Rumi's Masnavi - The countenance whose splendour was moon-like becomes with old age like the back of the Libyan lizard;

The countenance whose splendour was moon-like becomes with old age like the back of the Libyan lizard;

And the fair head and crown (of the head) that once were radiant become ugly and bald at the time of eld;

And the tall proud figure, piercing the ranks like a spear-point, in old age is bent double like a bow. 970

The colour of red anemone becomes the colour of saffron; his lion-like strength becomes as the courage of women.

He that used to grip a man in his arms by skill (in wrestling), (now) they take hold of his arms (to support him) at the time of departure.

Truly these are marks of pain and decay: every one of them is a messenger of death.

Commentary on “The lowest of the low, except those who have believed and wrought good works; for they shall have a reward that is not cut off.”

But if his physician be the Light of God, there is no loss or crushing blow (that he will suffer) from old age and fever.

His weakness is like the weakness of the intoxicated, for in his weakness he is the envy of a Rustam. 975

If he die, his bones are drowned in (spiritual) savour; every mote of him is (floating) in the beams of the light of love-desire.

And he who hath not that (Light) is an orchard without fruit, which the autumn brings to ruin.

The roses remain not; (only) the black thorns remain: it becomes pale and pithless like a heap of straw.

O God, I wonder what fault did that orchard commit, that these (beautiful) robes should be stripped from it.

“It paid regard to itself, and self-regard is a deadly poison. Beware, O thou who art put to the trial!” 980

The minion for love of whom the world wept—the world (now) is repulsing him from itself: what is (his) crime?

“The crime is that he put on a borrowed adornment and pretended that these robes were his own property.

We take them back, in order that he may know for sure that the stack is Ours and the fair ones are (only) gleaners;

That he may know that those robes were a loan: ’twas a ray from the Sun of Being.”

(All) that beauty and power and virtue and knowledge have journeyed hither from the Sun of Excellence. 985

They, the light of that Sun, turn back again, like the stars, from these (bodily) walls.

(When) the Sunbeam has gone home, every wall is left dark and black.

That which made thee amazed at the faces of the fair is the Light of the Sun (reflected) from the three-coloured glass.

The glasses of diverse hue cause that Light to seem coloured like this to us.

When the many-coloured glasses are no more, then the colourless Light makes thee amazed. 990

Make it thy habit to behold the Light without the glass, in order that when the glass is shattered there may not be blindness (in thee).

Thou art content with knowledge learned (from others): thou hast lit thine eye at another's lamp.