40
MATHNAWÍ, BOOK I
Do not come without shield against this adamant (keen blade),
for the sword is not ashamed of cutting.
For this cause I have put the sword in sheath, that none who misreads may read contrariwise (in a sense contrary to the true meaning of my words).
We come (now) to complete the tale and (speak) of the loyalty of the multitude of the righteous,
Who rose up after (the death of) this leader, demanding a vicar in his place.
The quarrel of the amirs concerning the succession.
One of those amirs advanced and went before that loyal- minded people.
"Behold," said he, "I am that man's vicar: I am the vicar of Jesus at the present time.
Look, this scroll is my proof that after him the vicarate belongs to me."
Another amír came forth from ambush: his pretension re- garding the vicegerency was the same;
He too produced a scroll from under his arm, so that in both (amirs) there arose the Jewish anger.
The rest of the amírs, one after another, drawing swords of keen mettle,
Each with a sword and a scroll in his hand, fell to combat like raging elephants.
Hundreds of thousands of Christians were slain, so that there were mounds of severed heads;
Blood flowed, on left and right, like a torrent; mountains of this dust (of battle) rose in the air.
The seeds of dissension which he (the vizier) had sown had become a calamity (cause of destruction) to their heads.
The walnuts (bodies) were broken, and those which had the kernel had, after being slain, a spirit pure and fair.
Slaughter and death which befalls the bodily frame is like breaking pomegranates and apples:
That which is sweet becomes pomegranate-syrup, and that which is rotten is naught but noise:
That which has reality is made manifest (after death), and that which is rotten is put to shame.
Go, strive after reality, O worshipper of form, inasmuch as reality is the wing on form's body.
Consort with the followers of reality, that you may both win the gift and be generous (in giving yourself up to God).
Beyond dispute, in this body the spirit devoid of reality is even as a wooden sword in the sheath:
Whilst it remains in the sheath, it is (apparently) valuable,