M6:699 — حرف گفتن بستن آن روزنست / عین اظهار سخن پوشیدنست

This couplet appears in a section where Rumi is exploring the paradox of divine manifestation and human expression. The preceding verses discuss how the 'Sun' (God's light) is so overwhelmingly bright that its very intensity acts as a veil (M6:691). The speaker, consumed by a 'jealousy' (M6:693) to protect this divine secret, questions whether to speak or remain silent. Silence, too, has its own paradoxical effect, as the 'Sun' might tear through other veils (M6:696).

Here, Rumi states that speaking about profound spiritual truths is like closing a 'window' (روزن) to the direct experience of that truth. The 'window' represents a direct, unmediated apprehension. Once words are introduced, they inevitably frame, limit, and therefore 'cover' (پوشیدن) the boundless reality they attempt to describe. This is a common Sufi theme: the ineffability of the divine. True knowledge (معرفت) is not found in intellectual articulation but in direct perception and experience, which words can only hint at, and often, distort. The act of 'expression' (اظهار سخن) itself becomes a form of 'concealment' (پوشیدن), because the finite nature of language cannot contain the infinite.