Two Wings

Observe the qualities of expansion and contraction
in the fingers of your hand:
surely after the closing of the fist comes the opening.
If the fingers were always closed or always open. the owner would be crippled.
Your movement is governed by these two qualities:
they are as necessary to you
as two wings are to a bird.

—MATHNAWI III, 3762–66

TheBeauty

For lovers, the only lecturer
is the beauty of the Beloved:
their only book and lecture and lesson is the Face.
Outwardly they are silent, but their penetrating remembrance rises
to the high throne of their Friend.
Their only lesson
is enthusiasm, whirling, and trembling,
not the precise points of law.

—MATHNAWI III, 3847–49

Become More by Dying

O my noble friends, slaughter this cow,
if you wish to raise up the spirit of insight.
I died to being mineral and was transformed.
I died to vegetable growth
and attained to the state of animals.
I died from animality and became Adam:
why then should I fear?
When have I become less by dying?
Next I shall die to being a human being,
so that I may soar and lift up my head among the angels.
Yet I must escape even from that angelic state:
everything is perishing except His Face.
Once again I shall be sacrificed, dying to the angelic;
I shall become that which could never be imagined —
I shall become nonexistent.
Nonexistence sings its clear melody,
Truly, unto Him shall we return!

—MATHNAWI III, 3900–06