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Masnavi III, 1616-19
Just as staying at home is easy for some,
traveling comes easy to others.
Each of us was made for some particular work,
and the desire for that work has been placed in our hearts.
How should hand and foot be set in motion without desire?
If you see your desire leading toward Heaven,
unfold your wings to claim it;
but if you see your desire bends to the earth,
keep lamenting.
The wise weep in the beginning;
the foolish beat their heads at the end.
Discern the end from the beginning
so that you may not be repenting
when the Day of Reckoning arrives.
Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance, Threshold Books, 1996
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski from
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra
Love for Certain Work
Traveling is as refreshing for some
as staying at home is for others.
Solitude in a mountain place
fills with companionship for this one,
and dead-weariness for that one.
This person loves being in charge
of the workings of a community.
This one loves the ways that heated iron
can be shaped with a hammer.
Each has been given a strong desire
for certain work. A love for those motions,
and all motion is love.
The way sticks and pieces of dead grass
and leaves shift about in the wind
and with the direction of rain and
puddle-water on the ground,
those motions are all a following
of the love they’ve been given.
Version by Coleman Barks
Rumi: One-Handed Basket Weaving
Maypop, 1991
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