گر به مظروفش نظر داری شهی ** ور به ظرفش بنگری تو گم‌رهی
If you keep your eye fixed on its contents, you are a (spiritual) king; but if you regard its vessel, you are misguided.
لفظ را ماننده‌ی این جسم دان ** معنیش را در درون مانند جان
Know that words resemble this body and that their inward meaning resembles the soul.
دیده‌ی تن دایما تن‌بین بود ** دیده‌ی جان جان پر فن بین بود
The bodily eye is always seeing the body; the spiritual eye sees the artful (elusive) soul.
پس ز نقش لفظهای مثنوی ** صورتی ضالست و هادی معنوی 655
Therefore the man of appearance is misled by the form of the expressions used in the Mathnawí, while they guide the man of reality (to the Truth).
در نبی فرمود کین قرآن ز دل ** هادی بعضی و بعضی را مضل
He (God) hath said in the Qur’án, “This Qur’án with all its heart leads some aright and others astray.”
الله الله چونک عارف گفت می ** پیش عارف کی بود معدوم شی
God, God! When the gnostic speaks of “wine,” how in the gnostic's eyes should the (materially) non-existent be a (material) thing?
فهم تو چون باده‌ی شیطان بود ** کی ترا وهم می رحمان بود
Since your understanding is (only of) the Devil's wine, how should you have any conception of the wine of the Merciful (God)?
این دو انبازند مطرب با شراب ** این بدان و آن بدین آرد شتاب
These twain—the minstrel and the wine—are partners: this one quickly leads to that, and that one to this.
پر خماران از دم مطرب چرند ** مطربانشان سوی میخانه برند 660
They that are full of crop-sickness feed on the song of the minstrel: the minstrels bring them to the tavern.
آن سر میدان و این پایان اوست ** دل شده چون گوی در چوگان اوست
That one (the minstrel) is the beginning of the (lover's) course, and this (tavern) is the end thereof: the witless (lover) is like a ball in (the sway of) his polo-bat.