آینه بی‌نقش شد یابد بها ** زانک شد حاکی جمله نقشها
(When) a mirror becomes devoid of images, it gains splendour because (then) it is the reporter (reflector) of all images.
حکایت شیخ محمد سررزی غزنوی قدس الله سره
Story of Shaykh Mohammed Sar-razí of Ghazna, may God sanctify his spirit!
زاهدی در غزنی از دانش مزی ** بد محمد نام و کفیت سررزی
In Ghazna there was an ascetic, abounding in knowledge (of divinity): his name was Mohammed and his title Sar-razí.
بود افطارش سر رز هر شبی ** هفت سال او دایم اندر مطلبی
Every night he would break his fast with vine-tendrils (sar-i raz): during seven years he was continually (engaged) in one quest.
بس عجایب دید از شاه وجود ** لیک مقصودش جمال شاه بود
He experienced many marvellous things from the King of existence, but his object was (to behold) the beauty of the King.
بر سر که رفت آن از خویش سیر ** گفت بنما یا فتادم من به زیر 2670
That man who was surfeited with himself went to the top of a mountain and said, “Appear, or I will fall (throw myself) to the bottom.”
گفت نامد مهلت آن مکرمت ** ور فرو افتی نمیری نکشمت
He (God) said, “The time for that favour is not (yet) come, and if thou fall down, thou wilt not die: I will not kill thee.”
او فرو افکند خود را از وداد ** در میان عمق آبی اوفتاد
He, from love (of God), threw himself down: he fell into the depths of a (piece of) water.
چون نمرد از نکس آن جان‌سیر مرد ** از فراق مرگ بر خود نوحه کرد
When he (found that he) was not dead, on account of the shock (of disappointment) that man who was sick of life made lament over himself for having been parted from death;
کین حیات او را چو مرگی می‌نمود ** کار پیشش بازگونه گشته بود
For this (present) life seemed to him like a (state of) death: in his view the thing had become reversed.
موت را از غیب می‌کرد او کدی ** ان فی موتی حیاتی می‌زدی 2675
He was begging death (as a gift) from the Unseen, he was crying, “Verily, my life is in my death.”