Well, Illum, to ignore Shakespeare wealth in order to undersdtand the depths of Sufi poetry would be as large a loss as the opposite. Of course, in an English speaking culture, you're better equipped with Shakespeare in many respects just because of the rich matrix of agreed-upon symbols. There is also the historical element -- the vast majority of our historical events involved people who were part of the meme-river of English perspectives (Anglo-Saxon-Judaic, anyway) and so a lot of implicit values and slants make sense, whereas those of the ancient Persian might not make any even if the words were known.

I see no fault in defending the beauty you know against being slighted. It in no way implies a rejection of beauties yet to be discovered! That is entirely illogical.

A.