Quatrain 5

RubāʿīIraqi style
English

Quatrain 5

The heart is slipping away, and there's no sewing the eyes shut to stop it; when there's no true piety inside you, you can't peddle a fake show of it. It wasn't the candle that burned the helpless moth; the one who truly burned was the very love that kept the candle lit.
Explanation: The moth and candle are a classic Persian image of the lover consumed by the beloved. Here the poet reverses it: the real burning belongs to the love itself.

Original · Persian

رباعی شمارهٔ ۵

دل می‌رود و دیده نمی‌شاید دوخت چون زهد نباشد نتوان زرق فروخت
پروانهٔ مستمند را شمع نسوخت آن سوخت که شمع را چنین می‌افروخت