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Masnavi III, 2202-07
The lion of destiny is dragging our souls,
preoccupied with the business of the world
into the jungles of death.
People fear poverty, plunged as they are up
to their necks in briny water.
If they feared the Creator of poverty,
treasures would reveal themselves.
Through fear of affliction, they sink into
the very essence of affliction:
in their quest for life in the world,
they have lost it.
Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance
Threshold Books, 1996
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
‘Tis as when a lion has suddenly come up and seized a man
and dragged him into the jungle.
At (the moment of) that carrying off, what will he think of?
Consider (this), and think of the same thing, O thou who are
learned in the (Mohammedan) Religion.
The lion, Destiny, is dragging into the jungles (of death) our
souls which are preoccupied with (worldly) business and trades.
That (case) is like (the fact) that the people (of this world)
have fear of poverty, plunged (as they are) up to their throats in
the briny water.
If they should fear the Creator of poverty, treasures would be
opened to them on the earth.
Through fear of affliction they all are in the very essence of
afflication: in their quest for (material) existence they have fallen
into non-existence.
The Mathnawi of Jalalu’ddin Rumi
Edited and Translated by Reynold A. Nicholson
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