~Mathnawi
A man started to break up the earth with a spade.
A fool came and shouted at him, "Why are you ruining the soil?"
"You idiot!" the man cried. "Go away and don't bother me!
Understand the difference between destruction and growth.
How could this soil become a rose garden or wheat field
Before it's broken up and ruined and made ugly?
How could it become orchards and harvests and leaves and fruit
Before it is utterly destroyed and worn down?
Before you pierce an abscess with a knife
How can it heal and how can you regain your health?
Until the doctor purifies your humors with his cures
How can your illness disappear and true healing arrive?
When a tailor cuts up a cloth, piece by piece,
Does anyone go up to him and strike him and say,
"Why have you torn up this beautiful satin;
What can I do with scraps of torn-up cloth?"
Each time that builders come to repair an old building
Don't they begin by destroying what was there before?
Look at the carpenter or the blacksmith of the butcher;
With them too, you'll find destruction precedes renewal.
If you don't subject wheat to the grinding millstone
How will bread ever come to decorate your table?"
~Mathnawi
{Images linked/Programming by DPC}
