[Sunlight] "Never to be freed again"

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Serve God, so by chance you may become a lover:
devoted service is a means toward Love.
The servant desires to be freed from fate,
but God's lover wishes never to be freed again.
Some servants seek benefits and robes of honor;
the lover's robe of honor is vision of the Beloved.
Not contained by speech or hearing,
Love is an ocean whose depth cannot be seen.
The drops of this Sea are innumerable:
in comparison all Seven Seas disappear.

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Bandegi kon tâ shavi `âsheq la`all
bandegi kasbist âyad dar `amal
Bandeh âzâdi tama` dârad ze jadd
`âsheq âzâdi na-khvâhad tâ abad
Bandeh dâyem khel`at o edrâr just
khel`at-e `âsheq hameh didâr-e Dust
Dar na-ganjad `Eshq dar goft o shenid
`Eshq daryâyist qa`resh nâ-padid
Qatr-hâ-ye Bahr-râ na-tavân shomard
Haft Daryâ pish-e ân Bahrast khord

-- Mathnawi V :2728-2732
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

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[Sunlight] "Never to be freed again"