گوش دلاله ست و چشم اهل وصال ** چشم صاحب حال و گوش اصحاب قال
The ear is a go-between, while the eye is possessed of union (immediate vision); the eye has direct experience (of reality), while the ear has (only) words (doctrine).
در شنود گوش تبدیل صفات ** در عیان دیدها تبدیل ذات
In the ear's hearing there is a transformation of qualities; in the eyes' seeing there is a transformation of essence.
ز آتش ار علمت یقین شد از سخن ** پختگی جو در یقین منزل مکن860
If your knowledge of fire has been turned to certainty by words (alone), seek to be cooked (by the fire itself), and do not abide in the certainty (of knowledge derived from others).
تا نسوزی نیست آن عین الیقین ** این یقین خواهی در آتش در نشین
There is no intuitive (actual) certainty until you burn; (if) you desire this certainty, sit down in the fire.
گوش چون نافذ بود دیده شود ** ور نه قل در گوش پیچیده شود
When the ear is penetrating, it becomes an eye; otherwise, the word (of God) becomes entangled in the ear (and does not reach the heart).
این سخن پایان ندارد باز گرد ** تا که شه با آن غلامانش چه کرد
This discourse hath no end. Turn back, that (we may see) what the King did to those slaves of his.
به راه کردن شاه یکی را از آن دو غلام و از این دیگر پرسیدن
How the King sent away one of the two slaves and interrogated the other.
آن غلامک را چو دید اهل ذکا ** آن دگر را کرد اشارت که بیا
When he saw that that laddie was possessed of keen intelligence, he made a sign to the other to come (to him).
(If) I have called him by (a word which has) the suffix of pity (tenderness), ’tis not to belittle him: if a grandfather say “my sonny,” it is not (in) contempt.
چون بیامد آن دوم در پیش شاه ** بود او گنده دهان دندان سیاه
When the second (slave) came before the King, he had a stinking mouth and black teeth.
گر چه شه ناخوش شد از گفتار او ** جستجویی کرد هم ز اسرار او
Although the King was displeased by his speech, still he made some inquiry concerning his hidden thoughts.