TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION
II. SUMMARY
III. ANALYSIS OF AESTHETICAL VALUES
IV. THE LESSON LEARNED FROM AESTHETICAL VALUES
V. REFERENCES
VI. INDEX

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 I. INTRODUCTION

The term aesthetic first appeared during 1800-1900 and it is derived from Greek.
This word is originated from the word aisthetikos, or aisthanesthai that means ‘to
experience with the senses’. Then, the term aesthetic also turns into American spelling
esthete with some derivations: esthetic (adjective), esthetical (adjective), esthetically
(adverb),esthetics (uncountable noun). Aesthetic or in US is also written: esthetic
/esˈθet.ɪk/. Aesthetic (adjective) is something connected with beauty and the study of
beauty. From the same source, Aesthetics is the study of beauty, especially beauty of
art; or a set of principles about beauty of art (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English). While Cambridge Advanced Learner Dictionary Third Edition states that
aesthetics is the formal study of art, especially in relation to the idea of beauty.
Aesthetics is the study of man’s behavior and experience in creating art, in
perceiving and understanding art, and in being influenced by art. Work in aesthetics
thus far has been principally concerned with music, literature, and the visual arts,
paying little attention to the performance aspect of even these arts. The scope of the
subject is greater, however. (www.encyclopedia.com)
The point of view about beauty of poems could be so subjective and it depends
on the person with various background of knowledge, experience, thoughts, religions,
customs, values, etc. Yet, most people agree that beauty is something very attractive and
pleasing as the definition given in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English:
beauty is the quality of being very attractive, pleasing to look at; or usually about
something (objects, places, etc.) or someone (people) that gives great pleasure,
especially by being looked at. So, it can be broader to sense or to feel the poems beauty
with all five senses and other senses human-being possess as poem itself is a piece of
writing that expresses emotions, experiences, and ideas, especially in short lines using
words that rhyme.

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 On the other side, values is the beliefs people have about what is right and
wrong and what is most important in life, which control their behavior (Cambridge
Advanced Learner Dictionary Third Edition)
Then, the analysis of the five selected Jalaluddin Rumi’s Poems: I swear; The
beauty of the heart; I am a sculptor, a molder of form; This is love; Love is the Water
of Life of course will discuss and analyze more about the esthetical values of the poems
and it is aimed to focus on how consciously and openly to experience with the senses, to
understand, and to be influenced about the beauty of the poems and possibly to take
them as beliefs about something right or wrong, most important in life, which control
the readers’ behavior.
Moreover, to grab the values and to sense the poems much more deeper and in
order to dig up wholly meaning, it is also essential to know about who Jalalluddin
Rumi is through his following short biography.
Mawlana Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi (Persian: ‫ )جالل‌الدین محمد بلخى‬also known
as Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi (Persian: ‫( )جالل‌الدین محمد بلخى‬30 September 1207 – 17
December 1273), often known respectfully as Mawlana ("our Master"), is a thirteenth-
century Persian Sufi saint, jurist, theologian, poet and one of the greatest spiritual
masters of Islam. He was known as Rumi ("Roman") because he spent most of his life
in the region known by Muslims as "Rum," the Anatolian peninsula most of which had
been conquered by the Seljuq Turks after centuries of rule by the Roman Empire. He is
acknowledged as the father of one of Islam’s major Sufi orders, the Mevlevi order
although its actual inception came about through his disciples. 

He is the author of the famous Mathnawi, a poem of 25,700 couplets, considered

his greatest work that was composed in his later years, containing a great number of
stories and anecdotes of diverse styles. His second best known work is the Diwan-i
Shams-i Tabriz, totaling some 40,000 couplets, which is a collection of poems
describing the mystical states and expounding various points of Sufi doctrine. The
Diwan is a collection of ecstatic utterances, with most of the ghazals (or "lyric poems of

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love") composed spontaneously by Mawlana during the sama (whirling meditation), a
practice still performed today by the Sufis of the Mevlevi order.

1.1. Major Life Events in Chronological Order

 c. 1152 Birth of Hazrat Bahauddin Walad, father of Mawlana Rumi

 c. 1200 Hazrat Alaulddin, brother of Mawlana Rumi, is born to Hazrat Mo'mene
Khatun and Hazrat Bahauddin
 1207 Mawlana Rumi is born to Hazrat Mo'mene Khatun and Hazrat Bahauddin
 c. 1212 Hazrat Bahauddin and family living in Samarqand
 c. 1216 Family leave Khorasan for Baghdad and Mecca (March)
 c. 1217 Brief stays in Damascus and Malatya (summer)
 c. 1218 Family stay in Aqshahr near Erzincan for four years
 1221 Mongol army sack Balkh
 c. 1222 Family in Laranda for seven years. Death of Hazrat Mo'mene Khatun,
Mawlana Rumi's mother (between 1222 and 1229)
 1224 Marriage of Mawlana Rumi to Gowhar Khatun
 1226 Birth of Mawlana Rumi's son, Hazrat Sultan Walad
 c. 1229 Family settles permanently in Konya
 1231 Death of Mawlana Rumi's father, Hazrat Bahauddin Walad
 c. 1232 Arrival of Hazrat Burhanuddin Muhaqqiq al-Tirmidhi in Konya. Mawlana
Rumi studies in Syria (c.1232-7) and returns to Konya as accomplished scholar
 1241 Death of Hazrat Burhanuddin Muhaqqiq
 1244 Arrival of Hazrat Shams Tabrizi in Konya (November 29). Mawlana Rumi
takes up sama and composes lyrical poems during this period
 1246 Hazrat Shams quits Konya for Syria (March 11). Mawlana Rumi stops
composing poetry but resumes with five or six poems after receiving word from Hazrat
Shams
 1247 Return of Hazrat Shams to Konya (April) where joyful banquets are held.
Mawlana Rumi composes new poems
 1247 Marriage of Hazrat Shams to Kimia (sometime between October and
December)
 c. 1247-8 Hazrat Shams disappears from Konya forever. At least two trips to Syria
in search of Hazrat Shams. Mawlana Rumi chooses Hazrat Salahuddin Zarkub as his
successor.
 1258 Death of Hazrat Salahuddin Zarkub (December 29)
 c. 1262 Hazrat Alauddin, Mawlana Rumi's eldest son, dies (mid-September).
Composition of the Masnavi begins
 c. 1264 Book two begins (sometime between November 1263 and October 1264)
 1272 Birth of Hazrat Ulu Arif Chelebi, son of Hazrat Sultan Walad by Fateme
Khatun, daughter of Hazrat Salahuddin
 1273 Death of Mawlana Rumi (December 17)

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1.2. MAJOR WORKS OF RUMI’S
Rumi's poetry is often divided into various categories: the quatrains (rubayāt)
and odes (ghazal) of the Diwan, the six books of the Masnawi. The prose works are
divided into The Discourses, The Letters, and the Seven Sermons.

1.3. RUMI’S POETRY WORKS

 Rumi's major work is the Maṭnawīye Ma'nawī (Spiritual Couplets; ‫)مثنوی معنوی‬,
a six-volume poem regarded by some Sufis as the Persian-language Qur'an. It is
considered by many to be one of the greatest works of mystical poetry. It contains
approximately 27,000 lines of Persian poetry.
 Rumi's other major work is the Dīwān-e Kabīr (Great Work) or Dīwān-e
Shams-e Tabrīzī (The Works of Shams of Tabriz; ‫)دیوان شمس تبریزی‬, named in honour of
Rumi's master Shams. Besides approximately 35000 Persian couplets and 2000 Persian
quatrains, the Diwan contains 90 Ghazals and 19 quatrains inArabic, a couple of dozen
or so couplets in Turkish (mainly macaronic poems of mixed Persian and Turkish) and
14 couplets in Greek (all of them in three macaronic poems of Greek-Persian).

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 II. SUMMARY

The followings are the summary of five selected poems of Mawlana Jalaluddin
Muhammad Rumi: 

I swear, since seeing Your face,

the whole world is fraud and fantasy
The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf
or blossom. The distracted birds
can't distinguish the birdseed from the snare.
 
A house of love with no limits,
a presence more beautiful than venus or the moon,
a beauty whose image fills the mirror of the heart.
                                                                                      
 (The Divani Shamsi Tabriz XV)
First poem: I swear
Rumi’s pledge about his true love. A love that is like a shelter for him to live in
freely without any border, a love that is like begging for the coming of true beauty more
than beautiful objects in the sky, and a love that seems fill in his heart with all beauty.
The love has made Rumi distracted all surroundings after seeing the face of The True
Love.

The beauty of the heart

is the lasting beauty:
its lips give to drink
of the water of life.
Truly it is the water,
that which pours,
and the one who drinks.
All three become one when 
your talisman is shattered.
That oneness you can't know
by reasoning.
( Mathnawi II, 716-718)

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Second poem: The beauty of the heart
Rumi states that heart is the source of the eternal beauty. Heart always consumes
the essence of life that is poured inside by human to those who consumes. The essence
of life, human that pours it, and those who consumes it merge and blend well into one
thing. That amazing oneness destroys any other things believed to bring good luck or to
keep its owner safe from harm.

I am a sculptor, a molder of form.

In every moment I shape an idol.
But then, in front of you, I melt them down
I can rouse a hundred forms
and fill them with spirit,
but when I look into your face,
I want to throw them in the fire.
My souls spills into yours and is blended.
Because my soul has absorbed your fragrance,
I cherish it.
Every drop of blood I spill
informs the earth,
I merge with my Beloved
when I participate in love.
In this house of mud and water,
my heart has fallen to ruins.
Enter this house, my Love, or let me leave.
 
( The Divani Shamsi Tabriz, XXXIV)

Third poem: I am a sculptor, a molder of form.

Rumi makes an imagery as if he is a sculptor that shapes any forms and idols in
every time. Even, he can make them look alive. Yet, he always surrenders and feels
ashamed whenever he looks into the face of his love and in front of his love. He gives
all his soul and life to his love. He cherishes his love with all his blood. He begs so

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much to be always with his love. However, when he looks into himself, he feels that he
does not deserve to and he still begs for his love to have a visit on him.

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky,

to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.
First, to let go of live.
In the end, to take a step without feet;
to regard this world as invisible,
and to disregard what appears to be the self.
 
Heart, I said, what a gift it has been
to enter this circle of lovers,
to see beyond seeing itself,
to reach and feel within the breast.
 
( The Divani Shamsi Tabriz, XIII)
Forth poem: This is love
Rumi defines about his love as if he is flying somewhere and coming closer and
closer to his love. He releases all his life matters at the beginning and finally he can feel
his love without any step anymore. For him, world matters are not important and he gets
rid of his own ego. He is so grateful and contented that he is one of the lovers. His love
is so deep and he can feel it through his heart.

 Love is the Water of Life

Everything other than love for the most beautiful God

 though it be sugar- eating. 

What is agony of the spirit? 

To advance toward death without seizing 

hold of the Water of Life.

(Masnawi I 3686-87)

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Fifth poem: Love is the Water of Life

Rumi advises that love is just like water of life. People need to consume it in

their daily. Something that is so needed after the true love of The Most Graceful God,

something important even if it is compared with human ego and enjoyment. The

restlessness of heart is to welcome the death without begging the death. For that reason,

that is why people have to understand and keep their love.

Those are the short summary of five selected poems of Jalaluddin Rumi. The

poems still contain any figurative languages that need to be interpreted and elaborated

more. Therefore, people who read the poems can catch the implicit and explicit ideas

through their language sensitivity.

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 III. ANALYSIS OF AESTHETICAL VALUES ON FIVE SELECTED POEMS
OF JALALUDDIN RUMI

There are ten data that represent the esthetical values. The analysis of aesthetical
values on five selected poems of Jalaluddin Rumi consist figurative languages mostly
of metaphor and simile.

First data :
I swear, since seeing Your face,
the whole world is fraud and fantasy

From the first data taken from Jalaluddin Rumi’s poem: I swear, Rumi pledges
that after seeing the deep meanings behind all the beautiful values of all goodness that
God gave to human-beings, all in the world seems like fake and fantasy for him.
Fantasy implies something beyond imagination that is so beautiful, exciting, and
unusual.World matters are so much beautiful and deceiving that most people forget their
God, who gave them the world itself and promise all human-beings the eternal life after
death. That is the reason Rumi consider the whole world is only fraud and fantasy.
Something not real. This verses actually implies about all the beautiful values that God
gave to human-beings that makes Rumi is in love with his God from the first impression
knowing the trueness of his God. The love of true love is the love to the Almighty, God.

Second data:
A house of love with no limits,
a presence more beautiful than venus or the moon,

This lines are also taken from Jalaluddin Rumi’s poem: I swear. Rumi implies
that his heart is blossoming after seeing his Beloved face as if he enters a home with
unlimited beautiful and joyful atmosphere, as if he can feel the presence of his Beloved
that is so beautiful more than the beautiful objects in the sky like Venus and Moon. This
exaggeration feeling is aimed to the Deserved Love in the world: God The Almighty.

Third data:
The beauty of the heart
is the lasting beauty:
its lips give to drink
of the water of life.

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 The verses above are from Jalaluddin Rumi’s poem: The beauty of the
heart..Heart implies the human’s belonging which is so beautiful. Even, heart as the
source of feelings is considered as the eternal beauty all human being have. Human
being with good heart will have long lasting beauty instead of their temporary physical
beauty of face, body, eyes, hair , and other parts of the body. Heart is illustrated by
Rumi as if it has lips that can consume water of life. Water implies clear, fresh, healthy,
and pure substance that is highly needed by body. Heart needs such good things in this
life to be consumed and to feed the eternal beauty that a human has.

Forth data:
Truly it is the water,
that which pours,
and the one who drinks.
All three become one when 
your talisman is shattered.

The verses are still from Jalaluddin Rumi’s poem: The beauty of the heart.Water
gives an idea about something clear, fresh, healthy, and pure that is highly needed by
body. It is poured by a human and it is aimed to those who drinks it. All three become
one. This gives an idea that beautiful and good things taken by good human and given
to good human will emerge well and becomes human being with beautiful mind and
heart.

Fifth data:
My souls spills into yours and is blended.
Because my soul has absorbed your fragrance,

Taken from Jalaluddin Rumi’s poem: I am a sculptor, a moulder form. Rumi

states that all his soul are dedicated to his love, blended well as if his love flows over
the edge of his heart that cannot stop him feeling such a great love. As if his feeling
combined well with his beloved to produce a pleasant thing. Nothing else of Rumi’s
love but for his beloved one. Rumi feels his love so deeply through his soul as if he
smells the pleasant thing of his beloved one and turns into a love addict.

Sixth data:
I merge with my Beloved
when I participate in love.

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 Still with Jalaluddin Rumi’s poem: I am a sculptor, a moulder form. Rumi feels
that he always entirely joins and becomes one with his Beloved whenever he feels his
love. All his senses, feelings, all over his body seems to be completely fulfilled with the
light of God. The creation merges fully into The Almighty Creator. It feels like a great
enjoyment to be always with his God, to love his God The Almighty.

Seventh data:
This is love: to fly toward a secret sky,
to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.

The citation of lines above is taken from Jalaluddin Rumi’s poem: This is love.
Rumi states that love is like to move through the air, to travel to somewhere other
people do not even know but the special and chosen ones. The higher he travels and
feels his move up somewhere, the more hidden thing reveals and disappears to meet his
true love, God The Almighty. Then, it seems that God will open up and give all His
secret to people who always makes any efforts and come closer and closer to Him to be
the chosen ones.

Eighth data:
Heart, I said, what a gift it has been
to enter this circle of lovers,
to see beyond seeing itself,
to reach and feel within the breast.

The citation of lines above is also taken from Jalaluddin Rumi’s poem: This is
love. Rumi implies that he feels blessed that he can be the part of the God’s lovers. It is
exciting ways to booster his all senses and feelings toward God Almighty. When he sees
something, it feels like doing a lot of more than just merely seeing. With all of his
senses and feelings, he feels like he always reaches deeply and feels his God truly
within his heart. The word breast here in literary means heart, a place where all feelings
come from (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).

Ninth data:
 Love is the Water of Life

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Everything other than love for the most beautiful God

These line are Jalaluddin Rumi’s poem: Love is the Water of Life. Rumi states
that love is just like a water. Something needed by human being as it is the essential
substance. As a part of human body since water is the sign of the existing life. Every
living things need water. So pure, fresh, without any taste, smell, and color.
Therefore,it also comes to the conclusion that love is also as beautiful as water.

Tenth data:
Love is the Water of Life
Everything other than love for the most beautiful God

These lines are Jalaluddin Rumi’s poem: Love is the Water of Life. Rumi states
that love is something important and highly essential for people’s daily life. However,
in this world love as Water of Life is the second priority after love for the most beautiful
God. Mostly of Rumi’s poems are about love. By his poems, Rumi states the ideas and
thoughts that to understand the world matters can only be obtained by love. Not only by
physical matters. The most beautiful God is as the only purpose of human’s efforts.
Nothing can resemble the God.

IV. THE LESSON LEARNED FROM AESTHETICAL VALUES

AND
THE VALUES OF INDONESIAN NATIONAL CHARACTER BUILDING

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 1. I SWEAR  The poem teaches the readers that true love toward God The Almighty is
the most beautiful one, full of happiness, and will be eternal. The true love is beyond
the world matters.
This poem consists of the religious character building as t the values of Indonesian
national character building.
Religious: the act and attitude that connected with religion/ a particular religion’s one’s
mind, utterance, and action must be connected with his/ her belief/ religion

2. THE BEAUTY OF THE HEART  The poem shows us that the eternal beauty lies in
the heart. To achieve beauty of the heart is to consume water of life (all good deeds in
the life),taken from good people, and done by good people too. All three will be
oneness and strong faith upon God Almighty.
This poem consists of the peace-loving character building as t the values of
Indonesian national character building.
peace-loving : act, utterance, and attitudes that cause someone else feel happy and save
toward his or her presence

3. I AM A SCULPTOR, A MOLDER OF FORM  the poem tells us about love to God

The almighty will get rid of any arrogance and ego. Because the worshippers will lay
their life to God, do more introspection, rather than correct others’ mistakes.
This poem consists of the religious character building as t the values of Indonesian
national character building.
Religious: the act and attitude that connected with religion/ a particular religion’s one’s
mind, utterance, and action must be connected with his/ her belief/ religion

4. THIS IS LOVE  the poem teaches us to come closer to God The Almighty by doing
any good deeds and imitates God’s goodness to achieve God’s secret in our life.
This poem consists of the religious character building as t the values of Indonesian
national character building.
Religious: the act and attitude that connected with religion/ a particular religion’s one’s
mind, utterance, and action must be connected with his/ her belief/ religion

5. LOVE IS THE WATER OF LIFE  the poems teaches us to do good deeds to all
living things as always and love God, the Most Beautiful One with all good deeds
This poem consists of the religious character building as t the values of Indonesian
national character building.
Religious: the act and attitude that connected with religion/ a particular religion’s one’s
mind, utterance, and action must be connected with his/ her belief/ religion
V. REFERENCES

Cambridge Advanced Learner Dictionary Third Edition

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi retrieved on November 1st 2015
http://sufiwiki.com/Jalaluddin_Rumi
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/aesthetics.aspx
http://www.khamush.com/love_poems.html#I swear
http://www.khamush.com/love_poems.html#The beauty of the heart
http://www.khamush.com/love_poems.html
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-swear-14/
http://www.poemhunter.com/search/?q=love+is+water+of+life
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Fifth Edition
Mustofa, Mutmainnah. 2014. The Umbrella of Life and Love; values in literary works.
Malang: MISYKAT Indonesia

VI. INDEX

Mawlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī

‫موالنا جالل‌الدین محمد بلخی‬

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 Rūmī

Artistic depiction of Rumi, 1980

Title Mevlânâ, Mawlānā, Mevlevî,Mawlawī
Born 1207
Wakhsh or Balkh, Khwarezmian Empire
Died 17 December 1273 (age 65-66)
Konya, Sultanate of Rum
Resting Konya, now Turkey
place 37°52′14.33″N 32°30′16.74″ECoordinates:  37°52′14.33″N 32°30′16.74″E
Ethnicity Persian
Era Islamic Golden Age
Region Khwarezmian Empire (Balkh: 1207–1212, 1213–1217; Samarkand: 1212–1213)[6][7]
Sultanate of Rum (Malatya: 1217–1219; Akşehir: 1219–1222; Larende: 1222–1228; Konya: 1228–1273)
Religion Islam
Creed Sunni Islam, Sufism, his followers formed the Mevlevi Order
Main Sufi poetry, Hanafi jurisprudence
interest(s)
Notable Sufi whirling, Muraqaba
idea(s)
Notable Mathnawī-ye ma'nawī, Dīwān-e Shams-e Tabrīzī, Fīhi mā fīhi
work(s)
Influenced by
 Baha-ud-din Zakariya, Attār, Sanā'ī, Abu Sa'īd Abulḫayr, Ḫaraqānī, Bayazīd
Bistāmī, Šamse Tabrīzī
Influenced
 Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Kazi Nazrul Islam,Abdolhossein Zarrinkoob, Abdolkarim
Soroush, Hossein Elahi Ghomshei, Sir Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal

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