"A form corresponding to its nature"

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When you have eaten too much honey,
it causes you a fever, not someone else;
your day's wages aren't given to someone else at day's end.
What work have you done
without its returning to you in some form?
What seed have you sown
without the produce coming back to you?
Your own action born of your soul and body
clings to your skirt, like your own child.
In the unseen world that action
takes a form corresponding to its nature.

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Chon `asal khvordi niyâmad tab be-ghayr
mozd-e ruz-e to niyâmad shab be-ghayr
Dar cheh kardi jahd k-ân vâ to na-gasht
to cheh kâridi keh na-âmad ray`-e kasht
Fe`l-e to keh zâyad az jân o tanet
hamcho farzandet be-girad dâmanet
Fe`l-râ dar ghayb surat mi konand
fe`l-e dozdi-râ nah dâri mi-zanand

-- Mathnawi VI: 417-420
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

The media:

http://tinyurl.com/2w3pz4

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"A form corresponding to its nature"