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THIS TORTURE Why should we tell you our love stories when you spill them together like blood in the dirt? Love is a pearl lost on the ocean floor, or a fire we can’t see, but how does saying that push us through the top of the head into the light above the head? Love is not an iron pot, so this boiling energy won’t help. Soul, heart, self. Beyond and within those is one saying, How long before I’m free of this torture!
Rumi
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote expresses the complexity and pain of love, suggesting that sharing our love stories can feel like suffering without yielding true understanding.

In this quote, Rumi reflects on the intense emotions associated with love, depicting it as both valuable and torturous. He contrasts love's beauty with the difficulty of articulating these feelings, likening our attempts to share our stories of love to a struggle. Ultimately, he questions whether expressing our love can alleviate the emotional turmoil it brings, exploring themes of deep yearning and the search for freedom from suffering in love.

Themes

LoveTortureSufferingFreedomEmotion

In practice

Example use cases

To express the struggles of relationships during a heartfelt speech.

More from Rumi

My dear heart, never think you are better than others. Listen to their sorrows with compassion. If you want peace, don't harbor bad thoughts, do not gossip and don't teach what you do not know.
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The Law of Wonder rules my life at last, _x000D_ ...I burn each second of my life to Love _x000D_ Each second of my life burns out in Love _x000D_ In each leaping second Love lives afresh.
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Lovers have heartaches _x000D_ That can't be cured by drugs _x000D_ Or sleep, _x000D_ Or games, _x000D_ But only by seeing their beloved.
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Every fragile beauty, every perfect forgotten sentence, you grieve their going away, but that is not how it is. Where they come from never goes dry. It is an always flowing spring.
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Whatever you keep hidden in your heart, God _x000D_ manifests in you outwardly. Whatever the root of _x000D_ the tree feeds on in secret, affects the bough and _x000D_ the leaf.
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Come on sweetheart let's adore one another before there is no more of you and me
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