Mevlana & Konya

“Bişnev în ney çün şikâyet mî-koned / Ez cüdâyîhâ hikâyet mî-koned…” The Masnavi opens with this couplet: Listen to this reed how it complains: it is telling a tale of separations… So how has the lament of a reed torn from the reed bed become the voice of a city for seven centuries?