He (God) said, “I was a hidden treasure”: hearken! Do not let thy (spiritual) substance be lost: become manifest!
بیان آنک روح حیوانی و عقل جز وی و وهم و خیال بر مثال دوغند و روح کی باقیست درین دوغ هم‌چون روغن پنهانست
Explaining that the animal spirit and the particular (discursive) reason and the imagination and the fancy may be compared to buttermilk, while the spirit, which is everlasting, is hidden in this buttermilk, like the butter.
جوهر صدقت خفی شد در دروغ ** هم‌چو طعم روغن اندر طعم دوغ3030
Thy true substance is concealed in falsehood, like the taste of butter in the taste of buttermilk.
آن دروغت این تن فانی بود ** راستت آن جان ربانی بود
Thy falsehood is this perishable body; thy truth is that lordly spirit.
سالها این دوغ تن پیدا و فاش ** روغن جان اندرو فانی و لاش
(During many) years this buttermilk, (which is) the body, is visible and manifest, (while) the butter, (which is) the spirit, is perishing and naughted within it,
تا فرستد حق رسولی بنده‌ای ** دوغ را در خمره جنباننده‌ای
Till God send a messenger (prophet), a (chosen) servant, a shaker of the buttermilk in the churn,
تا بجنباند به هنجار و به فن ** تا بدانم من که پنهان بود من
That he may shake (it) with method and skill, to the end that I may know that (my true) ego was hidden;
یا کلام بنده‌ای کان جزو اوست ** در رود در گوش او کو وحی جوست3035
Or (till) the speech of a (chosen) servant, which is part is part of (the speech of) him (the prophet), enter into the ear of him who is seeking inspiration.
اذن مومن وحی ما را واعیست ** آنچنان گوشی قرین داعیست
The true believer's ear is retaining our inspiration: such an ear is closely linked to the caller (the perfect saint)—
هم‌چنانک گوش طفل از گفت مام ** پر شود ناطق شود او درکلام
Just as (for example) the infant's ear is filled with its mother's words, (and then) it (the infant) begins to speak articulately;
ور نباشد طفل را گوش رشد ** گفت مادر نشنود گنگی شود
And if the infant have not a right (rightly-hearing) ear, it does not hear its mother's words and becomes a mute.