"Which of them is the fairest?"

A beloved said to her lover,
"O youth, you've visited many cities,
which of them is the fairest?"
He replied, "The city where my sweetheart is."
Wherever the carpet is spread for our King,
there is the spacious plain,
even though it be as narrow as the eye of a needle.
Wherever a Joseph radiant as the moon may be,
Paradise is there, even though it be the bottom of a well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~

Goft ma`shuqi be-`âsheq k-ay fatâ
to be-ghorbat dideh-'i bas shahr-hâ
Pas kodâmin shahr ze ân-hâ khvoshtarast
goft ân shahri keh dar vay delbarast
Har kojâ bâshad shah-e mâ-râ besât
hast sahrâ gar bovad samm al-khiyât
Mar kojâ keh Yusofi bâshad cho mâh
Jannatast archeh keh bâshad qa`r-e châh

-- Mathnawi III: 3808-3811
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyل Monastra

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"Which of them is the fairest?"