The Masnavi, Book One: Bk. 1 (Oxford World's Classics)
Page 29
Their hands and feet and eyes were out of place,
Their love and peace and anger a disgrace;
To follow the traditions of their sect
They stamped upon the guiding intellect:
They’ve turned to donkeys, they don’t want a guide,
2580
They choose to show off and to worship pride;
From heaven God brought down his slaves to see
How they’re prepared for hell so perfectly!’
Concerning the meaning of ‘He lets the seas meet each other with a gap which they don’t encroach upon’ *
The source of hell and heaven’s guests is one,
Though there’s a gap they don’t encroach upon:
The men of fire and those of light He’s mixed
Although Mount Qaf between them He has fixed,
Like in a mine He’s mixed plain soil with gold
Though for such different prices they’ll be sold,
Like necklaces of pearl and cheap black stone:
2585
Strange fellow guests who’ll soon depart alone.
Half of the sea tastes sweet and sugary,
Bright like the moon, as clear as it can be,
The other half’s like bitter venom, which
As well as tasting foul is black as pitch;
They crash against each other as waves do,
As if one sea not forced apart as two:
Confinement makes forms clash within its cell,
Souls thus are mixed in peace and war as well:
The waves of peace collide with wondrous might,
2590
Uprooting from men’s breasts all hate and spite.
The waves of war though take a different form,
Inverting our loves like a thunder storm:
Love draws the bitter to the sweet by force
For love is rightly guided by its source.
Wrath drags the sweet to bitterness, but how
Can bitterness suit sweetness—tell me now!
Bitter and sweet are not seen by your sight,
Only the furthest window sheds such light.
The eye that sees the end sees properly,
2595
While seeing just this world’s delusory;
Many things look like sugar but are not,
Like poison hidden in the sugar pot!
The wiser ones detect it by its smell,
Some after they have tasted it as well:
Their lips reject it thus before their throats
Although the devil bellows, ‘Eat!’ and gloats!
Another through his throat knows he’ll be ill,
The next once it has travelled further still,
Another feels it burning when he shits—
2600
The pain will crush his liver now to bits!
The next one after several months perceives,
Another, after dying, finally grieves—
If in the grave he finds respite, then he
On Resurrection Day will finally see.
Each sugar cube in this world too receives
Its own allotted time before it leaves,
Rubies need years beneath the sun’s pure light
To purify their hue and shine so bright;
In just two months though garden herbs may grow,
2605
To bloom a red rose needs a year or so—
This is why God explained in the Koran
He’s given an appointed time to Man—
If you have heard your hairs will all stick up,
Water of Life* He’s poured into your cup:
Call this the Draught of Life* and not mere speech—
In an old word new spirit is in reach.
Now listen to a further point, my friend,
Clear as the soul but hard to comprehend:
At one stage on this path snake venom changes
2610
To wholesome food—it’s God that rearranges:
Poison can be a drug that brings relief
And lawful things there are here unbelief,
Things harmful to the soul in that pure sphere
Can be a remedy when they’re down here:
Unripe grapes are too sour for us to eat
But when those same grapes ripen, they taste sweet:
As wine it’s bitter and prohibited
But vinegar’s use is unlimited.
Concerning the fact that the disciple should not be arrogant and do the same thing as the saint does, for halva does not harm the doctor but does harm the sick patient, and the snow and the cold does not harm ripe grapes but does harm unripe grapes, for they are still on the way to ‘That God may forgive you your past and future sins’ *
If saints drink poison it becomes a cure,
2615
If novices drink they become impure.
‘Lord grant me!’ was the plea of Solomon:
He meant ‘Give me alone dominion,
To others don’t be kind and generous’,
He wasn’t being simply envious:
With heart ‘It is not suitable’ now read,
‘After me’* wasn’t avarice or greed:
In kingship he’d faced danger and much strife
Enough to make one fear for one’s own life,
For head and soul and faith it makes one scared—
2620
We’ve not faced trials that can be compared!
Solomon’s aspiration you require
To shun cheap vanities and aim much higher.
Despite his strength he couldn’t conquer death:
His kingdom’s waves eventually blocked his breath,
Dust settled on him from this agony,
For other kings he thus felt sympathy.
He spoke for them: ‘This royalty of mine—
Give it completely, just as strong and fine,
To whomsoever you should smile upon,
2625
For I am he and he is Solomon.
He isn’t after me but with me here
But what’s with me when I’ve no claimants near?’
You’ll need an explanation first to learn
But to the couple’s tale I’ll now return.
Conclusion of the incident between the bedouin and his wife
The altercation in this tale we’ve heard
Requires a moral not to be absurd,
Their tale’s been told, but let’s now recollect
That parable on self and intellect,
Or carnal soul and wisdom—understood?
2630
Both are required to make the bad and good,
On earth these two essentials night and day
Are fighting and disputing every way:
The wife wants all the household needs supplied,
Food on the table, social rank, and pride;
The carnal soul, like her, serves its own need,
So now it’s humble, now it wants to lead;
The higher intellect has no concerns—
It only thinks of God with pain that burns.
Although its inner meaning is the bait,
2635
First listen to this story’s form, then wait:
If inner things are all that count, explain
The world’s creation—was it all in vain?
If love were just in thought and spirit, there
Would be no need for forms like fasts and prayer;
The gifts exchanged by lovers would be naught
But form compared with love, if that’s just thought.
For lovers, gifts serve as their evidence
Of inner love concealed from outward sense,
Since outward acts of kindness testify
2640
To secret loves, my friend, when they don’t lie;
Your witness tells the truth then falsifies,
Now drunk with wine, now yoghurt—truth and lies:
One drunk
on yoghurt acts drunk, that is all,
He hollers and pretends he’s lost control;
In prayer and fasting hypocrites pretend
They’re drunken saints who’ve reached the journey’s end—
In short, our outward actions are distinct—
They serve to show what’s hidden, thus they’re linked.
Grant us discernment, God, we pray to you,
2645
So we can recognize the false from true!
Do you know how our senses can discern?
When they see by the light of God* they’ll learn:
Without effects the cause still shows what’s found,
Relationships reveal love that’s profound,
The one whose leader is God’s light is not
Cause and effect’s slave, victim of their plot;
From flickers love’s flame grows so tall inside,
No longer to effects is this man tied—
He has no need now for the signs of love
2650
For love has shone its light straight from above.
This discourse needs more space to be complete:
Reflect on this until we next should meet.
Though meaning in this form is visible
And form seems close, they’re incomparable,
Just like a tree and sap—although they’re linked,
In substance they are clearly quite distinct—
Abandon substance and particulars,
Explain the state of those two characters!
The bedouin sets his heart on fulfilling his beloved’s request and swears ‘This surrender of mine is not for show or as a test’
The man said, ‘I no longer will persist,
2655
You have control—I’ll do what you insist!
At your command I won’t make you wait long
Nor try to judge if it is right or wrong.
In your existence, mine I’ll leave behind:
I love, and Love makes men turn deaf and blind.’*
The wife asked, ‘Do you sing to win my heart
Or to find out my secret through your art?’
He said, ‘The world of secrets is obscure.’
Adam was made from earth but still was pure,
And in his frame God placed for all to view
2660
The Tablet’s contents* and the spirit too—
Until the end whatever is in store
He taught the names* to Adam long before.
The angels lost their wits at what was shown;
They gained more holiness than they had known,
And this growth which from Adam entered them
Came from beyond their own transcendent realm;
Compared with his expansive soul and mind
The seven heavens all seem too confined:
The Prophet said: God’s said, ‘Naught can hold me
2665
However deep or tall that it may be;
On earth and in the highest heavens I
Can’t be contained, to this I testify,
But I’m contained in the believer’s heart—
If you seek me look in that precious part!’
God said, ‘Come here among my slaves and see
A paradise of images of me.’*
The highest heaven, though it has much light,
Fell down in shock when it was shown this sight;
Although the highest heaven is so vast,
2670
What’s form worth when pure meaning comes at last?
Each angel then would say, ‘Before we knew
A friendship on the earth with all of you,
We sowed the seeds of service on that land
Though our role there we could not understand:
“What is the link between us and that place
When we are heavenly and that seems base?
Why do we mix with darkness when we’re light,
Can light live with the dark? This can’t be right!”
Adam, our friendship was due to your scent,
2675
The earth’s your body’s weft—that’s what we meant,
Since it was woven from the earth, it’s clear,
Your pure light too must be located here—
From your soul what ours gained has so much worth,
It radiated beams out from the earth.
We were on earth, but of earth unaware,
Heedless of all the treasure buried there;
God told us to move from our previous station,
We grew embittered by our relocation
And so we kept on arguing our case,
2680
Saying, “But Lord, who now will take our place?
The light of all your praises that we tell
Just for the sake of chatter would you sell?”