The medicine of all intellects is just a picture of Love,
the faces of all sweethearts are but His veil.
You who are devoted to Love, turn your face toward your own face:
you have no kinsman but yourself, you who are distraught.
The faqir made a qiblah of his heart and began to pray:
The human being has nothing but that for which he labors.*
Before he heard any answer to his prayer
he had been praying many years.
He prayed intently without receiving any overt response,
but in secret from Divine grace he was hearing I am here.
Since that sickly man was always dancing without a tambourine,
in reliance upon the bounty of the Almighty Creator,
though neither a heavenly voice nor Divine messenger
was ever seen to be near,
yet the ear of his hope was filled with Here I am.
His hope was saying, without tongue, “Come!”
and that call was sweeping all weariness from within his heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tebb-e jomleh-ye ‘aql-hâ manqush-e Ust
Ru-ye jomleh-ye delbarân rupush-e Ust
Rui dar rui khod ârâ-ye ‘Eshq kish
Nist ay maftun torâ joz khvish khvish
Qebleh az del sâkht âmad dar do’â
Laysa lil-insân illâ mâ sa’â*
Pish az ân ku pâsokhi be-shenideh bud
Sâl-hâ andar do’â pichideh bud
Bi ejâbat bar do’â-hâ mi tanid
Az karam Labbayk-e penhân mi shenid
Chonkeh bi daff raqs mi kard ân ‘alil
Ze e’temâd-e jud-e Khallâq-e Jalil
Su-ye u nah hâtef o nah payk bud
Gush-e umidesh por az Labbayk bud
Bi zabân mi goft umidesh “Ta’âl”
Az delesh mi ruft ân da’vat malâl
*Âl ‘Imrân, 25
— Mathnawi VI: 1982-1989
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
“Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance”
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra
