Thursday, March 30, 2017

Saadi - The Pearl and the Ocean



A drop of rain trickled from a cloud into the ocean.
When it beheld the breadth of its waters it was utterly confounded:
"What a place is this Sea, and what am I?
If it is existent, verily I am non-existent."
Whilst it was thus regarding itself with the eye of contempt,
an oyster received and cherished it in its bosom.
Fortune preferred it to a place of honor; for it became a renowned royal Pearl.
Because it was humble, it found exaltation:
it knocked at the door of Nonentity that it might arise into Being.

 translated by Samuel Robinson



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