-century Sufi poet. Today, he is recognised as one of the greatest poets who ever lived, due in part to how his words seem to speak to the Divine.

Photo by Sujeeth Potla.
Translation by Coleman Barks.

Transcript

Today,

Like every other day,

We wake up empty and frightened.

Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.

Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.