Rumi's Masnavi - Meanwhile a bare-headed dervish, clad in a jawlaq (coarse woollen frock), passed by, with a head hairless as the outside of bowl and basin.

Meanwhile a bare-headed dervish, clad in a jawlaq (coarse woollen frock), passed by, with a head hairless as the outside of bowl and basin.

جولقیی سر برهنه می‌‌گذشت ** با سر بی‌‌مو چو پشت طاس و طشت‌‌

Thereupon the parrot cried to the dervish, as rational persons (might have done). 260

طوطی اندر گفت آمد در زمان ** بانگ بر درویش زد که هی فلان‌‌

How were you mixed up with the bald, O baldpate? Did you, then, spill oil from the bottle?”

از چه ای کل با کلان آمیختی ** تو مگر از شیشه روغن ریختی‌‌

The bystanders laughed at the parrot's inference, because it deemed the wearer of the frock to be like itself.

از قیاسش خنده آمد خلق را ** کو چو خود پنداشت صاحب دلق را

Do not measure the actions of holy men by (the analogy of) yourself, though shér (lion) and shír (milk) are similar in writing.

کار پاکان را قیاس از خود مگیر ** گر چه ماند در نبشتن شیر و شیر

On this account the whole world is gone astray: scarcely any one is cognisant of God's Abdál (Substitutes).

جمله عالم زین سبب گمراه شد ** کم کسی ز ابدال حق آگاه شد

They set up (a claim of) equality with the prophets; they supposed the saints to be like themselves. 265

همسری با انبیا برداشتند ** اولیا را همچو خود پنداشتند

“Behold,” they said, “we are men, they are men; both we and they are in bondage to sleep and food.”

گفته اینک ما بشر ایشان بشر ** ما و ایشان بسته‌‌ی خوابیم و خور

In (their) blindness they did not perceive that there is an infinite difference between (them).

این ندانستند ایشان از عمی ** هست فرقی در میان بی‌‌منتها

Both species of zanbúr ate and drank from the (same) place, but from that one (the hornet) came a sting, and from this other (the bee) honey.

هر دو گون زنبور خوردند از محل ** لیک شد ز ان نیش و زین دیگر عسل‌‌