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

the Lord has bought!
*
This jug has 
five spouts, for each sense, you see,
Preserve its water from impurity,
So to the sea the jug might 
find a way
And thus take on its nature too one day,
So to the sultan when you carry it
He’ll see it’s pure and we might bene
fit,
Then it will be a limitless fresh store ––
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Our jug will 
fill a hundred worlds and more!
Now block the spouts and 
fill it to the brim,
Lower your lustful gaze!
* Stay close to him!
‘What a great gift!’ he thought, so satis
fied,
‘This water would give any king such pride!’
The bedouin’s wife then was not aware
The Tigris, sweet as syrup, 
flows past there
Towards Baghdad just like an ocean’s tide,
With countless boats and 
fishing nets inside.
Head for the sultan, see this action –– go!
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Perceive this way 
beneath them rivers 
flow;*
Our sense perceptions are a drop, that’s all,
Compared with that pure river, they’re so small.
The bedouin’s wife sews a felt cover around the jug of rainwater and
puts a seal on it because of the strength of her husband’s conviction
The man said, ‘Yes, let’s cork the jug with care,
This o
ffering will bring wealth beyond compare;
Sew felt around it, so the sultan might
Decide to break his fast with it at night,
For nowhere else is water found so 
fine,
Which tastes delicious like a vintage wine;
From drinking salty water you will 
find
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That people there fall sick and end up blind.’
The Poor Bedouin and his Wife
167

---

A bird that lives in briny brooks can’t know
The places where the cleanest waters 
flow:
Those whose abode is in the briny spring
About the Tigris don’t know anything.
You who have not escaped your transiency
Can’t know e
ffacement, bliss and ecstasy––
Such things are passed from father down to son
For whom they’re like the alphabet to learn:
It’s clear for every child and not so arduous
2740
Although the meaning may not be so obvious.
He picked the jug up and went on his way,
Holding it next to him all night and day,
Shaking with fear it might be harmed by fate
As he walked on towards the city’s gate.
Meanwhile, his wife unrolled a rug for prayer,
‘
Lord help us!’ she appealed as she knelt there,
‘Protect our water from calamity,
Please let that pearl reach the majestic sea!
Although my husband has much sense and skill,
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The pearl has enemies that wish it ill.’
Pearls were all Kawsar’s waters to begin,
A drop of that is each pearl’s origin.
Through his wife’s supplications during prayer
And his determination to take care,
Safe from both theft and damage on the way
He took it to the court without delay.
A court 
filled with the best of things he found
Where needy men had spread their nets around:
Their needs are met each moment in that place,
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Through gifts, and robes of honour they 
find grace,
The Muslims, in
fidels, the fair, the hideous,
Like sun and rain, for all not just the virtuous.
He saw some being honoured, standing straight,
And then the next in line who had to wait,
From Solomon to ants, the 
first and last,
Revived as though they’d heard the 
final blast,*
The Poor Bedouin and his Wife
168

---

Those who seek form bedecked with jewellery,
Truth-seekers in Reality’s pure sea,
Those previously de
ficient gained endeavour
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While those who had it now received much favour.