“Do Not Turn Me Away” by Rumi is a passionate work of Persian mystical poetry exploring love, longing, desire, defiance and surrender. Addressing the beloved with extraordinary urgency, Rumi moves between the language of earthly love and the deeper Sufi search for spiritual union with the Divine.
Presented here in English as part of Persian Poetry After Dark | In English, Rumi’s centuries-old words are reimagined through Emotional Indie Pop, Deep House and Cinematic Persian-Electronic music. Persian textures blend with contemporary electronic production to create an atmospheric musical setting for the poem’s movement between yearning, ecstasy and surrender.
This English musical adaptation aims to preserve the emotional spirit of Rumi’s original Persian poetry while introducing his words to a wider international audience through contemporary music.
- Genre: Emotional Indie Pop mix with Deep House & Cinematic Persian-Electronic
- Video Edit, Music & Lyric Adaptation: Tony Zohari
- Language: English
- Poet: Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī
- Original Language: Persian
- Themes: Iranian Poetry | Persian Poetry After Dark | In English
Lyric: Do Not Turn Me Away
Do not turn me away…
Do not turn me away…
I will not leave
until I have tasted.
Do not turn me away, do not turn me away
I will not leave until I have tasted
Do not entice me, do not entice me
I will not buy the games of the drunk
Do not promise, do not promise
I am no customer for promises
Either give me what I seek
Or I will take a pledge from your door
Do not draw the curtain
Do not disappear behind the veil
Show me the way
Show me the way
Or come out
Come out to me
Do not turn me away
Do not turn me away
I am seeking within seeking
You are joy within joy
I am seeking within seeking
You are joy within joy
Your joy entered my seeking
Struck me down
And turned my head
O heart and soul
Captives of your sweet smile
Tell me, what is your laughter
But the overflowing ocean of grace?
Why wonder that I bring good news
When you gave the news to me?
Why wonder that my sight is beautiful
When you are all that I see?
Everyone has someone
Every heart has its desire
But mine…
Mine is different.
I breathe the air
of another world.
I am seeking within seeking
You are joy within joy
I am seeking within seeking
You are joy within joy
Though heaven rains poison
through the endless night
I am sugar within sugar
Within sugar
Within sugar…
I am sugar.
You are the huntsman of heaven
Shoot your arrow into my heart
If you send the arrow of cruelty
I will become the earth beneath it
Every shield is broken by the wound
But I will become your shield
Strike me…
And I will still remain.
Why try to extinguish my fire?
Your vinegar
only feeds the flame
My sparks rise higher
Higher still
When Love takes me
as its sacrifice
That day
will be my feast
When Love takes me
as its sacrifice
That day
will be my feast
I am your falcon
I am your falcon
When I hear the beating
of your drum
O my King
My King of kings
My wings
open again
I am seeking within seeking
You are joy within joy
I am seeking within seeking
You are joy within joy
If you give me wine
I shall taste it
If you withhold it
I am content
I lay down my head
I withdraw my feet
Headless…
Footless…
I gaze.
Do not turn me away…
Do not turn me away…
About Rumi
Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (1207–1273), known simply as Rumi, was a Persian poet, scholar and Sufi mystic whose writing has become one of the enduring voices of mystical poetry. His work explores love, longing, separation, spiritual transformation and the search for union with the Divine.
Rumi spent much of his life in Konya, in present-day Turkey, and his meeting with the wandering mystic Shams of Tabriz became a defining influence on his poetry. Among his greatest works are the Masnavi and the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, an extraordinary collection of lyrical and mystical verse.
In “Do Not Turn Me Away,” Rumi speaks with the urgency of a lover who refuses distance from the Beloved. Desire, defiance and surrender continually shift into one another, transforming romantic longing into something deeper: an ecstatic search for spiritual union.
This English musical adaptation is part of Persian Poetry After Dark | In English, bringing Rumi’s centuries-old Persian poetry into a contemporary world of emotional indie pop, deep house and cinematic Persian-electronic music.
