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StillnessQuote

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

Often attributed to Rumi; not found in his works

Philosophy

The story behind the card

Credited to Rumi all over the internet, but no version appears in his works or in scholarly translations of them; Emanuel Strauss's Concise Dictionary of European Proverbs (1998) lists it as a European proverb. It may have attached to Rumi because it voices a favourite Sufi idea: before setting out to fix the world, look at yourself. Rumi (1207–1273) wrote in Persian and spent most of his life in Konya, where his tomb is now a museum; his long teaching poem, the Masnavi, runs to about 25,000 couplets.

Türkçe oku
Dün akıllıydım, dünyayı değiştirmek istedim. Bugün bilgeyim, kendimi değiştiriyorum.
Mevlânâ'ya mal edilir; eserlerinde geçmez

İnternette her yerde Mevlânâ'ya mal edilir; ama ne eserlerinde ne de bilimsel çevirilerinde böyle bir söz vardır. Emanuel Strauss'un Concise Dictionary of European Proverbs (1998) adlı sözlüğü onu bir Avrupa atasözü olarak kaydeder. Söz belki de tasavvufun sevdiği bir düşünceyi dile getirdiği için ona yakıştırıldı: İnsan dünyayı düzeltmeye kalkmadan önce kendine bakmalıdır. Farsça yazan Mevlânâ (1207–1273) ömrünün çoğunu Konya'da geçirdi; türbesi bugün müzedir. Öğretici uzun şiiri Mesnevi yaklaşık 25.000 beyittir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Rumi
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