گفت اینک بین نشان پای دزد ** این طرف رفته ست دزد زن بمزد
“Look here,” said (the other). “See the thief's footprints! The pimping thief has gone this way. [ “Look here,” said (the other). “See the thief's footprints! The thief whose wife is for hire (who prostitutes his wife to other men) has gone this way.]
نک نشان پای دزد قلتبان ** در پی او رو بدین نقش و نشان
Look at the cuckold thief's footprints! Follow him by means of these marks and traces.”
گفت ای ابله چه میگویی مرا ** من گرفته بودم آخر مر و را2805
He answered, “O fool, what are you telling me? Why, I had (as good as) caught him,
دزد را از بانگ تو بگذاشتم ** من تو خر را آدمی پنداشتم
(But) at your cry I let the thief go. I deemed you, ass (as you are), a (reasonable) man.
این چه ژاژست و چه هرزه ای فلان ** من حقیقت یافتم چه بود نشان
What silly gabble and nonsense is this, O fellow? I (had) found the reality: what (use to me) is the clue?”
گفت من از حق نشانت میدهم ** این نشان است از حقیقت آگهم
He replied, “I am giving you a clue to the real (thing). This is the clue; I am acquainted with the reality.”
گفت طراری تو یا خود ابلهی ** بلکه تو دزدی و زین حال آگهی
He (the householder) said, “You are an artful knave or else you are a fool; nay, you are a thief and cognisant of this affair.
خصم خود را میکشیدم من کشان ** تو رهانیدی و را کاینک نشان2810
I was (on the point of) dragging my adversary along, (when) you let him escape, saying (to me), ‘Here are (his) traces.’”
تو جهت گو من برونم از جهات ** در وصال آیات کو یا بینات
You speak of (external) relations, (but) I transcend (all) relations. In union (with God) where are signs or evidences?
صنع بیند مرد محجوب از صفات ** در صفات آن است کاو گم کرد ذات
The man that is debarred (from the Essence) sees the (Divine) action (as proceeding) from the Attributes: he that has lost the Essence is in (confined to) the Attributes.
واصلان چون غرق ذاتند ای پسر ** کی کنند اندر صفات او نظر
Inasmuch as those united (with God) are absorbed in the Essence, O son, how should they look upon His Attributes?
چون که اندر قعر جو باشد سرت ** کی به رنگ آب افتد منظرت
When your head is at the bottom of the river, how will your eye fall on the colour of the water?
ور به رنگ آب باز آیی ز قعر ** پس پلاسی بستدی دادی تو شعر2815
And if you come back from the bottom to the colour of the water, then you have received a coarse woollen garment and given (fine) fur (in exchange).
طاعت عامه گناه خاصگان ** وصلت عامه حجاب خاص دان
The piety of the vulgar is sin in the elect; the unitive state of the vulgar is a veil in the elect.
مر وزیری را کند شه محتسب ** شه عدوی او بود نبود محب
If the king make a vizier a police inspector, the king is his enemy, he is not his friend.
هم گناهی کرده باشد آن وزیر ** بیسبب نبود تغیر ناگزیر
Also, that vizier will have committed some offence: necessarily change (for the worse) is not (does not occur) without cause.
آن که ز اول محتسب بد خود و را ** بخت و روزی آن بده ست از ابتدا
He that has been a police inspector from the first—to him that (office) has been fortune and livelihood from the beginning;
لیک آن کاول وزیر شه بده ست ** محتسب کردن سبب فعل بد است2820
But he that was first the king's vizier—evil-doing is the cause of making him a police inspector.
چون ترا شه ز آستانه پیش خواند ** باز سوی آستانه باز راند
When the King has called you from the threshold into His presence, and again has driven you back to the threshold,
تو یقین میدان که جرمی کردهای ** جبر را از جهل پیش آوردهای
Know for sure that you have committed a sin and in folly have brought forward (pleaded) compulsion (as the cause),
که مرا روزی و قسمت این بده ست ** پس چرا دی بودت آن دولت به دست
Saying, “This was my (predestined) portion and lot.” (But) then, why was that good luck in your hands yesterday?
قسمت خود خود بریدی تو ز جهل ** قسمت خود را فزاید مرد اهل
Through folly you yourself have cut off your lot. The worthy man augments his lot.
قصهی منافقان و مسجد ضرار ساختن ایشان
The story of the Hypocrites and their building the Mosque of Opposition.
یک مثال دیگر اندر کژروی ** شاید ار از نقل قرآن بشنوی2825
It is fit if you will hearken to another parable concerning perversity (taken) from the narrative in the Qur’án.
این چنین کژ بازیی در جفت و طاق ** با نبی میباختند اهل نفاق
The Hypocrites played against the Prophet (just) such a crooked game at odd and even (as was played by Iblís against Mu‘áwiya),
کز برای عز دین احمدی ** مسجدی سازیم و بود آن مرتدی
Saying, “Let us build a mosque for the glory of the Mohammedan religion”; and that was (really) apostasy (on their part).