His friend, ashamed of urgent pressing, sighed. Thou singest?
Said he: “Full many offerings have I sought and seen;
But none was worthy of thee; or I much misween.
How could I bring a diamond to its native mine;
Or add a drop of water to a sea of brine?45
Shall I to Kāshān cummin bring, whence it is drawn,[348]
By offering up my life and soul to beauty’s fawn?
I know no rarity that’s not surpassed by thee;
Thy loveliness the rarity men nowhere see.
The fittest present, then, I’ve found, a mirror is.