“غرور” in the Masnavi

The man set out on his way joyfully, unaware that the king had designs upon his life.

He mounted a swift Arab horse and rode off joyfully, deeming what was in truth the price of his blood to be a robe of honour.

O you who set out on this journey with a hundred willing hearts, walking with your own feet straight into your evil fate.

In his fancy were dreams of kingship, honour, and greatness; while the Angel of Death mockingly said: 'Go on, yes, surely you will attain them!'

Loves that arise merely from colour or outward beauty are not true love, and in the end, they turn into disgrace.

The peacock’s enemy is its own beautiful plumage; how many a king has been slain by his own splendour!

He said, 'I am like that gazelle for whose musk-gland this hunter has shed my pure, innocent blood.'

'Ah, I am like that desert fox whose head they severed from an ambush merely for the sake of its fur.'

'Ah, I am like that elephant whose blood was spilled by the spear of the mahout, only for the sake of its ivory.'