چارقت ربع کدامین آصفست ** پوستین گویی که کرته‌ی یوسفست
Of what Ásaf are thy shoon the abode? One would say that thy sheepskin jacket is the shirt of Joseph.”
هم‌چو ترسا که شمارد با کشش ** جرم یکساله زنا و غل و غش
(This is) like (the case of) the Christian who recounts to his priest a year’s sins––fornication and malice and hypocrisy––
تا بیامرزد کشش زو آن گناه ** عفو او را عفو داند از اله
In order that the priest may pardon his sins, for he regards his (the priest’s) forgiveness as forgiveness from God.
نیست آگه آن کشش از جرم و داد ** لیک بس جادوست عشق و اعتقاد
The priest has no (real) knowledge of sin and pardon; but love and firm belief are mightily bewitching.
دوستی و وهم صد یوسف تند ** اسحر از هاروت و ماروتست خود 3260
Love and imagination weave (create) a hundred (forms beautiful as) Joseph: in sooth they are greater sorcerers than Hárút and Márút.
صورتی پیدا کند بر یاد او ** جذب صورت آردت در گفت و گو
They cause a form (of phantasy) to appear in memory of him (your Beloved): the attraction of the form leads you into (conversation with it).
رازگویی پیش صورت صد هزار ** آن چنان که یار گوید پیش یار
You tell a hundred thousand secrets in the form’s presence, just as a friend speaks (intimately) in the presence of a friend.
نه بدانجا صورتی نه هیکلی ** زاده از وی صد الست و صد بلی
No (material) form or shape is there; (yet) from it proceed a hundred (utterances of the words) “Am not I (thy Beloved)?” and (from you) a hundred “Yeas.”
آن چنان که مادری دل‌برده‌ای ** پیش گور بچه‌ی نومرده‌ای
(‘Tis) as when a mother, distraught (with grief) beside the grave of a child newly dead,
رازها گوید به جد و اجتهاد ** می‌نماید زنده او را آن جماد 3265
Utters heart-felt words earnestly and intensely: the inanimate (corpse) seems to her to be alive.