The Ship Sunk in Love
The Ship Sunk in Love - meaning Summary
Burning Toward Union
Rumi’s poem portrays spiritual passion as self-consuming fire. The speaker urges complete surrender: burning the house of the self and embracing sleepless, lover-like devotion. Pain and annihilation are reframed as purifying, illuminating acts—like a candle that grows brighter as it burns or a moth dying in union. The closing image frames the faithful collectively as a ship sunk in Love, overwhelmed but united with the Divine.
Read Complete AnalysesShould Love’s heart rejoice unless I burn? For my heart is Love’s dwelling. If You will burn Your house, burn it, Love! Who will say, ‘It’s not allowed’? Burn this house thoroughly! The lover’s house improves with fire. From now on I will make burning my aim, From now on I will make burning my aim, for I am like the candle: burning only makes me brighter. Abandon sleep tonight; traverse fro one night the region of the sleepless. Look upon these lovers who have become distraught and like moths have died in union with the One Beloved. Look upon this ship of God’s creatures and see how it is sunk in Love.
Mathnawi VI, 617-623 The Rumi Collection, Edited by Kabir Helminski
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