Which of Them is Fairest?

Which of Them is The Fairest?

A beloved said to her lover,
"O youth, you've visited many cities,
which of them is the fairest?"
He replied, "The city where my sweetheart is."
Wherever the carpet is spread for our King,
there is the spacious plain,
even though it be as narrow as the eye of a needle.
Wherever a Joseph radiant as the moon may be,
Paradise is there,

even though it be the bottom of a well.

``````

-- Mathnawi III: 3808-3811
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996

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