Rumi – Love Is Reckless

This is one of my favorite poems by Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī – and recently I have come to understand it much more deeply than I did when first encountering it 30 years ago.


Love is reckless; not reason.
Reason seeks a profit.
Love comes on strong,
consuming herself, unabashed.

Yet, in the midst of suffering,
Love proceeds like a millstone,
hard surfaced and straightforward.

Having died of self-interest,
she risks everything and asks for nothing.
Love gambles away every gift God bestows.

Without cause God gave us Being;
without cause, give it back again.

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī