The Masnavi, Book Three

by Jalal al-Din Rumi

  4650

  Until both sides of the dispute appear

  To judges still the truth remains unclear.

  Though plaintiffs raise a hundred cries, still bide

  Your time till you have heard the other side.”

  I dare not disobey the Lord’s command—

  Bring your adversary here! Understand?’

  The flea said, ‘What you say is very true

  And my adversary is here with you.’

  Solomon shouted, ‘East wind, do you hear

  The flea’s complaint about your rage? Come here

  4655

  To see the plaintiff face to face—that moment

  You can give your response to your opponent.’

  On hearing this, the wind rushed straight away

  And that flea tried to fly the other way.

  Then Solomon said, ‘Flea, now where are you?

  Stay here, so I may judge between you two.’

  ‘O king, its being here will leave me dead.

  Its smoke has blackened my whole day,’ it said.

  ‘When it arrives I’ve no security;

  It squeezes out all of the breath in me.’

  4660

  In the same way the seeker of God’s court,

  Once God arrives, becomes reduced to naught.

  Although that union’s an abiding station,

  It first appears through self-annihilation.

  When shadows seek the light, they disappear

  As soon as that sought-out light should appear;

  Once the head’s given up, mind has no place,

  For everything will perish but His face.*

  Before His face, both Being and Non-being die;

  Being in Non-being! This fact can stupefy;

  4665

  Inside this presence minds leave your control—

  The pen breaks when it nears this lofty goal.

  The beloved caresses the stupefied lover, so he returns to consciousness

  The sadr then drew him out at gentle pace

  From his unconscious state with generous grace.

  ‘O beggar!’ he screamed in his ear, ‘I’ve brought

  Some gold to throw—you can keep what you’ve caught.

  Your soul would tremble when in separation—

  How come it fled once I brought it protection?

  In exile from me you’ve experienced all

  Nature of things, but wake up now I call!’

  4670

  A hen brings home a camel stupidly

  As guest to show its hospitality,

  But once the camel takes one step within

  The hen-house falls down and its roof caves in.

  The hen-house is our intellect and sense;

  God’s camel’s sought by sound intelligence,

  And when that camel enters into clay

  That clay can’t stay; the soul too fades away.

  Man has turned greedy. Once pre-eminent,

  Seeking excess he’s cruel and ignorant.

  4675

  He’s ignorant while on an arduous chase

  Like hares that drag lions—they don’t know their place:

  How would it drag a lion otherwise

  If it could see the lion’s actual size?

  Man is unjust as well to his soul—witness

  Injustice that surpasses all injustice.

  His ignorance can teach all of the sciences

  And his injustice guides all kinds of justice.

  The sadr, taking his hand, said, ‘This man’s death

  Requires me to bestow life through my breath.

  4680

  When this corpse is brought back to life through me,

  It will be my own soul that faces me.

  I will be honouring him then with this soul

  That I’ll give, which will witness my bestowal.

  Outsiders can’t see the Beloved’s face;

  That’s for those who come from no other place.

  I’ll breathe on him like butchers—in my mind

  I’ll hope his marrow leaves his skin behind.

  O soul that has fled agony, don’t fear!

  We’ve opened up our union’s door—come here!

  4685

  O you whose selflessness and drunkenness

  And being constantly emerge from us,

  Without lips I’ll convey to you today

  Ancient mysteries—listen to what I say!

  Beware that this breath makes lips run away,

  So banks of hidden streams tell it their way.

  Open up now, pure earlessness’s ear!

  “God does what He should will”* you’ll clearly hear.’

  This invitation to a union then

  Induced his corpse to slowly stir again.

  4690

  He isn’t less than soil that you have seen

  Rising due to the breeze, and turning green,

  Nor semen, through which due to God’s Speech one

  Brings forth a Joseph radiant as the sun,

  Nor wind, which, when God’s word ‘Be!’* has been heard,

  Brings forth a peacock or a sweet-voiced bird;

  He’s not less than that rocky mountain either

  That bore a camel that then bore another.*

  Leave this behind! Did not what’s non-existent

  Bring forth a whole world and more every instant.

  4695

  The man sprang up, trembled, then happily

  Whirled round and fell prostrate for all to see.

  The unconscious lover comes to his wits again and starts to praise and give thanks to the beloved

  He said, ‘Phoenix of God, each soul will turn

  Around you—thanks for making a return

  From Qaf.* Esrafil of love’s resurrection,

  You who are love’s love and love’s yearning passion!

  As the first gift of honour you give me,

  Please bring your ear to hear what none can see.

  Although, through purity, you know my state,

  My nurturer, please hear what I relate!

  4700

  Unique sadr, countless times I fell aswoon,

  Yearning for your ear—it can’t come too soon.

  That hearing of yours with your understanding

  And smiles from your lips which are soul-expanding,

  That bearing of my big and small affairs

  As well as my soul’s flirting with such airs—

  My false coins by which you weren’t taken in,

  Yet you accepted them as genuine:

  You saw my haughty mischief, but could spare

  Clemency next to which ours can’t compare.

  4705

  When I had strayed far from the net you cast

  I lost it all from first until the last.

  The next thing, loving sadr, which you must hear

  Is how I searched because you have no peer.

  Thirdly, since leaving you, it feels like I

  Have been a Trinitarian. Who knows why?

  Fourth, since my field has been burned, though I strive

  I cannot tell apart still four from five.

  Wherever you find blood drops, realize

  By looking closely that they’re from my eyes.

  4710

  My speech is thunder, and its booming sound

  Wants all the clouds to rain down on the ground.

  Speaking or weeping—I’m torn by these two:

  Should I now speak or weep? Which should I do?

  If I speak now, I can’t keep weeping too;

  If I don’t speak then how can I praise you?

  My eyes weep blood from my heart, king—behold

  What has poured out of my eyes; don’t be cold.’

  He said this then began to weep with dread,

  While all and sundry wept at what he’d said.

  4715

  His heart let out such screams that at their sound

&n
bsp; The People of Bukhara gathered round.

  As he spoke, wept, and laughed there, mesmerized,

  All of those watching him felt paralysed:

  The whole town now shed tears in the same way,

  As if assembled there for Judgment Day.

  The sky that moment told the earth, ‘If you

  Have not seen Resurrection, there’s a view.’

  ‘What love, what stupor!’ intellect then said,

  ‘Is union stranger or being far instead?’

  4720

  The heavens read out words for Judgment Day,

  Then tore their clothes up to the Milky Way.

  Love is a stranger to both worlds; in it

  Are diverse madnesses and more can fit.

  It’s hidden with a dazed manifestation;

  The King of Souls seeks it in separation.

  Beyond all of the sects one finds love’s school;

  It sees no worth in thrones of men who rule.

  During sama’* love’s minstrel’s new refrain

  Is ‘Slavery chains; lordship gives your head pain.’

  4725

  What is our love then for Non-being’s sea,

  When reason’s foot breaks in proximity?

  Slavery and lordship are both known—behind

  These two veils love is what you’re going to find.

  If only Being had a tongue, it then

  Could lift the veil that hangs before all men.

  Breath of existence, anything you tell

  Places another veil in front. Heed well!

  Your speaking is itself perception’s bane:

  Washing blood up with more blood is in vain.

  4730

  Since I’m familiar with the drunkard’s way,

  I murmur in this cage both night and day.

  You’re drunken, witless, with a frenzied head—

  Did you get out the wrong side of the bed?

  Take heed, don’t breathe a single word—beware!

  Catch up with one who’s close enough to share.

  You are a drunken lover with loose lips—

  By God, you’re near the brink—avoid more slips!

  My tongue tells of his mystery and his flirting,

  Then heaven recites: ‘You who are good at hiding!’

  4735

  How can one hide it? Flames are spreading here;

  The more you try, the more he will appear.

  If I conceal his secrets, then he’ll raise

  His head flag-like—‘I am right here,’ he says.

  Try as I might, he grabs me by the ear,

  Saying, ‘Fool, you can’t make him disappear!’

  ‘Begone, you have boiled over!’ I protest,

  ‘You’re like the soul: hidden yet manifest.’

  He says, ‘My body’s trapped inside the vat

  Like at wine banquets—I rejoice at that.’

  4740

  I answer, ‘Go away before you’re pawned

  And drunkenness’s bane has finally dawned.’

  He says, ‘With my fine wine-cup I’ll rest there

  Throughout the day until the evening prayer.

  When evening should attempt to steal my cup,

  I’ll say, “Return it, for my time’s not up.”’

  The Arabs have named wine ‘continual’*

  Because the drinker never feels he’s full.

  Love boils the wine of realization, so

  Love is God’s saqi for His Friends below.

  4745

  When you seek properly, then wine transforms

  To your souls’ water in your jar-like forms.

  When He increases wine of guidance, that

  Extra force makes it burst right through the vat;

  Water becomes the saqi, and it too

  Becomes so drunk! God knows best what is true.

  The saqi’s glow shines on the wine’s must and

  That must boils, starts to dance and then expand.

  Ask that bewildered one, ‘Where have you seen

  Wine must behaving as this must has been?’

  4750

  Those in the know need not think hard then later

  Explain each stirred thing needs an agitator.

  Story about being in love, lengthy separation, and substantial trial

  A young man was love-crazed due to a woman,

  But stayed deprived of the good fate of union;

  Love gave him so much torture while apart—

  Why does love act with spite right from the start?

  Why does love shed blood so relentlessly?

  To make outsiders to love’s truths all flee.

  When he dispatched to her a messenger,

  That man, through envy, would try stealing her.

  4755

  And what was written by his secretary,

  On his behalf, was read out differently.

  If he made wind his messenger to trust,

  That would become polluted by the dust.

  If he sewed on a bird’s wing his love note,

  It would get burned by heat from what he wrote.

  God’s jealous guarding blocked paths to solution

  And snapped the flags of troops of his cognition.

  Expectation was his consoling friend

  At first, but this destroyed him in the end.

  4760

  ‘This anguish has no cure,’ at times he’d say,

  ‘No, it’s life for my soul,’ another day.

  Sometimes he’d re-emerge in self-existence;

  He’d then eat of the fruit of non-existence.

  Once he’d grown cold towards his constitution,

  He’d then see boil the hot springs of his union.

  Once he got used to exile’s state of lack,

  Provisions from Non-being then hurried back.

  Chaff from the wheat-ears of his thought was shed;

  Just like the moon, night travellers he led.

  4765

  Many a parrot talks though it stays mute;

  Many a kind soul looks a bitter brute.

  In silence sit inside the graveyard, then

  You’ll clearly witness talking silent men.

  Their soil has the same colour, but inside

  Their state is not the same once they’ve all died.

  Though living flesh is uniform, within

  Some sadly frown while others happily grin—

  Until you hear their words what can you tell,

  Seeing as their state’s veiled from you as well?

  4770

  You might perceive them holler, yell, and shout,

  But what about their state can you find out?

  Our forms are one, but made of differing parts;

  Their clay is one, with vastly different hearts.

  Voices are likewise uniform, but pain

  Fills one, while other voices sound so vain.

  On battlefields you’ll hear a horse’s sound,

  And squawks of birds when you should walk around.

  One comes from hate, the other comes from friendship;

  One comes from joy, the other comes from hardship.

  4775

  Whoever doesn’t know his state at all

  Hears all their voices as identical.

  An axe’s blow can cause the sway of trees;

  Others sway simply due to dawn’s soft breeze.

  The worthless pot caused me a serious error,

  Because its contents boiled beneath its cover.

  ‘Come here!’ a stranger’s fervour now might yell—

  He could be true, he could be false as well;

  If you’ve no clue from that higher soul that knows,

  Acquire a proper, clue-detecting nose!

  4780

  The rose in the rose garden’s company

  Can even, through its scent, make Jacob see.*

  Tell more about that sad love-stricken one,

  For we have strayed fr
om that Bukharan, son!

  How the lover found his beloved, and the explanation of how the seeker becomes a finder, for ‘Whoever does an atom’s weight of good work will see it’*

  For seven years that youth searched ceaselessly,

  Becoming ghost-like for his fantasy;

  God’s shade was over this devotee’s head;

  Seekers transform to finders up ahead.

  The Prophet said, ‘When you knock on a door

  Someone will come out if you wait some more’;

  4785

  If you wait at a man’s address, you’ll see

  That person’s face appear eventually;

  Dig deeper each day in a muddy pit

  And you’ll find water there by doing it.

  Even if you do not believe, please know