Water

by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi, Haleh Liza Gafori (translator)

A follow-up to her ground-breaking translations of Rumi in Gold, poet and musician Haleh Liza Gafori translates a new selection of work by the great Persian mystic that will muster the soul and stir the spirit.

Water expands on Gold, Haleh Liza Gafori's inspired and widely praised translation of the lyric poetry of the Persian mystic Rumi. As in Gold, Gafori renders with fluid grace and moving immediacy these indisputable masterworks of world literature, drawing on the deep well of Rumi’s work to bring out the worldly wit and wisdom that accompany his otherworldly summons. Behold the divine within and without, he tells us. Question the gnawing hunger for material possessions, fame, and fortune, and the fear of emptiness that drives it. Muster the soul, and experience a more compassionate and liberated state of mind. An eco-poet before his time, Rumi celebrates the immensity and wonder of the natural world while warning us of the havoc that greed and the pursuit of power wreak upon us and our world. His flights of dazzling imagery open up heart-stopping glimpses of the divine, challenging readers to wake from oblivion, and above all, to surrender to the transformative power of Love. 

Gafori is an acclaimed vocalist and musician as well as a gifted linguist and poet, and in her translations Rumi's poetry sings and beckons as nowhere else. Hers is the work, as the poet Marilyn Hacker has said, "of someone who is at once an acute and enamored reader of the original Farsi text, a dedicated miner of context and backstory, and, best of all, a marvelous poet in English.”

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Medieval, Iran, Middle East, Spirituality

104 pages, Paperback

Published April 22, 2025

About the author

Sufism inspired writings of Persian poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi; these writings express the longing of the soul for union with the divine.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī - also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, Mevlânâ/Mawlānā (مولانا, "our master"), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (مولوی, "my master") and more popularly simply as Rumi - was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian and Sufi mystic who lived in Konya, a city of Ottoman Empire (Today's Turkey). His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages, and he has been described as the most popular poet and the best-selling poet in the United States.

His poetry has influenced Persian literature, but also Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Azerbaijani, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu, as well as the literature of some other Turkic, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan languages including Chagatai, Pashto, and Bengali.

Due to quarrels between different dynasties in Khorāṣān, opposition to the Khwarizmid Shahs who were considered devious by his father, Bahā ud-Dīn Wālad or fear of the impending Mongol cataclysm, his father decided to migrate westwards, eventually settling in the Anatolian city Konya, where he lived most of his life, composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature, and profoundly affected the culture of the area.

When his father died, Rumi, aged 25, inherited his position as the head of an Islamic school. One of Baha' ud-Din's students, Sayyed Burhan ud-Din Muhaqqiq Termazi, continued to train Rumi in the Shariah as well as the Tariqa, especially that of Rumi's father. For nine years, Rumi practised Sufism as a disciple of Burhan ud-Din until the latter died in 1240 or 1241. Rumi's public life then began: he became an Islamic Jurist, issuing fatwas and giving sermons in the mosques of Konya. He also served as a Molvi (Islamic teacher) and taught his adherents in the madrassa. During this period, Rumi also travelled to Damascus and is said to have spent four years there.

It was his meeting with the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on 15 November 1244 that completely changed his life. From an accomplished teacher and jurist, Rumi was transformed into an ascetic.

On the night of 5 December 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seen again. Rumi's love for, and his bereavement at the death of, Shams found their expression in an outpouring of lyric poems, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi. He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus.

Rumi found another companion in Salaḥ ud-Din-e Zarkub, a goldsmith. After Salah ud-Din's death, Rumi's scribe and favourite student, Hussam-e Chalabi, assumed the role of Rumi's companion. Hussam implored Rumi to write more. Rumi spent the next 12 years of his life in Anatolia dictating the six volumes of this masterwork, the Masnavi, to Hussam.

In December 1273, Rumi fell ill and died on the 17th of December in Konya.

Reviews

[Ebony (EKG)]

“When I leave this body,
people will ask—
what did he do with his life?

I knew you, Beloved.
That was enough.”

update 10/13/25: loved my second read of this! a great reminder to lead our lives and hearts with love, courageously and selflessly

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Why did I make brooding my vocation
when awe was an option?”

[Sophia Eck]

read this whole thing at barnes and noble so i didn’t have to spend $15

[māris šteinbergs · Rating 4 out of 5]

of course it’s excellent, but I guess I needed it to be more punchy (?) if that makes sense

[Nils · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t always this Love-drunk,
this crazed, rapt, and enchanted.

Driven by reason, on guard,
I was a hunter—
calculating, charming, strategic.

The heart is a tender thing—
pulsing with blood, pulsing with life.
That wasn't me.

I wanted answers—
what is this, what is that,
and what will they be tomorrow?

Awe? I knew nothing of awe.
And the awestruck—
those free from the gnawing need to know the unknowable
—they didn't impress me.

Sit down with me. You're a smart one.
Consider what I was
and what I no longer am.

[Austin Hunter Somers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful translations

[GONZA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful collection of poems that belong to another place and time.

Bellissima raccolta di poesie che appartengono ad un altro luogo e ad un altro tempo.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite translation of Rumi yet. The language is melodic, accessible, evocative and true to the deep spirit of the poet.

[nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems of Rumi are translated in an approachable way with this excellent little book. A mix of existentialism, deep thoughts and clever prose makes this a unique read worth diving into.

[Reilly Ingleson · Rating 3 out of 5]

RESTLESS HEART, tell me,
what are you made of?
Are you fire, water, human, angel?

From what direction have you arrived?
What fed you? Where did you graze?

Why do you leap toward non-existence-
toward annihilation and union?
Tell me what you know of it.

And why aim for my undoing?
Why uproot me,
why abandon reason,
why tear off your veil?

Wary of emptiness, every animal, every being avoids it,
except you.
You carry all of your belongings into the void-
why?

Warm with fever, urgent, drunk, and in ruin, you go.
When will you stop and take some advice?
When will flirtatious eyes stop stealing you away?

You are a torrent of water flowing
from the mountaintop of the world toward the Ocean beyond place,
faster than I can breathe one breath.

You are the rose and the narcissus,
wide-eyed and fragrant,
intoxicating the lily and the cypress.

The whole garden and the whole season of spring
are bewildered by you.
What breeze touches you, they ask,
what breeze carries you off?
(pg 8-9)

TO BROOD is to wander through a grove
where one sheep strays
and a hundred wolves follow.

Why did I make brooding my vocation
when awe was an option?

Thought spinner,
mull the wine of wonder.
(pg 16)

WHY ARE you avenged by a single thought,
dragged down, sinking inward,
heavy with sorrow?

Piece by piece, I stitched you together.
Why has one doom-ridden thought
down you into a hundred pieces?

You packed your belongings
and left the kingdom of my Love.
Now you wander alone.

I made the earth your cradle
but you won't relax.
You lie there, cold and wooden,
ill at ease.

I unleashed water from stone.
You marched off towards dry land.
Now you're hard as granite.

Child of flesh and bone, you are a child of soul.
Love is your trade, your mission, your calling.
Why do you busy yourself with so many other tasks?

In one house, you were wounded a hundred times.
You keep circling that house.
You keep eyeing the door.

In another house, you tasted a hundred kinds of sweetness.
You trusted none of them.
Bitter, you never grew sweet.

Dear one, I want to see you Love-drunk.
If my words make you vigilant and wary,
I'll say no more.

Here I am, gazing at you in silence.
Open your eyes to the Love in my eyes.
Drink it down.
(pg 25-26)

YOU CAN'T put out a fire, dear boy,
with another fire.

You can't wash my heart's open wound
with another's blood.
(pg 30)

I WASN'T always this Love-drunk,
this crazed, rapt, and enchanted.

Driven by reason, on guard,
I was a hunter-
calculating, charming, strategic.
The heart is a tender thing-
pulsing with blood, pulsing with life.
That wasn't me.

I wanted answers-
what is this, what is that,
and what will they be tomorrow?

Awe? I knew nothing of awe.
And the awestruck-
those free from the gnawing need to know the unknowable-
they didn't impress me.

Sit down with me. You're a smart one.
Consider what I was
and what I no longer am.

I wanted to be a kingpin,
top dog, bigger than big.

Like smoke, I climbed greedily,
going nowhere-
a crooked plume, wayward,
drifting over parched land,
thirsty for meaning.
I didn't know when Love hunts you down,
when you fall prey to Love,
you only rise higher.

Continuing my futile climb, I fell.
I fell,
like a gem, out of a pile of dirt-
not a hoarder of treasure.

Treasure.
(pg 40-41)

YOU PLAY the strings of my heart.
You play a new chord-

light of mine, love of mine,
eyes of mine -

you are music-
the melodies, the fade-out,
and the memory of it all.

Each breath with you,
a new note, a new color.

Every chord you strum
lifts a curtain from my eyes,
waking me from oblivion,
from all my forgetting.

At night, alone, with my soul's swaying lanterns,
I'm astonished. Who are you-
both flame and fuel
keeping my flickering light alive?

Your songs tell me,
you are a body, you are a body.

If I am a body, if I am heart, if I am soul,
I am happy you are the one
weaving me.

You are the cypress, the blooming lily and rose.
Everything blossoms in your presence,
why shouldn't I?

You are iron too, and boulder-
why shouldn't I know your quiet power?
(pg 55-56)

[Ryan Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love has been written about for as long as people have been writing. From Virgil’s Eclogue II to William Shakespeare’s sonnets, love is not a new topic of contemplation; but then, Rumi is not a normal contemplative. “Water” , a moody collection of Rumi’s poems, translated by Haleh Liza Gafori, opens new personalities and actions for the character of Love. Through the speaker’s meditative tone, surprising motifs and imagery, and intense spiritual questions, “Water” reveals aspects of Love that better teach us how to be human.

When a monk speaks in parables, you know its time to lock in. Rumi’s speaker often writes with a similar authority and context beginning lines with “In the depths of the soul” or “We are blind men under a blue sky”. The speaker’s tone speaks from a place of assuredness, as if they have done the thinking and come bringing fruitful questions that reveal the soul’s mysteries. This use of tone allows the reader to approach these lessons with more trust, suspending their doubt and stepping toward Love.

The imagery in this collection revolves around water, the moon, night, and love; all the classic of good poetry. Later in the collection, on page 75, Rumi writes “When you fast, / drink the sound of water.” We’ve all read about the beauty of water but Rumi surprises the reader with impossible commands and stark imagery. The language is absurd and impossible, yet somehow real and truthful; Rumi ends another poem saying “Don’t fault the poem for remaining unfinished. / The bird of the imagination flies where it likes.” He plays with the reader’s expectations and often subverts the normal to press for engagement.

The mark of great poetry is that questions =outweigh answers; Rumi checks this box emphatically. Good poetry is not a shortcut to the mysteries of life, rather, it provokes thoughtfulness and contemplation. Rumi’s collection is filled with these pressing questions like “Isn’t love the crucible where my pennies turn to gold”, or “What do you feed the mind to make a mind / kind, noble, eager to serve?”, or “Who was I? Who wasn’t I?”. The mysteries the speaker alludes to flit behind the veil of contemplation. Rumi walks you to the water but he cannot force you to drink.

Sharp, concise, and cohesive this translation by Gafori is a tremendous gift and achievement. It brought me joy and prompted me on a few occasions to read a poem to someone I loved. It is impossible to not consider Love and its shaping power after reading this collection. Rumi’s writing 800 years later is as relevant as ever; cutting through our boiled down Instagram quotes with full and demanding poetry.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Long ago, Shams found me.
Long ago, Shams told me,

You’re not crazy enough.
You don’t belong in this house.

So I left. I lost my mind.
I came back, bound in chains.

You’re still tied up? Shams said.

That’s not the crazy I’m talking about.
Go. You’re not one of us.

So I left again. I got drunk
And came back, overflowing with glee.

You’re not drunk on Love, Shams said.
You’re not dead drunk.
Come back when ecstasy has soaked you to the bone.

His face shined with life.
I fell dead at his feet.

That’s clever, Shams said,
But you’re drunk on doubt and delusion,
Not on Love.

Dumbstruck,
I gave up.
I hid from all.

You can’t hide, Shams said.
You’re the idol to your worshippers.
You’re the candle lighting their way.

I’m no idol. I’m no candle, I said.
I’m the scattering of smoke.

But you’re a preacher, a sheik,
A torchbearer, a leader.

No, I am your servant, I said.

My servant?
Well, you have your own wings and feathers.
You don’t need mine to fly.

Longing for his wings,
I fell, plucked and wingless.

Love spoke in a new voice:
No need to trudge and toil.
I am here, walking towards you
In kindness and grace.

Love spoke in its ancient voice:
Stay close to me. Settle here.
So I did. So I found peace.”

~

ah. this is by far my favorite translation i’ve ever read of Rumi’s works. “Water” is moody, sincere, complex, and devout. Often, rumi’s translated works don’t show his process, his messy, years-long process of trying for liberation and God and running in circles, from respected, arrogant scholar to mystic. being able to read about his reflections on his at times messy journey towards love and liberation, his prior inability to relax and find peace on earth, his prior longings and passions, was a real treat. i also loved being able to read mystical poetry from the disciple rather than the master. reading his reflections on this relationship - between master/disciple - resonated deeply with my heart, as i, too, exist in this bond. the above poem felt SO relatable to me. it’s rare i feel so seen by poetry - with Rumi’s i am.

More women translators of Rumi’s work please. this was perhaps my favorite poetry book of all time - next to The Gift by Hafiz. The Sufi mystics of the earlier centuries were something so special. i also loved how “water” and liquid was a consistent theme in almost all the poems - what a beautiful collection.

i also highly reccomend the novel, The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak, which reimagines Rumi and Shams’ master/disciple relationship.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Translator Haleh Liza Gafori returns with Water, another splendid translation of Rumi’s poetry after 2022’s Gold. Rumi, a Sufi mystic born in the early 13th century and founder of the sect known in the West as Whirling Dervishes, was an enormous popular speaker and poet, born in Afghanistan and settled in Turkey. His father, an Islamic theologian, kept the family on the move for ten years, trying to keep ahead Genghis Khan’s invading forces.

His father had him study, in addition to Islam, the arts and sciences and the languages of the lands they passed through, which produced in Rumi a learned and compassionate scholar and poet who shaped a message of divine love that was hopeful and unsentimental. Exhorting listeners to find God within themselves, to see Him imbued throughout all of existence, Rumi pleads for a world in which we treat ourselves and others as worthy of that love divinely created, to drink in the love until we are ecstatically drunk:

Child of flesh and bone, you are a child of soul.
Love is your trade, your mission, your calling.
Why do you busy yourself with so many other tasks?

In one house, you were wounded a hundred times.
You keep circling that house.
You keep eyeing the door.

In another house, tasted a hundred kinds of sweetness.
You trusted none of them.
Bitter, you never grew sweet.

Dear one, I want to see you Love-drunk.
If my words make you vigilant and wary,
I’ll say no more.

Here I am, gazing at you in silence.
Open your eyes to the Love in my eyes.
Drink it down.

For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...

[floydbnk · Rating 5 out of 5]

it all clicked in the penultimate poem then i had to read everything back and saw how beautiful rumi’s love was. immensely homosocial that it teeters the line between eros and agape so beautifully that it becomes even more universal. im only preferring this poem collection than “gold” because i loved how it translates rumi’s critiques of his society in a new subtext that makes it ever more deep and sad. the poems also have religious and philosophical merit too which is how i originally got introduced to rumi and sufism thru a senior seminar class, and I loved how rumi’s beloved devotion to Shams fuels the philisophy and ideas he shares in his words. there were times when i finished a stanza and i had to sit still and stare or close my eyes and see the beauty he was writing, even during my work hours to the point where Id get distracted and escape my work, ironically the state that rumi champions in one of his poems in this collection. the guests were a little annoyed but i cant hate them for it, they’re searching for ecstasy in the subdivided world of cinema. also an aside i think most of the ravers who rattle on about PLUR would love rumi’s poems, ppl were raving since time immemorial

[Zachary Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

My heart regrets every ode I write-
I've said too much, I know-

and then again the falcon dives down,
seizes my heart, urges me on.

Haleh Liza Gafori has done it again!! I was worried that this collection of Rumi's poetry would be the sloppy seconds that didn't make it into all around fantastic Gold, but this collection holds its own weight and is wonderful!

The miraculous thing about Rumi (or this translation of his work - I don't know enough about poetry or Persian to find the demarcation line) is how he so ardently talks about Love without becoming saccharine. How he - to quote Gafori in her wonderful introduction - is so unwavering in his belief that love is the key to human liberation. It is a kind of deep sincerity that does not feel hollow or cliche - and god what a rarity that is is in this age of AI slop. I will be patiently waiting for the next set of translations. Another Rumi banger.

When I leave this body,
people will ask -
what did he do with his life?

I knew you, Beloved.
That was enough

[auroralfigs · Rating 4 out of 5]

“All night, the sky wept
and I wept too,
all night.

The sky and I are of one creed.

Longing for the earth,
the sky weeps,
the sky laughs.

Perfume of tear-soaked
log and leaf rises.

The sky's tears fall.
Wet violets bloom.

And a lover's tears?
What happens when they fall?
Kindness blooms.
Affection blooms.

The salt of tears sweetens our lips.”

«Poetry in translation is like taking a shower with a raincoat on».

This read was beautiful, as beautiful as it gets for translated poetry. I think Gafori did a phenomenal job at allowing the reader to feel Rumi’s words with full intensity. The language was soft, expressive, and metaphorical. Rumi is a spiritual poet, a poet of the soul, I have never felt so lovesick.

[Monica Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sun in the heart, sun in the soul,
fill the house with light again.

Fill our friends with joy.
Blaze in the eyes of enemies.
Blind them till they see.

Rise over the mountain.
Ripen the grapes.
Make rubies out of stones.

Sun in the sky, sun in the heart,
doctor, beacon,
take our hands. Use our hands.
Cure the ill and ailing.

Make the gardens green again,
adorn farm and meadow
with every fruit and flower.

Criminal to let clouds hide you.

Unveil your face
and brighten our dim world.

from Water, translated by Haleh Liza Gafori

[Michael Idris Merchant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed parts of the translations from Haleh Gafori. And WOW! These are such powerful sharings. Gafori is clearly a poet in her own right and her Iranian heritage/close relationship to the original language that Rumi wrote in comes through.

As I took in this poetry, I found myself gripped again and again by the intense and undeniable wisdom of the master, Moulana Rumi.

I'm so grateful to finally have a poetic and authentic translation to turn to for the master's teachings. May all of humanity learn from this sage who experienced a time of immense suffering, as we do now.

[Abyaaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sequel to NYRB-published Gold. The best translation I’ve read to date — campaigning to stop white men from translating Rumi. Some highlights:

“Not a lover? / Try spinning wool. // Still nothing? / Try a hundred jobs, a hundred crafts, / a hundred causes and paths. // If Love’s wine hasn’t seeped into your skull / by then, // go to the kitchen in Love’s house / and lick the plates lovers left behind.”

“You’re in the fire now, I’ll leave you there / till you’re cooked, / till you’re no longer a slave to your mind, / till you’re its master.”

[F.M Papaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Why did I make brooding my vocation
when awe was an option?"

Haleh Liza Gafori does it again! A ghazal-filled exploration of what flows through us, the channels we should seek out and the ones we should turn off access to in order to preserve the wellbeing of our souls. Rumi instructs us to welcome the power of repetition and the transformative work of metaphor, to be one with the natural world; to be liberated from the material and embrace Love in all its available forms.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's Rumi, so the poems are deep and moving. This is the follow up to Gold.

If you can see the translator Haleh Liza Gafori while she is touring and promoting this book, do so. I spent a wonderful evening listening to her perform works from both this and Gold at the Philadelphia Art Museum. She also spent the weekend working shopping with students.

[Alan D.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this with my husband, and it was absolutely beautiful. The language can be dense, and the metaphors are different from what you are used to, but there is no denying the charm, the hope, the spirituality that is infused in every line. Reading this book is a whole meditation that reminds you of all the good things in this world now that we need it the most.

[Sameer Padalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

First poet to read after Charles Bukowski. Sharing some relatable lines :

Why did I make brooding my vocation when awe was an option?

Rise up, take my cup, drink eternity.

When I leave this body, people will ask what did he do with his life?

I knew you, beloved.
That was enough.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rumi shouldn’t be read quickly. Or better yet, he should be read frequently. I am not in a position to say how true to the original is this translation, but I found it quite enjoyable, particularly the earlier poems with water references.

[Soledad Alvarado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe it’s the timing of when I read this, but considering it’s the end of summer this was the perfect read. There was a lot of mentioning of appreciating sun and light and as the darker days come soon…I will.

[Vinnie Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be reading and re-reading this for as long as the water of life flows through me.

“Selflessness is sky.”

Absolutely beautiful, brilliant, and life affirming. Indeed, “his lines are lifelines.”

[C.L.N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

When it comes to reading Rumi, I have no expertise. I've enjoyed every translation and snippet I've come across. This fantastic new selection is no different.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first in-depth reading of Rumi's poetry, and it was incredible. Deeply moving and lyrical, it's obvious why these works stand the test of time.

[Naysa V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. I have never been able to understand Rumi's poetry the way that I do with Haleh's translations. She helps a novice feel as though they actually feel Rumi's words.