.
There was a merchant setting out for India.
.
He asked each male and female servant
what they wanted to be brought as a gift.
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Each told him a different exotic object:
A piece of silk, a brass figurine,
a pearl necklace.
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Then he asked his beautiful caged parrot,
the one with such a lovely voice,
and she said,
"When you see the Indian parrots,
describe my cage. Say that I need guidance
here in my separation from them. Ask how
our friendship can continue with me so confined
and them flying about freely in the meadow mist.
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Tell them that I remember well our mornings
moving together from tree to tree.
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Tell them to drink one cup of ecstatic wine
in honor of me here in the dregs of my life.
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Tell them that the sound of their quarreling
high in the trees would be sweeter
to hear than any music."
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This parrot is the spirit-bird in all of us,
that part that wants to return to freedom,
and is the freedom. What she wants
from India is herself!
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So this parrot gave her message to the merchant,
and when he reached India, he saw a field
full of parrots. He stopped
and called out what she had told him.
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One of the nearest parrots shivered
and stiffened and fell down dead.
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The merchant said, "This one is surely kin
to my parrot. I shouldn't have spoken."
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He finished his trading and returned home
with the presents for his workers.
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When he got to the parrot, she demanded her gift.
"What happened when you told my story
to the Indian parrots?"
.
"I'm afraid to say."
"Master, you must!"
.
"When I spoke your complaint to the field
of chattering parrots, it broke
one of their hearts.
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She must have been a close companion,
or a relative, for when she heard about you
she grew quiet and trembled, and died."
.
As the caged parrot heard this, she herself
quivered and sank to the cage floor.
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This merchant was a good man.
He grieved deeply for his parrot, murmuring
distracted phrases, self-contradictory -
cold, then loving - clear, then
murky with symbolism.
.
A drowning man reaches for anything!
The Friend loves this flailing about
better than any lying still.
.
The One who lives inside existence
stays constantly in motion,
and whatever you do, that king
watches through the window.
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When the merchant threw the "dead" parrot
out of the cage, it spread its wings
and glided to a nearby tree!
.
The merchant suddenly understood the mystery.
"Sweet singer, what was in the message
that taught you this trick?"
.
"She told me that it was the charm
of my voice that kept me caged.
Give it up, and be released!"
.
The parrot told the merchant one or two more
spiritual truths. Then a tender goodbye.
.
"God protect you," said the merchant
"as you go on your new way.
I hope to follow you!"
.
~ Rumi
from One-Handed Basket Weaving
translated by Coleman Barks
with thanks to allspirit
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