The Masnavi, Book One (Oxford World's Classics)

God feels no shame,
* in you now none remains.
Your mirror has slipped out of its own cover,
But with Truth’s weighing-scales can it now di
ffer?
The Prophet Mohammad and Zayd
216

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How can they both keep silent out of tact,
3560
So as to not shame someone with a fact?
They are both touchstones which speak truthfully:
Though you should serve them for a century
And say, “Conceal truth for my bene
fit:
Display the pro
fit, hide the deficit!”
“Don’t make yourself look stupid!” they will cry,
“Just for your sake can scales and mirrors lie?
Since God has made us for this aim alone:
That through us both the truth can be made known,
If we don’t do exactly as we should,
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We won’t be worthy for the fair and good.”
So put the mirror back, Zayd, in its case,
Your breast’s been split like Sinai by God’s face!’
‘The sun of truth and pre-eternity
Can’t be stu
ffed in one’s arms so none can see:
It would tear o
ff that arm which tries to hide,
Wisdom and madness would be nulli
fied.’
The Prophet said, ‘Place
fingers on your eyes
And you won’t see the sun begin to rise,
One
fingertip can veil the moon at night––
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This is a sign God can conceal from sight:
The world gets covered by a single tip,
The sun can be eclipsed by just one slip.’
Keep quiet, watch the sea’s depths if you can,
God’s made that subject to the will of man
Like Salsabil and Zanjabil
*––both springs
Are ruled in heaven by the King of Kings;
And heaven’s streams are ruled by you and me,
Not forcefully but through the Lord’s decree:
We make them 
flow where we want them to go
3575
Like magic at a good magician’s show,
And, like my eyes’ streams, they’re in 
firm control
Of what sends out the tears –– my heart and soul;
If the heart wants, they’ll
flow towards a snake,
Or a much better route instead they’ll take,
The Prophet Mohammad and Zayd
217

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Or if it wants –– to what’s perceivable,
Or to veiled things that are invisible,
Or if it wants –– towards the Universal,
Or to contingents that are only temporal.
All outward senses are in 
flow this way,
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The heart’s decree these 
five pipes must obey:
When your heart tells them what it has in mind
All
five set off and drag their skirts behind,
Your hands and feet obey your heart’s command
Like Moses’s rod, held in his right hand:
If it’s the heart’s wish, legs will dance for it
Or
flee from loss to greater benefit,
And hands will bend their 
fingers to hold tight
A pen with which a book you then can write ––
Hands are controlled by one unseen inside,
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Which has arranged the body’s form outside ––
You’ll be a snake against your enemy
Or help your friend, if that’s the heart’s decree;
Or to a spoon with which to eat you’ll turn,
Or to a massive mace that weighs a ton.
How does the heart instruct them? How amazing!
This marvellous, hidden link we’re contemplating!
Perhaps King Solomon’s ring
* it can gain,
The outward senses’ yearning to restrain?
The outward senses it controls with ease,
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The inward ones too follow its decrees;
There are ten senses, seven organs too ––
Try counting what no words can show to you!
Since you’re like Solomon, heart, come and 
fling
On angels and the demons your famed ring;
If you’re free from deceit here in this land,
No demon then can steal it from your hand;
The universe will be ruled by your name
The way you rule your body, just the same.
But if a demon steals the seal from you,
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Your kingdom will be gone, your fortune too,
Then misery will be your destiny
Till