Page:The Mesnevī (Volume 2).pdf/40

 Since he became ugly and ill-favoured and sallow-cheeked, little by little he became cold (irksome and unpleasing) in her heart.

Those loves which are for the sake of a colour (outward beauty) are not love: in the end they are a disgrace.

Would that he too had been disgrace (deformity) altogether, so that that evil judgement might not have come to pass upon him!

Blood ran from his eye (that flowed with tears) like a river; his (handsome) face became the enemy of his life.

The peacock's plumage is its enemy: O many the king who hath been slain by his magnificence!

He said, "I am the muskdeer on account of whose gland that hunter shed my pure (innocent) blood.

Oh, I am the fox of the field whose head they (the hunters springing forth) from the covert cut off for the sake of the fur.

Oh, I am the elephant whose blood was shed by the blow of the mahout for the sake of the bone (ivory).

He who hath slain me for that which is other than I , does not he know that my blood sleepeth not (will not rest unavenged)?

To-day it lies on me and to-morrow it lies on him: when does the blood of one such as I am go to waste like this?

Although the wall casts a long shadow, (yet at last) the shadow turns back again towards it.

This world is the mountain, and our action the shout: the echo of the shouts comes (back) to us."

He said this and at the (same) moment went under the earth (gave up the ghost). The handmaiden was purged of pain and love,

Because love of the dead is not enduring, because the dead one is never coming (back) to us;

(But) love of the living is every moment fresher than a bud in the spirit and in the sight.

Choose the love of that Living One who is everlasting, who gives thee to drink of the wine that increases life.

Choose the love of Him from whose love all the prophets gained power and glory.

Do not say, "We have no admission to that King." Dealings with the generous are not difficult.