WOULD THAT YOU COULD
KNOW YOURSELF...

Would that you could know yourself for a time!
Would that you would see a sign of your own beautiful face!
You would go to the house of joy of all lovely spirits.
You would travel to your every far corner to make yourself manifest,
for Hidden Treasure has remained concealed within you!
Were you only this body, you would have no news of the spirit;
were you only this spirit, you would rest happily within it.
Like others you would make do with good and evil,
you would manage with this and that,
if, that is, you were only this and that.
Were you only one stew, you would have a single flavor;
were you only one pot, you would boil in just one way.
Were you to be purified of this churning agitation,
you would reside on top of the heavens like those who are pure.
To every image of your own imagination you say,
"Oh, my spirit, my world!"
Were these images to disappear, you yourself would be the spirit and the world.
Enough, for your words have become intellect's shackle!
If not for words, you would be nothing but a tongue like the Universal Intellect.
Enough, for knowledge is a veil upon knowledge.
If you knew that you are the King, why would you remain the interpreter?

---

"The Sufi Path of Love - The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi,"
William C. Chittick, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1983

LUMINARIES