How do you know what birds we are or what we recite every
moment beneath our breath?
moment beneath our breath?
How can anyone bring us to hand? We are sometimes the
treasure, sometimes the ruins!
The heavens revolve for our sake - that is why we keep on
turning like a wheel.
How should we remain in this house? In this house we are
all guests.
Although in form we are beggars in the lane, behold our
attributes! Then you will know what sort of sultan we are!
Since tomorrow we will be king of all of Egypt, why should
we grieve if today we are imprisoned?
As long as we have been in this form, no one has troubled us,
nor have we troubled anyone.
When Shams-i Tabrizi becomes our guest, we are multiplied
hundreds of millions of times!
Ode 1767
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love - The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi"
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1983
