Mystic's message

Heart,

Sit at the foot of one who understands hearts

Rest beneath the tree whose branches bud fresh

Don’t wander all around the market of perfumes

Sit in the stall of him who has a stash of sugar

You’ll be swindled by every seller –

Without a scale to take their measure

You’ll mistake the gilded slug for golden render

They’ll make you sit inside the shop

Sweetly promising “Just one moment, please”

Don’t sit there waiting,

There’s another door goes out the back

Don’t wait with bowl in hand for every pot to boil

What stews in every pot is not the same.

Not every cane-cut pen drips with sugar

Not every under has an above

Not every eye’s possessed of vision

Not every sea conceals a pearl

Sing your little heart out, nightingale

For your famed intoxicated lamentation

Echoes and transmutes the stony hills and granite boulders

If your head cannot contain you – lose it

You can’t pass through the needle’s eye a knotty thread

The awakened heart’s a lamp

Cloak it from contrary airs beneath your mantle

For the windy air will do it harm.

Pass beyond the winds and reach the spring

Become a secret confidant, welling with emotions

And then like a green tree you will swell with sap

And come to fruition as it courses through your heart.

- Maulana Jalal al-Din Rumi