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

The Old Harpist
125

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He said, ‘This then is why the Lord made plain
To your pure eyes the special, hidden rain:
That rain did not come from those clouds, my love,
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Other clouds 
float in different skies above.’
Commentary on the verse of Hakim Sana’i:
*
Other skies found beyond, up with the soul,
Command our own skies in their earthly role,
And ups and downs obstruct the spirit’s way
Like mountains and deep seas to cross each day.
Some other clouds and rain far from your view
Exist in the unseen, and more suns too,
Just His élite see this manifestation,
The rest 
feel doubt as to a new creation.
*
Rain nurtures with its fresh, reviving spray,
But also causes ruin and decay:
The rain in spring is great, it makes things grow,
Autumnal rain is like a fever though:
The former nurtures tenderly like breath,
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The latter makes things sick and pale as death;
The wind and sun are just like this as well ––
Find the point of their di
fferences, then tell!
In the unseen too there’s variety
While here there’s barter, fraud, and usury!
From that spring comes each breath the saints emit,
Inside one’s heart a garden grows from it,
Spring rain’s e
ffect, enabling trees to live,
Is found too in the grace their breath can give.
If there’s a tree that looks as dry as sand,
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Don’t blame the wind which helps each soul expand:
The wind 
first did its work, then moved ahead,
Those who had souls chose by it to be led.
The Old Harpist
126

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Concerning the meaning of the hadith: ‘Take advantage of the
coolness of the spring’
The Prophet told his friends once, ‘Please beware,
Don’t cover up yourself against spring air,
Because your soul will gain from that pure breeze
Which does to it what spring does to the trees,
But you must 
flee autumnal cold instead
For it will leave you like these gardens –– dead!’
Transmitters brought us just the form outside
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And simply with that they were satis
fied,
So unaware that there’s a soul to win ––
They saw the mountain, not the mine within.
For God, the carnal soul’s lust is autumnal,
Wisdom and heart spring’s essence, thus eternal;
Your clever reasoning hides like a cheat,
Seek one whose intellect’s divine, complete;
Through his, your intellect may end up whole,
That intellect restrains your carnal soul.
Here’s the interpretation put in brief:
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Pure breaths, like spring, breathe life in every leaf.
Don’t close your ears to what the saints report,
Soft words or harsh, for they’re your faith’s support,
Embrace with joy warm words and cold as well
Till you escape from 
fickleness and hell––
They’re both life’s spring, the source of all that’s good,
Knowledge, sincerity, and servanthood,
Because the spirit’s garden lives through Him
The heart’s sea’s
filled with pearls up to the brim;
A wise man’s heart is 
filled with endless grief
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If his heart’s garden misses just one leaf.
Aisha asks the Prophet, ‘What was the inner meaning
of today’s rain?’
Aisha then asked, ‘Dear Prophet, please convey
To me the wisdom of the rain today:
The Old Harpist
127

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Was this the cleansing rain of clemency
Or wrathful justice from divinity,
A gift of kindness from the pure spring breeze,
Or one of harmful autumn’s qualities?’
He said, ‘This was to heal the misery
Which has a
fflicted Adam’s progeny:
If Man were to remain inside that 
fire
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The rate of loss and ruin would soar higher,
The world would be destroyed at once no doubt,
Cupidity in men thus driven out.’
The pillar of this world is heedlessness,
This world sees as a curse pure thoughtfulness:
It comes from that realm, when it dominates
This world is brought low by what it dictates;
This wisdom’s sunshine, greed is icy cold,
Wisdom’s fresh water, this world’s foul and old,
From that world gentle sprinklings always pour
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So lust and envy here shall live no more,
If such rains that are hidden should increase
Both vice and virtue in this world would cease.
This topic has no limit, let’s return
The outcome of the harpist’s tale to learn: