Original content

English translation

A beautiful-faced youth was drawn by the lasso of devotion into the circle of the dervishes, and, like the center-point come to rest within the circle of the Sufis:

His face became the qibla of the God-seekers; from God they turned their own faces toward him. The loincloth-wearers, upon that sweet-spoken one, like flies upon sugar, thronged in excess.

Each one wanted him for himself alone and adorned himself to be accepted in the youth's sight, until at last, in this tug-of-war, discord fell among them and strife arose.

It is not far-fetched for lovers to come to blows with one another when they lay claim to the love of a single fair-faced beloved. When ardor sets the circumambulators of the Kaaba to a quick pace, there is room enough for them to jostle shoulder against shoulder.

The elder of the khanqah, who himself also had a cap of that same felt and at every moment bore witness upon himself in that claim, summoned the boy and drew forth the tongue of counsel: O esteemed son and pleasing youth! Do not mingle with everyone like milk and sugar, and do not let yourself be hung upon the rope of every base person's deceit. You are a mirror that reveals God; it would be a pity for you to unveil your face to every vagabond.

Do not at every instant surrender the reins into the hands of strangers; do not admit the common folk into the private seclusion. Your cheek is a mirror burnished to a shine; do not give the polished mirror over to rust.

When that sweet boy heard this counsel, it came bitter to him. Souring his face, he rose and, on some pretext, went out of the khanqah and did not return for several days. The elder and the disciples were brought to the point of death by the grief of his parting and cried out in the pain of his departure; with the diamond of their eyelashes they bored through the pearl of helplessness and distress, and with the tongue of need and the language of apology they said:

Come back, for no one holds any command over you, O boy; sit with whomever you wish, pass by whomever you wish. Though you are the deceiver of reason and the foe of religion, come back, for you are a solace to the broken heart. It is enough that you behold our affliction and suffering, that you sit with us if only for the sake of others.

That youth, having listened to the dervishes' apology, gave up his manner of harshness and returned to the company of those left alone and forsaken, sick with the sight of separation.

After four things, four things from the beloved are sweeter than ease: mercy after torment, union after separation and fidelity after discord, reconciliation after strife and contentment after reproach.