Ghazal · Love

Thou and I (opening couplet)

by Rumi (Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī) · translated by R. A. Nicholson

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1Happy the moment when we are seated in the Palace, thou and I,

2With two forms and with two figures but with one soul, thou and I.

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“Thou and I (opening couplet)” by Rumi (Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī) — quilloak.com/poems/rumi-thou-and-i

Quick facts

Poem: Thou and I (opening couplet)
Poet: Rumi (Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī)
Length: 2 lines
Form: Ghazal, Short Poems
Themes: Love, Short

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 2 lines · one 2-line stanza
End rhyme: AA — a rhyming couplet.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

The translation is treated as a separate work and reviewed from the cited historical edition.

Author record: Rumi (Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī)1207–1273
Source record: Cited historical translationThou and I (opening couplet); Selected Poems from the Dīvāni Shamsi Tabrīz, 1898
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Selected Poems from the Dīvāni Shamsi Tabrīz, 1898
Translation: R. A. Nicholson
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 c84916fcfcc0699b…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Ghazal Short Poems Love Short

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