قصهی شاه و امیران و حسد ** بر غلام خاص و سلطان خرد
The story of the King and the amirs and their envy of the favourite slave and lord of wisdom
دور ماند از جر جرار کلام ** باز باید گشت و کرد آن را تمام
Has been left far (behind) on account of the powerful attraction of the discourse.(Now) we must turn back and conclude it.
باغبان ملک با اقبال و بخت ** چون درختی را نداند از درخت
The happy and fortunate gardener of the (Divine) kingdom — how should not he know one tree from another?
آن درختی را که تلخ و رد بود ** و آن درختی که یکش هفصد بود
The tree that is bitter and reprobate, and the tree whose one is (as) seven hundred (of the other)—
کی برابر دارد اندر تربیت ** چون ببیندشان به چشم عاقبت1565
How, in rearing (them), should he deem (them) equal, when he beholds them with the eye (that is conscious) of the end,
کان درختان را نهایت چیست بر ** گر چه یکسانند این دم در نظر
(And knows) what (different) fruit those trees will ultimately bear, though at this moment they are alike in appearance'?
شیخ کاو ینظر بنور الله شد ** از نهایت وز نخست آگاه شد
The Shaykh who has become seeing by the light of God has become acquainted with the end and the beginning.
چشم آخر بین ببست از بهر حق ** چشم آخر بین گشاد اندر سبق
He has shut for God's sake the eye that sees the stable the world); he has opened, in priority, the eye that sees the en .
آن حسودان بد درختان بودهاند ** تلخ گوهر شور بختان بودهاند
Those envious ones were bad trees; they were ill-fortuned ones of bitter stock.
از حسد جوشان و کف میریختند ** در نهانی مکر میانگیختند1570
They were boiling and foaming with envy, and were starting plots m secret,
تا غلام خاص را گردن زنند ** بیخ او را از زمانه بر کنند
That they might behead the favourite slave and tear up his root from the world;
چون شود فانی چو جانش شاه بود ** بیخ او در عصمت الله بود
(But) how should he perish, since the King was his soul, and his root was under the protection of God?
شاه از آن اسرار واقف آمده ** همچو بو بکر ربابی تن زده
The King had become aware of those secret thoughts, (but) like Bú Bakr-i Rabábí he kept silence.
در تماشای دل بد گوهران ** میزدی خنبک بر آن کوزهگران
In (viewing) the spectacle of the hearts of (those) evil-natured ones he was clapping his hands (derisively) at those potters (schemers).
مکر میسازند قومی حیلهمند ** تا که شه را در فقاعی در کنند1575
Some cunning people devise stratagems to get the King into a beer-jug;
پادشاهی بس عظیمی بیکران ** در فقاعی کی بگنجد ای خران
(But) a King (so) exceedingly grand and illimitable—how should He be contained in a beer jug, O asses?
از برای شاه دامی دوختند ** آخر این تدبیر از او آموختند
They knitted a net for the King; (yet) after all, they (had) learnt this contrivance from Him.
نحس شاگردی که با استاد خویش ** همسری آغازد و آید به پیش
Ill-starred is the pupil that begins rivalry with his master and comes forward (to contend with him).
با کدام استاد استاد جهان ** پیش او یکسان و هویدا و نهان
With what master? The master of the world, to whom the manifest and the occult are alike;
چشم او ینظر بنور الله شده ** پردههای جهل را خارق بده1580
Whose eyes have become seeing by the light of God and have rent the veils of ignorance.
از دل سوراخ چون کهنه گلیم ** پردهای بندد به پیش آن حکیم
(Making) a veil of (his) heart, (which is as) full of holes as an old blanket, he (the disciple) puts it on in the presence of that Sage.
پرده میخندد بر او با صد دهان ** هر دهانی گشته اشکافی بر آن
The veil laughs at him with a hundred mouths, every mouth having become a slit (open) to that (master). [The veil laughs at him with a hundred mouths, every mouth having become (like) a slit (vulva) in the thighs (of a woman).]
گوید آن استاد مر شاگرد را ** ای کم از سگ نیستت با من وفا
The master says to the disciple, "O you who are less than a dog, have you no faithfulness to me?
خود مرا استا مگیر آهن گسل ** همچو خود شاگرد گیر و کوردل
Even suppose I am not a master and an iron-breaker, suppose I am a disciple like yourself and blind of heart,
نه از منت یاری است در جان و روان ** بیمنت آبی نمیگردد روان1585
Have not you help in spirit and mind from me? Without me no water is set flowing for you.