Fear this murderous conflagration, this love that sets fires alight.
Fear this arrow of destruction, this blade that will pare you away.
And when he comes to you, a renunciate, repentant and contrite,
Fear that day that he repents, fear the very day.
#987, from Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi
Edited by Badiozzaman Forouzanfar (Tehran, Amir Kabir, 1988).
Translated by Zara Houshmand
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