M1:2723 — زن نمی‌دانست کانجا برگذر / هست جاری دجله‌ای همچون شکر

这句诗出自一个故事：一位生活在沙漠里的阿拉伯妇人，以为全世界都像她家乡一样缺水，便将一罐珍贵的雨水作为礼物，千里迢迢带到巴格达献给哈里发。她不知道，宏伟的底格里斯河流经巴格达，城中水源丰沛，清甜无比。

鲁米用这个故事来作譬喻。妇人象征着灵性道路上的求索者，她那罐水好比我们有限的感官知觉和理性知识（حواس）。我们将这些自认为宝贵的东西，作为献给神（哈里发）的礼物。然而，我们没有意识到，在神的临在中，奔流着无限的智慧、恩典与真知之河（底格里斯河），其浩瀚与甜美，远非我们贫乏的“礼物”所能比拟。

因此，这句诗的核心在于揭示一种深刻的无知：我们常常执着于自己渺小的认知和成就，却对近在咫尺的、无限的灵性实相视而不见。它提醒我们，真正的灵修不是向神“献上”我们已有的东西，而是要意识到我们自身的局限，并向那无尽的恩典之“河”敞开自己。

This couplet marks a pivot from Rumi's prayerful allegory back to the simple narrative of the gift-bearer. The "woman" (zan) is a stand-in for the Bedouin from the story's title, and more broadly, for any soul (nafs) who proudly offers up their own meager spiritual works or sensory knowledge as a gift to God.

The irony is gentle but profound. The gift-bearer, having trekked from the desert, treasures their jar of rainwater, believing it to be a rare and precious commodity. They are completely ignorant that Baghdad, the destination, is built upon the banks of the mighty Tigris river (Dajla), a source of abundant, life-giving water that Rumi describes as being "sweet as sugar" (hamchūn shakar). The gift is not just unnecessary; it is absurdly redundant.

In the larger spiritual context, the Bedouin represents the limited human self, and their jar of water symbolizes our sensory perceptions and rational intellect (ḥavāss va ʿaql-e jozvī). We proudly present these faculties to God, imagining them to be great offerings. We fail to realize, Rumi suggests, that we are bringing a cup of brackish water to the shore of an infinite, sweet ocean. The real spiritual task is not to offer our limited perception, but to connect it to the divine river that is already flowing through existence, as the subsequent verses make clear.