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

The Prophet Mohammad and Zayd
220

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Where’s hope and fear when you’re beyond the screen,
Might and strong rule await in the unseen.
A youth sat by a stream once with this thought:
‘That 
fisherman is Solomon, is he not?
If so, why’s he alone and in disguise?
If not, why does he seem so to my eyes?’
Like this, in two minds, he was wondering
Till Solomon emerged as their own king;
From his great kingdom then the devil 
fled,
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Solomon’s fortune’s sword left him for dead,
For he wore on his 
finger the famed ring;
Devils and fairies were seen gathering,
Men came as well in order just to see,
Including that youth with the fantasy ––
Once he had seen the ring that his king wore,
This wiped out what he’d thought about before.
We have such doubts when something is not here,
We guess the qebla
* when it is unclear,
Thoughts of the one who’s absent 
fill one’s breast,
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But when he’s present they are laid to rest;
And if the radiant sky does not lack rain,
Plants keep on growing in the fertile plain.
Believers in what is unseen
* to be,
Shutter the windows of the world you see.
If I should split the sky now in plain view,
How can I ask, ‘
Does it look cracked to you?’
*
To 
find the qebla in the dark men face
All angles, each from his own starting-place.
Things seem reversed like this for a short time:
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The thief will try the judge now for a crime,
The sultans and high-ranking men as well
Are slaves of their own servants for a spell.
Serving in absence is so laudable
Like keeping faith in what’s invisible,
For those who praise the king while in his presence
Fall short still of those humble in his absence:
The governor at the empire’s furthest end,
Far from the capital, will still not bend;
The Prophet Mohammad and Zayd
221

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He guards his garrison from enemies
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And won’t sell out for treasures vast as seas ––
Out on the furthest frontier, far away,
He’s loyal like those with the king today;
He’s better in the king’s own eyes than those
Who sacri
fice themselves just when he knows:
Ful
filling one small duty thus in absence
Is better than a thousand in his presence:
Faith and obedience, though now praiseworthy,
Become void after death when truth you’ll see.
Since absent and veiled things thus seem the best,
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Seal up your lips –– don’t make things manifest!
Brother, refrain from talking! Don’t you know
Much hidden knowledge God will soon bestow;
The sun’s best witness is its own bright face:
Who’s the best witness? God, in every case!
No! I will speak, since God, the angels too,
And others who know are all telling you ––
God, angels, and those who have certainty,
God is the one who lives eternally.
But who are angels when God’s testi
fied
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To also now bear witness on his side!
Weak eyes and hearts don’t have the strength to bear
The radiant presence of the sun up there,
They’re just like bats that cannot bear the sun
And so they give up hope it can be done;
The angels help us, so please realize
They manifest the sun’s rays in the skies;
We’ve gained this radiance from the sun, so we
Share it with weak men like a deputy.
Like di
fferent phases of the moon at night
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Each angel has its own true worth and might
And di
fferent wings of light––some four, some three*––
Each angel to a di
fferent degree,
Just like the human intellect’s own wings,
From those of fools to those of learned kings.
Each has an angel as associate,
The one that is the most appropriate,