"All that beauty, power, virtue, and excellence"

The servant for whom the world lovingly wept
the world now rejects: what did he do wrong?
His crime was that he put on borrowed clothes
and pretended he owned them.
We take them back, in order that he may know for sure
that the stock is Ours and the well-dressed are only borrowers;
that he may know that those robes were a loan,
a ray from the Sun of Being.
All that beauty, power, virtue, and excellence
have arrived here from the Sun of Excellence.
They, the light of that Sun, turn back again,
like the stars, from these bodily walls.
When the Sunbeam has returned home,
every wall is left darkened and black.
That which amazed you in the faces of the fair
is the Light of the Sun reflected in the three-colored glass.
The glasses of diverse hue cause the Light to appear colored to us.
When the many-colored glasses are no more,
then the colorless Light amazes you.
Make it your habit to behold the Light without the glass,
so that when the glass is shattered you may not be left blind.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shâhedi kaz `eshq-e u `âlam geryest
`âlamesh mi-rânad az khvod jorm chist
Jorm ânke zoyur-e `âriyeh bast
kard da`vâ kin holal melk-e manast
Vâ satânim ân keh tâ dânad yaqin
kharman ân-e Mâst khubân dâneh chin
Tâ be-dânad k-ân holal `âriyeh bud
partavi bud ân ze Khvorshid-e Vojud
n jamâl o qodrat o faazl o hona
ze ftâb-e Hosn kard in su safar
Bâz mi gardand chon estâr-hâ
nur-e ân Khvorshid zin divâr-hâ
Partaw-e khvorshid shod vâ jâyegâh
mând har divâr târik o siyâh
nke kard u dar rokh-e khubânet dang
Nur-e Khvorshidast az shisheh-ye seh rang
Chon na-mând shisheh-hâ-ye rang rang
Nur bi ranget konad ângâh dang
Khui kon bi shisheh didan Nur-râ
tâ cho shisheh be-shekanad na-bovad ghamâ

-- Mathnawi V: 981-991
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyل Monastra)

The media:
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"All that beauty, power, virtue, and excellence"