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| (Image credit : DEVIANT ART) |
Hope is the deaf man who has often heard of our dying,
but hasn't heard of his own death or contemplated his own end.
but hasn't heard of his own death or contemplated his own end.
The blind man is Greed: he sees the faults of others,
hair by hair, and broadcasts them from street to street,
but of his own faults his blind eyes perceive nothing.
The naked man fears his cloak will be pulled off,
but how could anyone take the cloak of one who is naked?
The worldly man is destitute and terrified:
he possesses nothing, yet he dreads thieves.
When death comes, everyone around him is lamenting,
while his own spirit begins to laugh at his fear.
At that moment the rich man knows he has no gold,
and the keen-witted man sees that talent does not belong to him.
Mathnawi III:2628-2635
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
