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Masnavi III, 2628-2637,2654
Know that hope is the deaf man who has (often) heard of our dying,
(but) has not heard of his own death or regarded his own decease.
The blind man is Greed: he sees other people's faults, hair by hair,
and tells them from street to street,
(But) his blind eyes do not perceive one mote of his own faults,
albeit he is a fault-finder.
The naked man is afraid that his skirt will be cut off: how should
they (anyone) cut off the skirt of a naked man?
The worldly man is destitute and terrified: he possesses nothing,
(yet) he has dread of thieves.
Bare he came and naked he goes, and (all the while) his heart is
bleeding with anxiety on account of the thief.
At the hour of death when a hundred lamentations are (being made)
beside him, his spirit begins to laugh at its own fear.
At that moment, the rich man knows that he has no gold; the
keen-witted man, too, knows that he is devoid of talent.
('Tis) like (as when) a child's lap (is) filled with potsherds, for he
(the child) is trembling for them, like the owner of riches.
If you take a piece away, he begins to weep; and if you give the piece
back to him, he begins to laugh.
This, this, is the soul of all the sciences -- that thou shouldst know
who thou shalt be on the Day of Judgment.
Translation and Commentary by Reynold A. Nicholson
Published and Distributed by The Trustees of
The "E.J.W. Gibb Memorial"
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