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

O Lord, we’ve erred!’
* He sighed with heart aflame,
‘We lost the way as soon as darkness came!’
So destiny can block the sun’s bright light,
Turn lions into mice because of fright.
If I don’t see a snare by God’s decree
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I’m not the 
first who can’t see destiny;
How a Hare Killed the Tyrannical Lion
79

---

Blest is the one who follows righteousness,
Who gives up all his power for lowliness:
If fate should dress you up in black like night
Still it will help you in your hardest plight;
If destiny should try to murder you
First it makes sure that you’ll be born anew;
If it waylays you, hurls you in a ditch,
A tent for you in heaven it will pitch:
By frightening you, know that He’s being kind,
1270
In His safe kingdom space for you He’ll
find,
This talk remains un
finished, but it’s late,
Now listen to the tale while I narrate:
The hare steps back from the lion when it approaches the well
The lion now approached the well they’d found
But saw the hare retreat and turn around:
‘Why is it you retreat, hare? what is wrong?
Don’t stop like that, come forward and be strong!’
The hare screamed, ‘Oh, my feet have 
fled from me!
My soul now trembles and desires to 
flee!
Can you not see my face has turned so pale?
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About my inner state it tells the tale.’
Since God has called the face ‘a tell-tale clue’
On this the mystic focuses his view,
Colour and scent like bells make you aware,
The horse’s neigh informs you that it’s there:
The sound of each thing thus gives it away,
A door’s creak di
ffers from a donkey’s bray;
The Prophet said, in judging people’s souls,
‘
A man stays hidden till his tongue unrolls.’
Complexion also shows what’s in your heart ––
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Have mercy on me, plant love that won’t part!
A bright complexion is your thanks’ applause,
A sickly one denies love and withdraws.
How a Hare Killed the Tyrannical Lion
80

---

I’ve faced the one who pulls limbs out of place
And saps all trace of life out of your face,
The one who breaks all things He goes inside,
Uprooting ancient trees, however wide,
That one who traps you, then declares it’s mate,
Man, beasts, and plants must follow His dictate;
Though these are small things, big things fall as well,
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Becoming pale, 
filled with a rotten smell.
The world now holds back, then shows thankfulness:
The blooming orchard once knew nakedness;
The sun which rises up with 
flames of fire
Then sinks head-
first when it can’t go up higher;
The stars shine while the lofty heavens turn
Each single moment they are caused to burn;
The beauty of the moon is cherished most,
But when it’s sick it looks more like a ghost;
The earth, as if through manners, keeps so still,
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But tremors make it shake as if it’s ill;
So many mountains through sheer agony
Were crushed to piles of dust so easily;
The air which was the soul’s associate,
Turned stale and sick when fate commanded it;
Water, the spirit’s kin, was sweet to taste,
But turned so bitter, left in pools of waste;
The
fire puffed up with pride its flaming head,
But soon the wind pronounced that ‘
it is dead’.
From turbulence that strikes the ocean tide
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You can detect the torment that’s inside;
The wheel of heaven in its search rotates
And thus acquires its children’s changing states:
First low, next in the middle, then up high,
Armies of bright stars decorate the sky.
Of elements like these you all consist,
To try to know their state you must persist,
Since all of these are 
filled with pain and grief
Of course you’re pale and thinner than a leaf,
Because of all these opposites in you
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Like earth and 
fire, the wind and water too.