کفر تو دین است و دینت نور جان ** ایمنی و ز تو جهانی در امان1785
Your blasphemy is (the true) religion, and your religion is the light of the spirit: you are saved, and through you a (whole) world is in salvation.
ای معاف یفعل الله ما یشاء ** بیمحابا رو زبان را بر گشا
O you who are made secure by God doeth whatso He willeth, go, loose your tongue without regard (for what you say).”
گفت ای موسی از آن بگذشتهام ** من کنون در خون دل آغشتهام
He said, “O Moses, I have passed beyond that: I am now bathed in (my) heart's blood.
من ز سدرهی منتهی بگذشتهام ** صد هزاران ساله ز آن سو رفتهام
I have passed beyond the Lote-tree of the farthest bourn, I have gone a hundred thousand years' journey on the other side.
تازیانه بر زدی اسبم بگشت ** گنبدی کرد و ز گردون بر گذشت
Thou didst ply the lash, and my horse shied, made a bound, and passed beyond the sky.
محرم ناسوت ما لاهوت باد ** آفرین بر دست و بر بازوت باد1790
May the Divine Nature be intimate with my human nature— blessings be on thy hand and on thine arm!
حال من اکنون برون از گفتن است ** این چه میگویم نه احوال من است
Now my state is beyond telling: this which I am telling is not my (real) state.”
نقش میبینی که در آیینهای است ** نقش تست آن نقش آن آیینه نیست
You behold the image which is in a mirror: it is your (own) image, it is not the image of the mirror.
دم که مرد نایی اندر نای کرد ** در خور نای است نه در خورد مرد
The breath which the flute-player puts into the flute—does it belong to the flute? No, it belongs to the man (the flute-player).
هان و هان گر حمد گویی گر سپاس ** همچو نافرجام آن چوپان شناس
Take good heed! Whether you speak praise (of God) or thanksgiving, know that it is even as the unseemly (words) of that shepherd.
حمد تو نسبت بدان گر بهتر است ** لیک آن نسبت به حق هم ابتر است1795
Though your praise is better in comparison with that, yet in relation to God it too is maimed (feeble).
چند گویی چون غطا برداشتند ** کاین نبوده ست آن که میپنداشتند
How often will you say, when the lid has been raised, “This was not what they were thinking (it was)!”
این قبول ذکر تو از رحمت است ** چون نماز مستحاضه رخصت است
This acceptance (by God) of your praise is from (His) mercy: it is an indulgence (which He grants), like (the indulgence granted in the case of) the prayers of a woman suffering from menorrhagia.
با نماز او بیالوده ست خون ** ذکر تو آلودهی تشبیه و چون
Her prayers are stained with blood; your praise is stained with assimilation and qualification.
خون پلید است و به آبی میرود ** لیک باطن را نجاستها بود
Blood is foul, and (yet) it goes (is washed away) by a (little) water; but the inward part (the inner man) hath impurities
کان به غیر آب لطف کردگار ** کم نگردد از درون مرد کار1800
Which fail not (are not removed) from the interior (the heart) of the man of works except by the water of the grace of the Maker.
در سجودت کاش رو گردانیای ** معنی سبحان ربی دانیای
Would that in your bowing low in prayer you would turn your face (to attentive consideration) and apprehend the meaning of “Glory to my Lord!”
کای سجودم چون وجودم ناسزا ** مر بدی را تو نکویی ده جزا
Saying, “Oh, my prostration (in prayer), like my existence, is unworthy (of Thee): do Thou give good in return for evil!”
این زمین از حلم حق دارد اثر ** تا نجاست برد و گلها داد بر
This earth has the mark of God's clemency, in that it got filth and gave flowers as the produce;
تا بپوشد او پلیدیهای ما ** در عوض بر روید از وی غنچهها
In that it covers our pollutions, (and that) buds grow up from it in exchange.
پس چو کافر دید کاو در داد و جود ** کمتر و بیمایه تر از خاک بود1805
Therefore, when the infidel saw that in giving and lavishing he was meaner and unwealthier than the earth,
از وجود او گل و میوه نرست ** جز فساد جمله پاکیها نجست
(That) flowers and fruit did not grow from his being, (and that) he sought (and achieved) nothing but the corruption of all purities,
گفت واپس رفتهام من در ذهاب ** حسرتا یا لیتنی کنت تراب
He said, “I have gone backwards in (my) course. Alas! would that I had (still) been earth!
کاش از خاکی سفر نگزیدمی ** همچو خاکی دانهای میچیدمی
Would that I had not chosen to travel away from earthiness, (and that) like a clod of earth I had gathered some grain!
چون سفر کردم مرا راه آزمود ** زین سفر کردن ره آوردم چه بود
When I travelled, the Way tried me: what was the present I brought (home) from this travelling?”