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

a gap they don’t encroach upon:
The men of 
fire and those of light He’s mixed
Although Mount Qaf between them He has 
fixed,
The Poor Bedouin and his Wife
158

---

Like in a mine He’s mixed plain soil with gold
Though for such di
fferent prices they’ll be sold,
Like necklaces of pearl and cheap black stone:
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Strange fellow guests who’ll soon depart alone.
Half of the sea tastes sweet and sugary,
Bright like the moon, as clear as it can be,
The other half’s like bitter venom, which
As well as tasting foul is black as pitch;
They crash against each other as waves do,
As if one sea not forced apart as two:
Con
finement makes forms clash within its cell,
Souls thus are mixed in peace and war as well:
The waves of peace collide with wondrous might,
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Uprooting from men’s breasts all hate and spite.
The waves of war though take a di
fferent form,
Inverting our loves like a thunder storm:
Love draws the bitter to the sweet by force
For love is rightly guided by its source.
Wrath drags the sweet to bitterness, but how
Can bitterness suit sweetness –– tell me now!
Bitter and sweet are not seen by your sight,
Only the furthest window sheds such light.
The eye that sees the end sees properly,
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While seeing just this world’s delusory;
Many things look like sugar but are not,
Like poison hidden in the sugar pot!
The wiser ones detect it by its smell,
Some after they have tasted it as well:
Their lips reject it thus before their throats
Although the devil bellows, ‘Eat!’ and gloats!
Another through his throat knows he’ll be ill,
The next once it has travelled further still,
Another feels it burning when he shits ––
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The pain will crush his liver now to bits!
The next one after several months perceives,
Another, after dying, 
finally grieves––
If in the grave he 
finds respite, then he
On Resurrection Day will 
finally see.
The Poor Bedouin and his Wife
159

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Each sugar cube in this world too receives
Its own allotted time before it leaves,
Rubies need years beneath the sun’s pure light
To purify their hue and shine so bright;
In just two months though garden herbs may grow,
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To bloom a red rose needs a year or so ––
This is why God explained in the Koran
He’s given an appointed time to Man ––
If you have heard your hairs will all stick up,
Water of Life
* He’s poured into your cup:
Call this the Draught of Life
* and not mere speech––
In an old word new spirit is in reach.
Now listen to a further point, my friend,
Clear as the soul but hard to comprehend:
At one stage on this path snake venom changes
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To wholesome food –– it’s God that rearranges:
Poison can be a drug that brings relief
And lawful things there are here unbelief,
Things harmful to the soul in that pure sphere
Can be a remedy when they’re down here:
Unripe grapes are too sour for us to eat
But when those same grapes ripen, they taste sweet:
As wine it’s bitter and prohibited
But vinegar’s use is unlimited.
Concerning the fact that the disciple should not be arrogant and do
the same thing as the saint does, for halva does not harm the doctor
but does harm the sick patient, and the snow and the cold does not
harm ripe grapes but does harm unripe grapes, for they are still on
the way to ‘That God may forgive you your past and future sins’
*
If saints drink poison it becomes a cure,
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If novices drink they become impure.
‘