You Who Are in Love With Your Intellect

You who are in love with your intellect—
considering yourself superior to worshipers of form—
that intellect is a beam
of Universal Intellect cast upon your senses;
regard it as gilded gold upon your copper.

Ay keh to ham `âsheqe bar `aql-e khvish
khvish bar surat-parastân dideh bish
Partaw-e `Aqlast ân bar hess-e to
`âriyat-e maydân-e zahab bar mess-e to

-- Mathnawi II: 710-711
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

Offered for you, by Sunlight