Pada Mu jua...

The most powerful of attractors

The belly attracts bread to its resting-place;

the heat of the liver attracts water.

The eye is an attractor of beautiful persons

from these different quarters of town;

the nose is attracting scents from the garden,

while the sense of sight is an attractor of color,

and the brain and nose attract sweet perfumes.

O Lord who knows the secret, preserve us

from these attractions by the attraction of Your grace!

You, Owner of everything, are the most powerful of attractors:

it would be fitting if You would redeem the helpless.

Mathnawi VI: 2901-2905

Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski

"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"

Threshold Books, 1996

A Rare Event

(HAQQ - by Samir Malik)

If anybody goes traveling without a guide,
every two day's journey
becomes a journey of a hundred years.

The one who takes up a profession
without having had a teacher
becomes a laughing-stock,
no matter where he lives.

Except perhaps for a single occurrence,
in all the world, is a descendant of Adam
ever born without parents?

The one who earns gains wealth;
it's a rare event
to find a buried treasure.

Mathnawi III: 588; 590-592
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996