Two Quatrains By Rumi

1784UT


How cruel to play a tanboor for the deaf,
to lodge Joseph with the blind,
to put sugar in the mouth of nausea
or a nymph in the bed of impotence.




1082AK


For a while I dwelt among men,
never catching scent of grace or tint of kindness.
So I made myself hidden again,
water in iron, fire in stone.