Rumi's Masnavi - He said: “Beware, O ye enslaved by words and talk, ye who seek admonition and discourse (conveyed) by the tongue and (through the) ear.

He said: “Beware, O ye enslaved by words and talk, ye who seek admonition and discourse (conveyed) by the tongue and (through the) ear. 565

گفت هان ای سخرگان گفت‌‌وگو ** وعظ و گفتار زبان و گوش جو

Put cotton-wool in the ear of the low (physical) sense, take off the bandage of (that) sense from your eyes!

پنبه اندر گوش حس دون کنید ** بند حس از چشم خود بیرون کنید

The ear of the head is the cotton-wool of the ear of the conscience: until the former becomes deaf, that inward (ear) is deaf.

پنبه‌‌ی آن گوش سر گوش سر است ** تا نگردد این کر آن باطن کر است‌‌

Become without sense and without ear and without thought, that ye may hear the call (of God to the soul), ‘Return!’”

بی‌‌حس و بی‌‌گوش و بی‌‌فکرت شوید ** تا خطاب ارجعی را بشنوید

So long as thou art (engaged) in the conversation of wakefulness, how wilt thou catch any scent of the conversation of sleep?

تا به گفت‌‌وگوی بیداری دری ** تو ز گفت خواب بویی کی بری‌‌

Our speech and action is the exterior journey: the interior journey is above the sky. 570

سیر بیرونی است قول و فعل ما ** سیر باطن هست بالای سما

The (physical) sense saw (only) dryness, because it was born of dryness (earth): the Jesus of the spirit set foot on the sea.

حس خشکی دید کز خشکی بزاد ** عیسی جان پای بر دریا نهاد

The journey of the dry body befell on dry land, (but) the journey of the spirit set foot (took place) in the heart of the sea.

سیر جسم خشک بر خشکی فتاد ** سیر جان پا در دل دریا نهاد

Since thy life has passed in travelling on land, now mountain, now river, now desert,

چون که عمر اندر ره خشکی گذشت ** گاه کوه و گاه صحرا گاه دشت‌‌

Whence wilt thou gain the Water of Life? Where wilt thou cleave the waves of the Sea?

آب حیوان از کجا خواهی تو یافت ** موج دریا را کجا خواهی شکافت‌‌