If you don’t catch the scent, don’t walk down this lane.
If you won’t undress, don’t enter this river.
This is the source of all directions.
Stay on your side, don’t come over here.
–Translated by Iraj Anvar and Anne Twitty in Say Nothing: Poems of Jalal al-Din Rumi in Persian and English.
Cross-posted on The Poetry in The Politics and The Politics in The Poetry.
