The Mesnevi

Rumi · en
For sake of some such morsel Luqmān was made bail.[256]
    The time’s now that for Luqmān morsel’d not avail.
    The troubles we endure are all for morsel’s sake.
    Be Luqmān. Thou’lt extract the thorn that makes thee ache.
    A thorn or chafing hurt not Luqmān’s horny hand.
    Through greed thou lackest the discipline made him so bland.
    The thing thou thoughtest a date-palm, know, is but a thorn.
    Ungrateful, uninformed thou art, now, as when born.
    The soul of Luqmān was a vineyard of the Lord.
    Why then into his soul did thorn pierce like a sword?             60

    Thorn-eating camel, truly, is this world of ours,
    Ahmed, then, came and mounted;--him that camel bears.
    O camel, on thy back thou bearest a vase of rose.
    On thee from thence have sprouted rosebuds, as God knows.
    Thy tastes thee lead to camel-thorn and wastes of sand.
    To thee the thorn’s a rose; the wilderness, rich land.

    O thou who in such quest hast wandered up and down,
    How long wilt thou contend rose-garden’s sandy down?
    Thou canst not now extract the thorn from thy sore foot.
    With that blind eye of thine, how wilt thou see its root?         65
    A man whose vast desires the world could not contain,
    Is sometimes by one thorn’s point sent to death’s domain.

    Now Ahmed came; a tender, kind companion, he.
    “Speak to me, O Humayrā,” said he, “speak to me.”[257]
    Put thou thy shoe, Humayrā, quick into the fire.[258]
    The rocks will rubies turn, from his feet’s blood in mire.
    This Humayrā’s a woman’s name, the poet’s love.
    Such is the Arab custom. Soul is meant. Now move.
    That Soul’s no need to fear from being named as girl.[259]
    Of sex, as male or female, that Soul has no twirl.                70
    That Soul is far above sex, accident, and mood.
    That Soul is not man’s darling, made of flesh and blood.
    That Soul is not the life that grows from cakes of bread;
    That’s sometimes of one mind, and other then instead.
    Of good is He the worker, good He is also.
    From goodness separate, no goodness e’er will flow.

    If thou’rt made sweet through sugar, it may happen still,
    That sugar none thou find, to sweeten thee at will.
    But if thou sweet become, like sugar, through good heart,
    This sweetness from thy sugar never will depart.                  75