Yunus Emre Quotes and Poems

Yunus Emre

If I told you about a land of love, friend, would you follow me and come?

Yunus Emre
(The Drop that Became the Sea)

I am the drop that contains the ocean.

Yunus Emre

I have come from the everlasting land.

Yunus Emre

Only the word “I” divides me from God.

Yunus Emre

My heart is the throne of the Beloved.

Yunus Emre

Thought is an errand boy, fear a mine of worries.

Yunus Emre (The Drop that Became the Sea)

Yunus Emre Quote: Lovers challenge death to transmute.

Lovers challenge death to transmute.

Yunus Emre

With the cup of love's wine in hand; Come, let's go to the Friend, my soul.

Yunus Emre

Whatever separates you from the Truth, throw it away, it will vanish anyhow...

Yunus Emre (The Drop that Became the Sea)

I have sipped, out of the Beloved's hand, the wine of Oneness with its mysteries;

Yunus Emre

I have disclosed all my secrets today
And found my soul by giving it away.

Yunus Emre


Yunus Emre Sufi Quote: I am the drop that contains the ocean...

I found the Loved One, I need no one else;
Let my store be plundered this very day.

Yunus Emre

I tried to make sense of the Four Books,
until love arrived,
and it all became a single syllable.

Yunus Emre

God permeates the whole wide world.
Yet His truth is revealed to none.
You better seek Him in yourself.
You and He aren't apart-you're one.

Yunus Emre

Yunus is my name,
Each passing day fans and rouses my flame,
What I desire in both worlds is the same:
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

Yunus Emre

Listen: Mystic Yunus says so.
His eyes are filled with tears of woe.
Those who don't know cannot know us;
We send greetings to those who know.

Yunus Emre

I am before, I am after
The soul for all souls all the way.
I'm the one with a helping hand
Ready for those gone wild, astray.

Yunus Emre

Mohammed came to perceive God,
And saw God's truth in his selfhood.
Providence exists everywhere
So long as there are eyes to see.

Yunus Emre

Don't let me wander from Your love,
Don't let me leave Your door,
And if I lose myself,
Let me find myself with You.

Yunus Emre

Soul of my soul,
Without You I have no work to do.
If You are absent from Paradise,
I don't need to go there.
If I look, all I see is You.
If I speak, I speak of You.
Three is no better prey
than You whom I secretly watch.
Because I forgot myself,
because I went to You,
in any conversation, in every state,
I haven't got a moment's rest.
You can kill me seventy times,
and like St. George, I'll resurrect,
and crawl back unashamed.

Show Your face to Yunus.
He loves You and has no other.



To be in love with love with love is to gain a soul,
to sit on the throne of hearts.

To love the world is to be afflicted.
Later the secrets start to make sense.

Don't be bramble,
become the rose. Let your maturity unfold.
The brambles will only burn.

Prayer was created by God so man could ask for help.
It's too bad if you haven't learned to ask.

Accept the breath of those who are mature-
let it become your divining rod.
If you obey your self, things turn our wrong.

Renouncing the world is the beginning of worship.
If you are a believer, believe this.

Respect your parents and ancestry,
and you will have fine green clothes of your own.

If you earn the complaints of neighbors,
You'll stay in Hell forever.

Yunus heard these words from the masters.
If you need this advice, take it.

They say one who is received by heart
becomes more beautiful.





I am a fatherless pearl unrecognized by the sea.
I am the drop that contains the ocean.

Its waves are amazing. It's beautiful to be a sea
hidden within an infinity drop.

When Majnun spoke Layla's name,
he broke the meter of his poem.
I was both Layla and Majnun who adored her.

Mansur1 did not speak idly of Unity.
He was not kidding when he said, "I am Truth."

In this world of many,
You are Joseph and I am Jacob.
In the universe of Unity,
there is neither Joseph nor Canaan.

That my name is Yunus
is a problem in this material world.
But if you ask my real name
it is the Power behind all powers.



A single word can brighten the face
of one who knows the value of words.
Ripened in silence, a single word
acquires a great energy for work.
War is cut short by a word,
and a word heals the wounds,
and there’s a word that changes
poison into butter
and honey.
Let a word mature inside yourself.
Withhold the unripened thought.
Come and understand the kind of word
that reduces money and riches to dust.
Know when to speak a word
and when not to speak at all.
A single word turns the universe of hell
into eight paradises.
Follow the Way. Don’t be fooled
by what you already know. Be watchful.
Reflect before you speak.
A foolish mouth can brand your soul.
Yunus, say one last thing
about the power of words –
Only the word “I”
divides me from God.



We drank wine from the Cupbearer
At an inn higher than the sky.
Our souls are goblets in His hands,
Deep in His ecstasy we lie.

At our private place of meeting,
Where our hearts are scorched with yearning
Like moths, the sun and the moon ring
Our candle whose flames rise high.

Yunus, don't tell these words of trance
To those steeped in dark ignorance,
Can't you see how swiftly the chance
Of ignorant men's lives goes by?



Your love has wrested me away from me,
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
Day and night I burn, gripped by agony,
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
I find no great joy in being alive,
If I cease to exist, I would not grieve,
The only solace I have is your love,
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
Lovers yearn for you, but your love slays them,
At the bottom of the sea it lays them,
It has God’s images-it displays them;
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
Let me drink the wine of love sip by sip,
Like Mecnun, live in the hills in hardship,
Day and night, care for you holds me in its grip,
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
Even if, at the end, they make me die
And scatter my ashes up to the shy,
My pit would break into this outcry:
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.
“Yunus Emre the mystic” is my name,
Each passing day fans and rouses my flame,
What I desire in both worlds in the same:
You’re the one I need, you’re the one I crave.



Have a look here for more quotes and poems by other beloved Sufi Mystics

Yunus Emre Biography

Yunus Emre portrait

Born: 1238
Died: 1320

Yunus Emre was a Turkish Sufi poet and mystic. He is best known today for his great influence on the development of Anatolian culture and literature and for his divine love poems dedicated to the Beloved.

Notable Works

Risâletü'n-Nushiyye (1308)
The Diwans of Yunus Emre

(13-14th century)