What is love?

A nobleman fell in love with a boy who sold beer, and in pursuit of his love went wandering far from his family. Malicious gossip about him spread far and wide. The nobleman had properties and estates, which he sold to buy beer from the boy. After selling his property he descended into poverty, but his love for the boy increased. Although people constantly provided him with bread as alms, he was always hungry, because he sold all the bread to buy more beer.

Someone once asked him, “You poor, confused man, what is love? Please explain the secret of it to me.”

“It is to sell a hundred worlds of goods for the sake of a single glass of beer,” he replied. “And if this act does not make a man happy, how could he understand love and pain?”

 

Farid al-Din al-Attar