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