Joseph and the Mirrror - (Rumi Part 2)

With the frankness of ignorance he spoke to his Beloved, “You say you need nothing and want only my love, but at that table, the table of love, I am not even a hopeless beggar who sits on the floor and waits for crumbs to fall. If I am to know love — for how can I give that which I do not know? — for me to know love, that is your business.”


Joseph and the Mirror

“An old friend came to pay his respects to Joseph, and, after some remarks upon the bad behavior of his brethren, Joseph asked him what present he had brought to show his respect. The friend replied that he had long considered what gift would be most suitable to offer, and at last had fixed upon a mirror, which he accordingly produced from his pocket and presented to Joseph, at the same time begging him to admire his own beauteous face in it.

He drew forth a mirror from his side
A mirror is what Beauty busies itself with.
Since Not-being is the mirror of Being,
If you are wise, choose Not-being (self-effacement).

Being may be displayed in that Not-being,
Wealthy men show their liberality on the poor.
He who is an hungered is the clear mirror of bread,
The tinder is the mirror of the flint and steel.

Not-being and Defect, wherever they occur,
Are the mirrors of the Beauty of all beings.
Because Not-being is a clear filtered essence,
Wherein all these beings are infused.” The Masnavi, trans. Whinfield

“I will help you,” the Beloved replied, and to His lover's great amazement and shame, his Beloved began to cleanse the defects from the mirror of His lover’s soul, and from that day forth revealed that love He had promised to His lover, not within him, not directly, but mirrored all around him, in the faces and the tears of others, allowing His lover to be privy to their hearts, to their longing, to their soul's most sacred love.