it comes in the morning

purple tulips, istanbul tulip festival, istanbul, pentax k10d

Mathnawi VI: 255-260

Wealth has no permanence: it comes in the morning,
and at night it is scattered to the winds.
Physical beauty too has no importance,
for a rosy face is made pale by the scratch of a single thorn.
Noble birth also is of small account,
for many become fools of money and horses.
Many a nobleman’s son has disgraced his father by his wicked deeds.
Don’t court a person full of talent either,
even if he seems exquisite in that respect:
take warning from the example of Iblis1 Devil.
Iblis had knowledge, but since his love was not pure,
he saw in Adam nothing but a figure of clay.

Mevlana

Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
“Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance”
Threshold Books, 1996

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul