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Who really said it

Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form

Attributed to Rumi 1207–1273 · Persian Sufi poet & mystic
Attributed In copyright

These are the opening lines of “Unmarked Boxes,” Coleman Barks’s free-verse rendering of Rumi’s Ode 1937 from the Divan-e Shams, first published in Open Secret (1984) and reprinted in The Essential Rumi (1995). The consoling thought is genuinely Rumi’s, but the memorable English wording is Barks’s interpretation — he neither read nor spoke Persian — not a literal translation of Rumi’s words.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form” — Rumi, "Unmarked Boxes" (rendered by Coleman Barks), from The Essential Rumi, 1995

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Coleman Barks & John Moyne (Open Secret, Threshold Books, 1984; The Essential Rumi, HarperCollins, 1995)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Rumi — Persian Sufi poet & mystic. Theme: "Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Poem
Unmarked Boxes
Original
Ode 1937, Divan-e Shams (Divan-e Kabir)
Rendering
Coleman Barks, with John Moyne
First published
Open Secret (Threshold Books, 1984); repr. The Essential Rumi (1995)

Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round
in another form. The child weaned from mother’s milk
now drinks wine and honey mixed.
… God’s joy moves from unmarked box to unmarked box,
from cell to cell.

The famous line opens a longer meditation on loss and transformation; the whole poem, not just the first sentence, is Barks’s rendering.

Unmarked Boxes (full poem, Ode 1937)

How we traced it

In copyright

Rumi’s 13th-century Persian original is long in the public domain, but the specific English wording shown is Coleman Barks’s (with John Moyne) interpretive rendering, first published in 1984 — well after 1931 — and remains in copyright to its translators and publishers.

Fact-check

The wording isn't quite Rumi's

This is not a fabrication pinned on a famous name — it is a real Rumi poem. The catch is one of translation: the line everyone shares is a 20th-century English version, not something Rumi literally wrote.

Coleman Barks (translator) rendering, not translation

Barks is credited as the translator, but he “neither spoke nor read Persian” and reworked earlier scholarly English translations into free verse. The phrase “comes round in another form” is his, not a literal equivalent of Rumi’s Persian.

Usually cited with no source at all missing citation

Most quote sites, including Goodreads, present the line bare, without naming the poem “Unmarked Boxes,” the translator, or the book — which is why it reads as an anonymous aphorism rather than the opening of a specific poem.

The idea and the poem are genuinely Rumi’s (Ode 1937 of the Divan-e Shams); the memorable English sentence belongs to Coleman Barks, from “Unmarked Boxes.”

Context

Why it resonates

“Unmarked Boxes” is a meditation on impermanence: joy and life force move endlessly from one form to another — rainwater into flowerbed, roses up from the ground — so nothing is truly lost, only transformed. The opening line distills that whole argument into a single consolation for grief.

That is authentically Rumi’s Sufi vision. What makes the quote feel so quotable, though, is Barks’s plain, modern American cadence — the very thing scholars note can drift from the literal Persian.

Nothing is lost — only changed in form.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Hope Change Resilience

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Unmarked Boxes — full poem (Ode 1937)tumblr.com

The complete poem whose first line is the quote, labelled as Rumi's Ode 1937, translated by Coleman Barks.
Coleman Barksen.wikipedia.org

Confirms Barks neither read nor spoke Persian and produced interpretive 'versions' from earlier English translations.
Rumi — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced/attributed/misattributed catalogue of Rumi quotations for cross-checking.
Open Secret: Versions of Rumipenguinrandomhouse.com

Publisher listing for the 1984 Barks & Moyne collection where 'Unmarked Boxes' first appeared.
Goodreads quote pagegoodreads.com

Shows the line circulating with no source; Goodreads flags such community quotes as unverified.
Dar al-Masnavi (Ibrahim Gamard)dar-al-masnavi.org

Scholarly Rumi site documenting how popular English 'versions' diverge from literal translations of the Persian.

The true author of the thought

About Rumi

Rumi

1207–1273 · Persian Sufi poet & mystic

Jalal al-Din Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, and Sufi mystic, born in Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan) and later settled in Konya (in present-day Turkey). His vast Divan-e Shams and the Masnavi are landmarks of Persian literature; centuries later, English “versions” by translators such as Coleman Barks made him one of the best-selling poets in the United States — and one of the most freely paraphrased.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Jalal al-Din Rumi, “Unmarked Boxes,” in Open Secret: Versions of Rumi, trans. John Moyne and Coleman Barks (Putney, VT: Threshold Books, 1984); repr. in The Essential Rumi, trans. Coleman Barks with John Moyne (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995). Based on Rumi’s Ode 1937, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi.

MLA (9th ed.)

Rumi, Jalal al-Din. “Unmarked Boxes.” The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, HarperSanFrancisco, 1995.

APA (7th ed.)

Rumi, J. al-D. (1995). Unmarked boxes. In The essential Rumi (C. Barks with J. Moyne, Trans.). HarperSanFrancisco. (Original work published c. 13th century)

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/dont-grieve-anything-you-lose-comes-round-in-another-form

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