Rumi's Masnavi - When one sheep of the flock has jumped over a stream, then they all jump across on each other's heels.

When one sheep of the flock has jumped over a stream, then they all jump across on each other's heels.

چون ز جو جست از گله یک گوسفند ** پس پیاپی جمله ز آن سو بر جهند

Drive the sheep, thy senses, to pasture: let them browse on (the pasture indicated in the text)—He who hath brought forth the herbage,

گوسفندان حواست را بران ** در چرا از أخرج المرعی‏ چران‏

That there they may browse on hyacinth and wild-rose; that they may make their way to the garden of the Realities;

تا در آن جا سنبل و نسرین چرند ** تا به گلزار حقایق ره برند

(That) every sense of thine may become an apostle to the senses (of others), so that severally they may go towards that Paradise; 3245

هر حست پیغمبر حسها شود ** تا یکایک سوی آن جنت رود

(And then those) senses will tell their secret to thy senses, without the proper meaning, without tongue, and without metaphor;

حسها با حس تو گویند راز ** بی‏زبان و بی‏حقیقت بی‏مجاز

For this proper meaning admits of (different) interpretations, and this guesswork is the source of (vain) imaginings;

کاین حقیقت قابل تاویلهاست ** وین توهم مایه‏ی تخییلهاست‏

(But in the case of) that truth which is (perceived) from intuition, there is no room for any interpretation.

آن حقیقت را که باشد از عیان ** هیچ تاویلی نگنجد در میان‏

When every sense has become subject to thy sense, the heavenly spheres cannot avoid (obedience to) thee.

چون که هر حس بنده‏ی حس تو شد ** مر فلک‏ها را نباشد از تو بد

When a dispute takes place as to the ownership of the husk, the husk belongs to him who possesses the kernel. 3250

چون که دعویی رود در ملک پوست ** مغز آن کی بود قشر آن اوست‏

When there happens to be a quarrel about a load of straw, observe who is the owner of the grain.

چون تنازع در فتد در تنگ کاه ** دانه آن کیست آن را کن نگاه‏