Beware! do áluddínRúmínot keep, in a circle of reprobates, Thine eye shut like a bud, thy mouth open like the rose. The world resembles a mirror: thy Love is the perfect image: O people, who has ever seen a part greater than the whole?
Look on me, for thou art my companion in the grave On the night when thou shalt pass from shop and dwelling. Thou shalt hear my hail in the hollow of the tomb: it shall become known to thee That thou wast never concealed from mine eye. I am as reason and intellect within thy bosom At the time of joy and gladness, at the time of sorrow and distress. * * * * * * * *¨* * * * * * * In the hour when the intellectual lamp is lighted, What a pears goes up from the dead men in the tombs!
Haste, haste! for we too, O soul, are coming From this world of severance to that world of Union.
O how long shall we, like children, in the earthly sphere Fill our lap with dust and stones and sherds? Let us give up the earth and fly heavenwards, Let us flee from childhood to the banquet of men. Behold how the earthly frame has entrapped thee! Rend the sack and raise thy head clear.
"I am a painter, a maker of pictures; every moment I shape a beauteous form, And then in Thy presence I melt them all away. I call up a hundred phantoms and indue them with a spirit; When I behold Thy phantom, I cast them in the fire." * * * * * * * *¨* * * * * * * Lo! I will cherish the soul, because it has a perfume of Thee. Every drop of blood which proceeds from me is saying to Thy dust: "I am one colour with Thy love, I am a partner of Thy affection." In the house of water and clay this heart is desolate without Thee; O Beloved, enter the house, or I will leave it.
This is Love: to fly heavenward, To rend, every instant, a hundred veils. The first moment, to renounce Life: The last step, to feel without feet. To regard this world as invisible, Not to see what appears to one's self. "O heart," I said, "may it bless thee To have entered the circle of lovers, To look beyond the range of the eye, To penetrate the windings of the bosom! Whence did this breath come to thee, O my soul, Whence this throbbing, O my heart?"
O lovers, O lovers, it is time to abandon the world: The drum of departure reaches my spiritual ear from heaven. Behold, the driver has risen and made ready his files of camels, And begged us to acquit him of blame: why, O travellers, are you asleep? These sounds before and behind are the din of departure and of the camel-bells; With each moment a soul and spirit is setting off into the Void. From these inverted candles, from these blue awnings There has come forth a wondrous people, that the mysteries may be revealed. A heavy slumber fell upon thee from the circling spheres: Alas, for this life so light, beware of this slumber so heavy! O soul, seek the Beloved, O friend, seek the Friend, O watchman, be wakeful: it behoves not a watchman to sleep.