M6:1713 — می‌درد می‌دوزد این درزی عام / جامهٔ صدسالگان طفل خام

Translation: This common tailor (of fate/time) tears and sews The garment of centenarians, (who are still) raw children. Meaning: This verse signifies that the world, like a deceptive tailor, tears and mends the garment of life for individuals who are physically old but spiritually immature, using amusement and distraction to exploit their heedlessness.

This verse, situated at the climax of the "Turk and Tailor" story, presents a profound and poignant image of the deceptive nature of time and fate. For Rumi, the darzi-ye 'ām (common tailor) is an allegory for charkh-e gardun (the wheel of fortune), falak (the celestial sphere), and tabīʿat (nature itself). This is the very power that weaves and fashions our lives, yet beneath this outward appearance, it is constantly engaged in stealing our most fundamental capital: our life, our time, and our opportunity for spiritual growth.

The sad-sālegān tifl-e khām (centenarians, raw children) are those who, despite having lived long lives and grown old, have never attained intellectual or spiritual maturity. They remain like naive children, captivated by the lāgh (jokes) and afsāne (useless stories) of the world. Just like the Turk in the story, whose attention was diverted from his precious satin fabric by the cunning tailor's incessant jests and uproarious laughter, allowing the tailor to stealthily cut off pieces. This precisely mirrors our own condition; we too, as humans, have grown "fat on the frivolity and jest of this world," constantly imploring fate to "come on, tell another joke, amuse me, make me heedless of reality, take from me, steal from me."

The phrase mi-darad, mi-duzad (it tears, it sews), as Rumi employs it, carries deep meaning. The world simultaneously weaves (the outward fabric of life) and, even as it weaves, it tears and steals. That is to say, all the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows, the coming of spring and the passing of winter, are nothing more than the "play-acting of nature." It is not that fate, innocently, sometimes bestows bounty upon the garden and at other times lays it to waste; no! Rather, all these are part of a grand and deceptive spectacle designed to keep us in our state of ghafalat (heedlessness). Just as the tailor tore and sewed the fabric with the intention of theft, so too does fate, with its cycles of creation and destruction, fortune and misfortune, engage us in a game, preventing us from seizing the opportunity for self-making and spiritual awakening.

These "old children" are precisely those who "sit before this jesting world, which laughs at their beards, begging it for more jokes, to be amused by its good and bad fortune." They fail to learn the lesson that the very essence of fate is "play-acting" and deception. The ultimate outcome of this heedlessness is to depart from this world empty-handed; like the child in the fifth book of the Masnavi who, at sunset, wishing to return home, found his clothes and hat stolen during his street games. May it not be that we too lose our precious lives to such frivolity and ultimately return empty-handed to the Divine presence.

Key takeaways

• The world, personified as the "common tailor," deceptively steals our life's capital through amusement and play.
• The "centenarians, raw children" represent individuals who, despite their age, lack spiritual maturity and remain enchanted by worldly frivolities.
• Heedlessness is the key to our deception; just as the Turk's distraction by jokes led to his fabric being stolen.
• Life's ups and downs (spring and autumn) are merely parts of "nature's play-acting" to keep us in a state of unawareness.
• This verse serves as a warning not to squander our precious lives on the world's deceptive games, lest we end up empty-handed.