Analysis of If a Tree could Wander

Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi 1207 (Balkh) – 1273 (Konya )



Oh, if a tree could wander
and move with foot and wings!
It would not suffer the axe blows
and not the pain of saws!

For would the sun not wander
away in every night ?
How could at ev'ry morning
the world be lighted up?

And if the ocean's water
would not rise to the sky,
How would the plants be quickened
by streams and gentle rain?

The drop that left its homeland,
the sea, and then returned ?
It found an oyster waiting
and grew into a pearl.

Did Yusaf not leave his father,
in grief and tears and despair?
Did he not, by such a journey,
gain kingdom and fortune wide?

Did not the Prophet travel
to far Medina, friend?
And there he found a new kingdom
and ruled a hundred lands.

You lack a foot to travel?
Then journey into yourself!
And like a mine of rubies
receive the sunbeams? print!

Out of yourself ? such a journey
will lead you to your self,
It leads to transformation
of dust into pure gold!


Scheme AXXX AXBX AXXX XXBX AXCX DXXX DEXX CEXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1101110 011101 11110011 010111 1101110 0101001 111110 011101 0101010 111101 1101110 110101 011111 010101 1111010 010101 1111110 0101001 11111010 1100101 1101010 110101 01110110 010101 1101110 1100101 0101110 01011 11011010 111111 111010 110111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 887
Words 176
Sentences 18
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 87
Words per stanza (avg) 22
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 14, 2023

53 sec read
106

Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, and more popularly simply as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet, faqih, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran. more…

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