I Am the Mirror

Lesson 323: I Am the Mirror

Without destroying me, how could He pour me this treasure?
He had to throw me to the waves for Love's Sea to sweep me away.
What can the man of words guess of the sweetness of silence?
What can the arid heart know of always-flowing freshness?
I am the mirror, I am the mirror, I am not a man of words –
You'll know my spiritual state when your ears become gaze.

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi

(Translated by Andrew Harvey from A Year of Rumi)