Volume
Vol. 5, Love, Human and Divine
| Heading
4. The Moral of Love
|
Sub-Heading
The Part of the Lover
|
Vol. 5, Love, Human and Divine
4. The Moral of Love
The Part of the Lover
The part that a lover performs in life is much more difficult than that of the beloved. Tyranny on the part of the beloved is taken tolerantly and patiently by the lover as a natural thing in the path of love.
There is a verse of Hafiz on resignation to the will of the beloved: "I have broken my bowl of desire against the rock of the beloved's will. What may be done when my heart is won by the obstinate beloved, who does her own will and casts aside the desire of the lover?"
This is the study of the lover and of the beloved's nature, that the beloved will do what she desires, while the lover lives in love; the breaking of it is the lover's death. Then the only way is resignation, either in the case of an earthly or of the divine Beloved.
The lover never can grudge or grumble about any injustice done to him, and every fault of the beloved he hides under his mantle, as a man in poverty would hide the patch on his garment. The lover takes care not to hurt the feelings of the beloved in anything he does; but as delicate as is the sense of precaution in him, even more delicate is the sensitiveness of the one who is beloved in vain.
|