IX. The Poor Scenite Arab and his Wife.
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Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana and Redhouse, James W. (James William), Sir
The eye of true sagacity distinct can see;
This other eye, ’tis, fails;—is ne’er from error free.
How many seeming pleasures, fair, as sugar sweet,
Have poison lurking in them, death to all they meet!
Men of discernment know them surely by mere smell;
And others find them out, though late, when tasted, fell.
That taste’s enough; ejected are they; swallowed, not;
Although the fiend may urge, with: “Eat, while hot!”
Again some others find in throat they firmly stick;
And others yet are vexed with intestinal prick.345
Still others by sharp purgings find they’ve done amiss;
Indulgence of the palate’s changed to pangs their bliss.
Again there are some suffer after months or years;
And others pay the penalty within the tomb, with tears.
E’en should there chance a respite, granted in the grave,
At resurrection’s trump, disclosure naught will save.
Each plant, each honied morsel, in this lower sphere,
A term has, fixed, him to affect who tastes the cheer.
What ages of submission to sun’s influence,
E’er ruby can acquire ripe tinge, bright effulgence!
The salad cress is ready in a month or two;350
The rose requires some years before it shows its hue.
To this end has the Lord, whose name be ever blessed,
In holy writ declared: “Appointed term.”307 We’ve cessed.
Hast thou this heard? Read, mark, and learn with diligence!
Life’s water is it. Hast thou drunk? Health spring from thence!
Those words thou mayst consider life’s fount, if thou list;
Their sense it is important thou shouldst not have missed.
One other theme, my friend, fix firmly in thy mind.
’Tis patent as thy soul; as subtle thou’lt it find.355
At times as venomous as adder’s fatal fang;
At times as healthful as the food from heaven that sprang.
Now lethal; now again remedial, by God’s will.
At one time blasphemy; then, holy rapture’s thrill.
Thus will it, now, be fatal to a human soul;
And then, again, a remedy for all that’s foul:
“The juice of unripe grapes is sour, as is well known;
But when the fruit has ripened, sweet and fragrant grown,
In wine-jar when fermented, nauseous and unclean;
When vinegar, again, most wholesome is it seen.”360