The excuse for this wastefulness and cruelty 205
Is the shaping and perfecting of spiritual beauty.
The loveliness of Shírín justifies the anguish of Farhád,[32]
The fragrant navel justifies a hundred musk-deer.
‘Tis the fate of moths to consume in flame:
The suffering of moths is justified by the candle. 210
The pencil of the Self limned a hundred to-days
In order to achieve the dawn of a single morrow.
Its flames burned a hundred Abrahams[33]
That the lamp of one Mohammed might be lighted.