Loyalty

You've found your own afflictions similarly

And from the mystics gained the remedy:

Often your limp would disappear again,

Your soul would also be relieved from pain.

Tie up you legs and feet, forgetful one,

Lest you become lost just as they have done--

Forgetfulness and lack of gratitude

Made you forget that you've gained special food.

The way is blocked now to keep you apart,

Since you've made weary every mystic's heart.

Find them and beg forgiveness desperately

Just as a heavy cloud weeps bitterly,

So that their roses bloom in your direction

And ripened fruits burst forth for your selection.

Rush there now! Don't act worse than dogs, you knave,

You fellow slave of that dog in the cave!

Since even dogs at times advise another,

'Attach your heart to your first home, my brother.

Cling to the door where you first ate a bone

And pay the debt for kindness that was shown.'

[...]

Don't ever break the pledge of loyalty.

Don't spread disloyalty so thoughtlessly.

It's through their loyalty that dogs earned fame,

So don't shame them and give them a bad name.

-Rumi, The Masnavi, Book Three, Trans. by Jawid Mojaddedi (New York: Oxford World Classic, 2013), pgs. 22-3.