If anyone has eloquence, a listener draws it out:
the teacher's enthusiasm and energy
are derived from the child he teaches.
When the harpist who plays twenty-four musical modes
finds no ear to listen, his harp becomes a burden:
no song comes to mind, his ten fingers will not function.
If there were no ears to receive the message from the Unseen,
no prophet would have brought a revelation from Heaven.
And if there were no eyes to see the works of God,
neither would the sky have revolved,
nor would the earth have smiled with fertile greenness.
The declaration lawlâka** means this,
that the whole business of creation
is for the sake of the perceiving eye
and the one who sees.
**"But for you," referring to the Holy Tradition (hadith qudsi):
"But for you (O Muhammad) I would not have created the worlds."
"But for you (O Muhammad) I would not have created the worlds."
Mathnawi: VI: 1656-1661
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance
Threshold Books, 1996
