bismillah

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi

People are distracted by objects of desire,

and afterwards repent of the lust they’ve indulged,

because they have indulged with a phantom

and are left even farther from Reality than before.

Your desire for the illusionary is a wing,

by means of which a seeker might ascend to Reality,

When you have indulged a lust, your wing drops off;

you become lame and that fantasy flees.

Preserve the wing and don’t indulge such lust,

so that the wing of desire may bear you to Paradise.

People fancy they are enjoying themselves,

but they are really tearing out their wings for the sake of an illusion.

Mathnawi III, 2133-38