A Man and a Woman Arguing by Rumi

In “A Man and A Woman Arguing,” Rumi’s narrative poem brings about two speakers a husband and a wife who are in an overwhelming argument about their life. The husband and wife both go back and forth about their life and how destroyed it has become. Different aspects of their living conditions are brought up and the fact that nothing is being done about it. While the wife is arguing why it is all bad and that it needs to be better, the husband on the other hand is happy with where they are and is accepting life for what it is. This argument continues through that night, the day and so on. Many of the figures of speech, tone, metaphors and psychological imagery used in this poem enlighten both a meaning to the poem and a lesson to a better way of living one’s life and being able to deal with the pains and sufferings that we go through.

A raging title opens the poem, immediately the fire sparks and the reader’s mind is already set off, “One night in the desert” (1). The reader is given the time and location of the poem; with that first line we a get a sense of a calm and quiet night in the desert. Where as to what the title indicates, the first line gives a much more of calm and quiet understanding of the poem. “a poor Bedouin woman has this to say/ to her husband,”(2-3). This starts to run the shivers down the reader’s spine; it gives an idea but yet still keeps the reader clueless. Sets the a tone to the poem, now its relating back to the title and giving that connection between the title and of what the poem is about.

"Everyone is happy

and prosperous, except us! We have no bread.

We have no spices. We have no water jug.

We barely have any clothes. No blankets (4...

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...n. “These pains that you feel are messengers. Listen to them. Turn them to sweetness.” The husband is clarifying with his wife by comparing Pain and Sweetness and telling her that these pains are telling you something listen to them. To turn the sufferings into sweetness, how could these suffering’s and pains be messengers or turned into sweetness?... we might listen to it, and ourselves be turned to sweetness…because the speaker in this poem is considering the fact that we have to pay attention to our surroundings and the beliefs we have towards these pains. There are ways of going about these pains and not just by avoiding it and finding something else to go about. But rather dealing with the pain, having to listen to find a solution to the pain.

Works Cited

1. Jalāl, Al-Dīn Rūmī, and Coleman Barks. The Essential Rumi. San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1995. Print.