دانش ناقص کجا این عشق زاد ** عشق زاید ناقص اما بر جماد
On what occasion did deficient knowledge give birth to this love? Deficient (knowledge) gives birth to love, but (only love) for that which is (really) lifeless.
بر جمادی رنگ مطلوبی چو دید ** از صفیری بانگ محبوبی شنید
When it sees in a lifeless being the colour (appearance) of a desired one, (’tis as though) it heard the voice of a beloved in a whistle.
دانش ناقص نداند فرق را ** لاجرم خورشید داند برق را1535
Deficient knowledge cannot discriminate: of necessity it deems the lightning to be the sun.
چون که ملعون خواند ناقص را رسول ** بود در تاویل نقصان عقول
When the Prophet called the “deficient” (man) accursed, (his meaning) as interpreted was “deficiency of mind,”
ز انکه ناقص تن بود مرحوم رحم ** نیست بر مرحوم لایق لعن و زخم
Because one whose body is deficient is the object of (Divine) mercy: cursing and repulse (directed) against the object of (Divine) mercy are improper.
نقص عقل است آن که بد رنجوری است ** موجب لعنت سزای دوری است
’Tis deficiency of mind that is the bad disease: it is the cause of (God's) curse and merits banishment (from His presence),
ز انکه تکمیل خردها دور نیست ** لیک تکمیل بدن مقدور نیست
Forasmuch as the perfecting of minds is not remote (impossible), but the perfecting of the body is not within our power.
کفر و فرعونی هر گبر بعید ** جمله از نقصان عقل آمد پدید1540
The miscreance and Pharaoh-like pride of every infidel who is far (from God) have all been produced by deficiency of mind.
بهر نقصان بدن آمد فرج ** در نبی که ما علی الاعمی حرج
Relief for bodily deficiency has come in the (words of the) Qur’án—it is no crime in the blind man.
برق آفل باشد و بس بیوفا ** آفل از باقی ندانی بیصفا
Lightning is transient and very faithless: without clearness (of mind) you will not know the transient from the permanent.
برق خندد بر که میخندد بگو ** بر کسی که دل نهد بر نور او
The lightning laughs: say, at whom is it laughing? At him that sets his heart upon its light.
نورهای چرخ ببریده پی است ** آن چو لا شرقی و لا غربی کی است
The lights of the sky are hamstrung (feeble and imperfect): how are they like (that Light which is) neither of the east nor of the west?
برق را چون یخطف الأبصار دان ** نور باقی را همه انصار دان1545
Know that the nature of lightning is that it taketh away the sight; regard the everlasting Light as entirely Helpers (to the attainment of vision).
بر کف دریا فرس را راندن ** نامهای در نور برقی خواندن
To ride (your) horse upon the foam of the sea, to read a letter in a flash of lightning,
از حریصی عاقبت نادیدن است ** بر دل و بر عقل خود خندیدن است
Is, to fail, because of covetousness, to see the end; it is, to laugh at your own mind and intellect.
عاقبت بین است عقل از خاصیت ** نفس باشد کاو نبیند عاقبت
Intellect, by its proper nature, is a seer of the end (consequence); ’tis the fleshly soul that does not see the end.
عقل کاو مغلوب نفس او نفس شد ** مشتری مات زحل شد نحس شد
The intellect that is vanquished by the flesh becomes the flesh: Jupiter is checkmated by Saturn and becomes inauspicious.
هم درین نحسی بگردان این نظر ** در کسی که کرد نحست درنگر1550
Still, turn this gaze (of yours) upon this inauspiciousness, look on that One who made you ill-starred.
آن نظر که بنگرد این جر و مد ** او ز نحسی سوی سعدی نقب زد
The gaze (of him) that surveys this ebb and flow pierces from the inauspicious influence to the auspicious.
ز آن همیگرداندت حالی به حال ** ضد به ضد پیدا کنان در انتقال
He (God) continually turns you from one state (of feeling) to another, manifesting opposite by means of opposite in the change,
تا که خوفت زاید از ذات الشمال ** لذت ذات الیمین یرجی الرجال
For the purpose that fear of the left hand side may bring to birth in you the delight of “He causes the (blessed) men to hope for the right hand side,”
تا دو پر باشی که مرغ یک پره ** عاجز آید از پریدن ای سره
So that you may have two wings (fear and hope); for the bird that has (only) one wing is unable to fly, O excellent (reader).
یا رها کن تا نیایم در کلام ** یا بده دستور تا گویم تمام1555
(O God), either let me not come to speech (at all), or give me leave to tell (the whole) to the end.
ور نه این خواهی نه آن فرمان تراست ** کس چه داند مر ترا مقصد کجاست
But if Thou willest neither this nor that, ’tis Thine to command: how should any one know what Thou intendest?
جان ابراهیم باید تا به نور ** بیند اندر نار فردوس و قصور
One must needs have the spirit of Abraham to see in the fire Paradise and its palaces by the light (of mystic knowledge);