The Pearl

A raindrop, dripping from a cloud.

Ashamed when it saw the sea.

‘Who am I  ? ,

where is a sea’, it said.

As it saw itself, from the eyes of humility

A shell embraced him and makes him a pearl.

 Shaykh Saadi Shirazi

( 1210- 1292 )
 in a Rose garden,

from a Mughal manuscript of his work Gulistan,

c. 1645