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

The parrot hears about the actions of those other parrots and
then dies in her cage, so the owner laments for her
About the other birds when she was told
His parrot trembled, fell, was knocked out cold,
On seeing her fall like the one before
The merchant leapt, his cap fell on the 
floor;
The Escape of the Merchant’s Parrot
105

---

When he saw her look like she’d nearly died
He tore his jacket open, and then cried,
‘O darling parrot, sweeter than a kiss,
What’s happened to you, why are you like this?
My sweet-voiced bird, please say it’s not the end!
1705
Alas, my con
fidante and closest friend!
My parrot had a singing voice so 
fine
And smelt like basil, she was my soul’s wine!
If Solomon had had a bird so rare
He’d have forgotten all the rest, I swear!
Alas, this bird for whom I didn’t pay,
Which led me then to easily turn away.
O tongue, you hurt so many everywhere,
Since you keep talking what can I declare!
O tongue, you’re like both 
fire and stacks of hay;
1710
How long will you set them alight this way?
The soul mourns secretly because of you
Although it does the things you tell it to,
But you are treasure too which will endure
As well as pain for which there is no cure;
Just like the hunter’s whistle you deceive,
But then console the trapped birds when they grieve ––
How long will you keep o
ffering sanctuary,
You who, in hatred, draw your bow at me!
You’ve made my bird 
fly off due to distrust,
1715
Stop acting like you’re born to be unjust!
Please answer me or let me have redress
Or give me reasons to feel happiness!
Alas, that light which burnt the dark away,
Alas the dawn that brightened every day:
Alas that bird which 
flew so beautifully,
From one end to the other deep in me!
Until the end, heart, sing my love-sick grief:
“
I swear” until “in hardship”, for relief !
*
I
fled from pain through love of your kind face,
1720
Then, in your stream, of scum I felt no trace!
I cry, imagining you in the distance
While cut o
ff from my blissful past existence;
The Escape of the Merchant’s Parrot
106

---

God’s jealousy’s
* the cause––what can one do!
Which heart by His love wasn’t torn in two!
Since He’s alone, beyond all other things,
Our explanations and our mutterings,
Would that my tears were waves of a vast sea
That spray on my beloved constantly.
My parrot was a most perceptive bird,
1725
Translator of my thoughts that were unheard:
My lot and what would be held back as well
Right from the very start she could foretell.’
That bird’s voice came from revelation’s source,
Her birth before existence took its course,
Inside one this true parrot is concealed,
Through her re
flection everything’s revealed,
She takes away your joy, but you don’t care,
You even swear her tyranny is fair!
Lighting your spirit for your body’s sake ––
1730
You’ve burnt your spirit, now the rest must bake:
I am on 
fire, get tinder here for free,
So you can set your scraps alight through me!
For setting things on 
fire since tinder’s fit
Come, take this tinder which is easily lit!
It’s such a shame that ravishing full moon
Was clouded over by the fog so soon!
How can I speak now that my heart’s ablaze:
My exile’s lion’s hungry, in a daze ––
When sober violent, and when drunk he’s mad,
1735
Picture him after all the wine he’s had;
The drunken lion is beyond all words,
Too big for pastures which can hold vast herds!
I think of rhymes, but the Beloved says:
‘Just for my face reserve your constant gaze!
Sit comfortably my rhyme-enthusiast,
To me you rhyme with fortune that will last.