studying instead

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Randomly from "The Conference of the Birds" (Farid Ud-Din Attar)

 

"The world compared to a wax toy

 

Once someone asked a dervish to portray

The nature of this world in which we stray.

He said: "This various world is like a toy -

A colored palm-tree given to a boy,

But made of wax - now knead it in your fist,

And there's the wax of which its shapes consist;

The lovely forms and colors are undone,

What seemed many things is only one.

All things are one - there isn't any two;

It isn't me who speaks; it isn't you."

 

 

"A bird who burns with aspiration

 

'O hoopoe,' cried another of the birds,

'What lofty adour blazes from your words!

Although I seem despondent, weak, and lame,

I burn with aspiration's noble flame -

And though I'm not obedient I feel

My soul devoured by an insatiate zeal.'

 

The hoopoe answers him

 

The hoopoe said: "This strange magnetic force

That holds God's ancient lovers to their course

Still shows the Truth: if you will but aspire

You will attain to all that you desire.

Before an atom of such the sun

Seems dim and murky by comparison -

It is life's strength, the wings by which we fly

Beyond the reaches of the sky."