| O THOU that hast grown from earth, like a rose, |
| Thou too art born of the womb of Self. |
| Do not abandon Self Persist therein |
| Be a drop of water and drink up the ocean |
1390 |
| Glowing with the light of Self as thou art, |
| Make Self strong, and thou with endure. |
| Thou gett'st profit from the trade, |
| Thou gain'st riches by preserving this commodity. |
| Thou art Being, and art thou afraid of not-being? |
1395 |
| Dear friend, thy understanding is at fault. |
| Since I am acquainted with the harmony of Life. |
| I will tell thee what is the secret of Life |
| To sink into thyself like the pearl, |
| Then to emerge from thine inward solitude; |
1400 |
| To collect sparks beneath the ashes, |
| And become a flame and dazzle -men's eyes. |
| Go, burn the house of forty years' tribulation, |
| Move round thyself! By a circling flame |
| What is Life but to be freed from moving round others |
1405 |
| And to regard thyself as the Holy Temple ? |
| Beat thy wings and escape from the attraction of Earth: |
| Like birds be safe from failing. |
| Unless thou art a bird., thou wilt do wisely |
| Not to build thy nest on the top of a cave. |
1410 |
| O thou that seekest to acquire knowledge, |
| I say o'er to thee the message of the Sage of Rum:103 |
| "Knowledge, if it lie on thy skin, is a snake; |
| Knowledge, if thou take it to heart, is a friend." |
| Hast thou heard how the Master of Rum |
1415 |
| Gave lectures on philosophy at Aleppo? |
| Fast in the bonds of intellectual proofs, |
| Drifting o'er the dark and stormy sea of understanding; |
| A Moses unillumined by Love's Sinai, |
| Ignorant of Love and of Love's passion. |
1420 |
| He discoursed on Scepticism and Neoplatonism, |
| And strung many a brilliant pearl of - metaphysics. |
| He unravelled the problems of the Peripatetics, |
| The light of his thought made clear whatever was obscure. |
| Heaps of books lay around and in front of him, |
1425 |
| And on his lips was the key to all their mysteries. |
| Shams-i-Tabriz, directed by Kamal,104 |
| Sought his way to the college Of Jalauddin Rumi |
| And cried out, "What is all 'this noise and babble ? |
| What are all these syllogisms and judgements and demonstrations?" |
1430 |
| "Peace, O fool!" exclaimed the Maulvi, |
| "Do not laugh at the doctrines of the sages. |
| Get thee out of my college! |
| This is argument and discussion; what hast thou to do with it ? |
| My discourse is beyond thy under standing. |
1435 |
| It brightens the glass of perception! |
| These words increased the anger of Shams-i-Tabriz |
| And caused a fire to burst forth from his soul. |
| The lightning of his look fell on the earth, |
| And the Slow of his breath made the dust spring into flames. |
1440 |
| The spiritual fire burned the intellectual stack |
| And clean consumed the library of the philosopher. |
| The Maulvi, being a stranger to Love's miracles |
| And unversed in Love's harmonies, |
| Cried, "How didst thou kindle this fire, |
1445 |
| Which hath burned the books of the philosophers ?" |
| The Sheikh answered, "O unbelieving Muslim, |
| This is vision and ecstasy: what hast thou to do with it ? |
| My state is beyond thy thought, |
| My flame is the Alchemist's elixir," |
1450 |
| Thou hast drawn thy substance from the snow of philosophy, |
| The cloud of thy thought sheds nothing but hailstones. |
| Kindle a fire in thy rubble, |
| Foster a flame in thy earth! |
| The Muslim's knowledge is perfected by spiritual fervour, |
1455 |
| The meaning of Islam is Renounce what shall pass away. |
| When Abraham escaped from the bondage of "that which sets,"105 |
| He sat unhurt in the midst of flames.106 |
| Thou hast cast knowledge of God behind thee |
| And squandered thy religion for the sake of a loaf. |
1460 |
| Thou art hot in pursuit of antimony, |
| Thou art unaware of the blackness of thine own eye. |
| Seek k the Fountain of Life from the sword's edge. |
| And the River of Paradise from the dragon's mouth. |
| Demand the Black Stone from the door of the house of idols. |
1465 |
| And the musk-deer's bladder from a mad dog, |
| But do not seek the glow of Love from the knowledge of today, |
| Do not seek the nature of Truth from this infidel's cup! |
| Long have I been running to and fro, |
| Learning the secrets of the New Knowledge |
1470 |
| Its gardeners have put me to the trial |
| And have made me intimate with their roses. |
| Roses! Tulips, rather, that warn one not to smell them |
| Like paper roses, a mirage of perfume. |
| Since this garden ceased to enthrall me |
1475 |
| 1 have nested on the Paradisal tree. |
| Modern knowledge is the greatest blind |
| Idol-worshipping, idol-selling, idol making! |
| Shackled in the prison of phenomena, |
| It has not over leaped the limits of the sensible. |
1480 |
| It has fallen down in crossing the bridge of Life, |
| It has laid the knife to its own throat. |
| Its fire is cold as the flame of the tulip; |
| Its flames are frozen like hail. |
| its nature remains untouched by the glow of Love, |
1485 |
| It is ever engaged in joyless search. |
| Love is the Plato that heals the sicknesses of the mind:107 |
| The mind's melancholy is cured by its lancet. |
| The-whole world bows in adoration to Love, |
| Love is the Mahmud that conquers the Somnath of intellect.108 |
1490 |
| Modern science lacks this old wine in its cup, |
| Its nights are not loud with passionate prayer. |
| Thou hast misprized thine own cypress |
| And deemed tall the cypress of others. |
| Like the reed, thou hast emptied thyself of Self. |
1495 |
| And given thine heart to the music of others, |
| O thou that begg'st morsels from an other's table. |
| Witt thou seek thine own kind in another's shop? |
| The Muslim's assembly-place is burned up by the lamps of strangers, |
| His mosque is consumed by the sparks of monasticism. |
1500 |
| When the deer fled from the sacred territory of Mecca, |
| The hunter's arrow pierced her side.109 |
| The leaves of the rose are scattered like its scent: |
| O thou that has fled from the Self, come back to it: |
| O trustee of the wisdom of the Koran, |
1505 |
| Find the lost unity again! |
| We, who keep the gate of the citadel of Islam, |
| Have become unbelievers by neglecting the watchword of Islam. |
| The ancient Saqi's bowl is shattered, |
| The wine-party of the Hijaz is broken up. |
1510 |
| The Ka'ba is filled with our idols, |
| Infidelity mocks at our Islam. |
| Our Sheikh hath gambled Islam away for love of idols. |
| And made a rosary of the zunnar.110 |
| Our spiritual directors owe their rank to their white hairs |
1515 |
| And are the laughing-stock of children in the street; |
| Their hearts bear no impress of the Faith |
| But house the idols of sensuality. |
| Every long-haired fellow wears the garb of a dervish |
| Alas for these traffickers in religion! |
1520 |
| Day and night they are travelling about with disciples, |
| Insensible to the great needs of Islam. |
| Their eyes are without light, like the narcissus. |
| Their breasts devoid of spiritual wealth. |
| Preachers and Sufis, all worship worldliness alike; |
1525 |
| The prestige of the pure religion is ruined. |
| Our preacher fixed his eyes on the pagoda |
| And the mufti of the Faith sold his verdict. |
| After this, O friends, what are we to do? |
| Our guide turns his face towards the wine-house. |
