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

The Jewish King’s Anti-Christian Fire
49

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Bright colours from the vat of purity
And ugly ones from brooks of cruelty:
The colouring by God
* is rated first,
770
The
filthiest is called what God has cursed;
All
flotsam on the sea must run its course
But in the end it goes back to its source,
Like rapid torrents in the peaks above
And human souls returning through their love.
The Jewish king makes a 
fire and places an idol next to it, saying
‘Whoever prostrates himself before this idol will escape the 
fire’
Now witness what that Jew tried to conspire,
He placed an idol right beside the 
fire,
Saying, ‘Bow down before this to be free
Or else you’ll burn in 
fire eternally!’
Not dealing with his own self ’s vile abuse
775
An idol form’s what he let it produce;
Such forms the mother of all idols makes:
Your dragon-self produces countless snakes!
Idols are sparks your 
flint-like self sends out,
Water is what you need to put them out,
But water can’t defeat that stubborn stone
So safety’s what no sel
fish man has known.
The idol is foul water in a bowl,
Its source is nothing but the carnal soul;
The idol is just like a 
filthy flood,
780
The self produces it like its own blood;
A stone can break a hundred cups and more,
But nothing stops the fount’s relentless pour:
To break an idol is an easy task,
To smash yourself is hard –– you need to ask?
To know the self ’s form, read what he dictates
Concerning hell
fire and hell’s seven gates:
Each moment there’s a plot, dear travellers,
Drowning more pharaohs with their followers
*––
To Moses and his God escape today,
785
Don’t spill faith’s water –– that’s the pharaoh’s way!
The Jewish King’s Anti-Christian Fire
50

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Cling to the Prophet and his God, take pride,
Your body’s ignorant, cast it aside!
A child begins to talk from inside the 
fire, urging people
to throw themselves into it
This Jew then brought a woman with her child
Before the idol while the 
flames grew wild,
Then grabbed her child and quickly threw it in
So she, in fear, would swap her faith for sin:
He wanted her now to bow down her head,
But then her child cried, ‘Stop, for 
I’m not dead!
I haven’t died, I’m happy, join me here!
790
It only looks like 
fire, so have no fear!
The
fire just blinds you to what’s really there:
God’s mercy which has come out of thin air.
Enter, and witness living proof of God,
The joy which makes His own élite applaud,
Come and see water that’s like 
fire, it’s true,
A world of 
fire which seems like water too!
And Abraham’s well-hidden mysteries:
*
Here he found jasmine and tall cypress trees.
When you gave birth to me I saw my tomb ––
795
How much I feared I’d fall down from your womb!
Once born I 
fled the confines of that cage
To fresh air and a bigger, brighter stage.
But now that world seems like a womb to me
For in this 
fire I’ve found serenity:
I’ve seen a world without a trace of death,
All atoms here have Jesus’s pure breath,
*
A world that’s dead in form, but lives in essence,
While that world lives in form, the realm of transience.
Enter, for every mother has the right,
800
You’ll see it has no 
flames though it shines bright!
Enter, for all good fortune’s found in here,
This opportunity will disappear!
You’ve seen the might of tyrants who are base,
Now come and see the power of God’s grace!