Yunus Emre Quotes

“I haven't come here to settle down.
I've come here to depart.
I am a merchant with lots of goods,
selling to whoever will buy.
I didn't come to create any problems,
I'm only here to love.
A Heart makes a good home for the Friend.
I've come to build some hearts.
I'm a little drunk from this Friendship --
Any lover would know the shape I'm in.
I've come to exchange my twoness,
to disappear in One.
He is my teacher. I am his servant.
I am a nightingale in His garden.
I've come to the Teacher's garden
to be happy and die singing.
They say "Souls which know each other here,
know each other there."
I've come to know a Teacher
and to show myself as I am.”
― Yunus Emre, The Drop That Became the Sea: Lyric Poems

“A single word can brighten the face
of one who knows the value of words.
Ripened in silence, a single word
acquires a great energy for work.

War is cut short by a word,
and a word heals the wounds,
and there's a word that changes
poison into butter and honey.

Let a word mature inside yourself.
Withhold the unripened thought.
Come and understand the kind of word
that reduces money and riches to dust.

Know when to speak a word
and when not to speak at all.
A single word turns the universe of hell
into eight paradises.

Follow the Way. Don't be fooled
by what you already know. Be watchful.
Reflect before you speak.
A foolish mouth can brand your soul.

Yunus, say one last thing
about the power of words --
Only the word "I"
divides me from God.”
― Yunus Emre, The Drop That Became the Sea: Lyric Poems

“Go and let it be known to all lovers:
I am the man who gave his heart to love.
I turn into a wild duck of passion,
I am the one who takes the swiftest dive.

From the waves of the sea I take water
And offer it all the way to the skies.
In adoration, like a cloud, I soar
I am the one who flies to heavens above.

He who says he sees, doesn't, though he vows;
That man doesn't know if he claims he knows.
He alone is the One who knows and shows.
I am the man who has become love's slave.

For true lovers, this land is Paradise;
Those who know find mansions and palaces;
Wonder struck and adoring like Moses,
I remain on Mount Sinai where I thrive.

Yunus is my name, I'm out of my mind.
Love serves as my guide to the very end.
All alone, toward the majestic Friend
I walk kissing the ground-and I arrive.”
― Yunus Emre

“We entered the house of realization,
we witnessed the body.

The whirling skies, the many-layered earth,
the seventy-thousand veils,
we found in the body.

The night and the day, the planets,
the words inscribed on the Holy Tablets,
the hill that Moses climbed, the Temple,
and Israfil's trumpet, we observed in the body.

Torah, Psalms, Gospel, Quran --
what these books have to say,
we found in the body.

Everybody says these words of Yunus
are true. Truth is wherever you want it.
We found it all within the body.”
― Yunus Emre, The Drop That Became the Sea: Lyric Poems

“Don‘t put it off, don‘t wait too long. When we truly commit ourselves to a spiritual path and practice, something in Reality rises up to support us. The destiny of what we‘re designed to be becomes real, and the fate of unconscious behaviors is avoided. Or, even if not avoided, our mistakes become learning experiences, blessed by some invisible Mercy. As Yunus Emre said, „Ever since the glance of the mature fell upon me, nothing has been a misfortune.“ (p. 5)”
― Kabir Helminski, In the House of Remembering: The Living Tradition of Sufi Teaching

“Your love has wrested me away from me,
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
Day and night I burn, gripped by agony,
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
I find no great joy in being alive,
If I cease to exist, I would not grieve,
The only solace I have is your love,
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
Lovers yearn for you, but your love slays them,
At the bottom of the sea it lays them,
It has God’s images-it displays them;
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
Let me drink the wine of love sip by sip,
Like Mecnun, live in the hills in hardship,
Day and night, care for you holds me in its grip,
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
Even if, at the end, they make me die
And scatter my ashes up to the shy,
My pit would break into this outcry:
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
“Yunus Emre the mystic” is my name,
Each passing day fans and rouses my flame,
What I desire in both worlds is the same:
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave...”
― Yunus Emre