[Sunlight] Fix your eye on the holder, not on that which is held

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The spirit is like an ant, and the body like a grain of wheat
which the ant carries to and fro continually.
The ant knows that the grains of which it has taken charge
will change and become assimilated.
One ant picks up a grain of barley on the road;
another ant picks up a grain of wheat and runs away.
The barley doesn't hurry to the wheat,
but the ant comes to the ant, yes it does.
The going of the barley to the wheat is merely consequential:
it's the ant that returns to its own kind.
Don't say, "Why did the wheat go to the barley?"
Fix your eye on the holder, not on that which is held.
As when a black ant moves along on a black felt cloth:
the ant is hidden from view; only the grain is visible on its way.
But Reason says: "Look well to your eye:
when does a grain ever move along without a carrier?"


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Jân cho mur va tan cho dâneh-ye gandomi
mi keshânad su be-suvish har dami

Mur dânad k-ân hobub-e mortahan
mostahil o jens-e man khvâhad shodan

n yeki muri gereft az râh jaw
mur-e digar gandomi be-gereft o daw
Jaw su-e gandom na-mi tâzad vali
mur su-ye mur mi âyad bali
Raftan-e jaw su-ye gandom tâbe`ast
mur-râ bin keh be-jensesh râje`ast
To ma-gu "Gandom cherâ shod su-ye jaw"
cheshm-râ bar khasm neh ni bar geraw
Mur-e asvad bar sar-e lebd-e siyâh
mur penhân dâneh paydâ pish-e râh
`Aql guyad "Cheshm-râ niku negar
dâneh hargez kay ravad bi dâneh-bar"


-- Mathnawi VI: 2955-2962
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra


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[Sunlight] Fix your eye on the holder, not on that which is held