کوری و شلی و بیماری و درد ** تا از این حاجت بجنبد رحم مرد
Blindness and palsy and sickness and pain—that men's pity may be aroused by this need.
هیچ گوید نان دهید ای مردمان ** که مرا مال است و انبار است و خوان
Does he (any one) ever say, “Give bread, O people, for I have riches and granaries and trays (of viands)?”
چشم ننهادهست حق در کور موش ** ز انکه حاجت نیست چشمش بهر نوش
God has not put eyes in the mole, because it does not need eyes for (getting) food.
میتواند زیست بیچشم و بصر ** فارغ است از چشم او در خاک تر3285
It is able to live without eyes and sight: in the dank earth it is independent of eyes.
جز به دزدی او برون ناید ز خاک ** تا کند خالق از آن دزدیش پاک
It never comes out from the earth but for theft, to the end that the Creator may purge it of that thievishness.
بعد از آن پر یابد و مرغی شود ** چون ملایک جانب گردون رود
After that (purification), it will get wings and become a bird, like the angels, it will go towards heaven.
هر زمان در گلشن شکر خدا ** او بر آرد همچو بلبل صد نوا
Every moment, in the rose-garden of thanksgiving to God, it will produce a hundred (sweet) notes, like the nightingale,
کای رهاننده مرا از وصف زشت ** ای کننده دوزخی را تو بهشت
Singing, “O Thou that deliverest me from evil qualities! O Thou that makest a hell Paradise!
در یکی پیهی نهی تو روشنی ** استخوانی را دهی سمع ای غنی3290
Thou puttest light in a piece of fat; Thou, O Self-sufficing One, givest (the sense of) hearing to a bone.”
چه تعلق آن معانی را به جسم ** چه تعلق فهم اشیا را به اسم
What connexion have those concepts (e.g. sight and hearing) with the body? What connexion has the apprehension of things with (their) names?
لفظ چون وکرست و معنی طایر است ** جسم جوی و روح آب سایر است
The word is like the nest, and the meaning is the bird: the body is the riverbed, and the spirit is the rolling water.
او روان است و تو گویی واقف است ** او دوان است و تو گویی عاکف است
It is moving, and you say it is standing: it is running, and you say it is keeping still.
گر نبینی سیر آب از خاکها ** چیست بر وی نو به نو خاشاکها
If you see not the movement of the water through the fissures (channels) of earth—(yet it is moving): what are the sticks and straws (ever appearing) anew on it?
هست خاشاک تو صورتهای فکر ** نو به نو در میرسد اشکال بکر3295
Your sticks and straws are the forms (ideas) of thought: (these) virgin forms are always coming on anew.
روی آب جوی فکر اندر روش ** نیست بیخاشاک محبوب و وحش
The surface of the water and stream of thought, as it rolls, is not without sticks and straws, (some) pleasing and (some) unsightly.
قشرها بر روی این آب روان ** از ثمار باغ غیبی شد دوان
The husks on the surface of this rolling water have sped along from the fruits of the Invisible Garden.
قشرها را مغز اندر باغ جو ** ز انکه آب از باغ میآید به جو
Seek the kernels of the husks (not on the water, but) in the Garden, because the water comes from the Garden into the river-bed.
گر نبینی رفتن آب حیات ** بنگر اندر جوی و این سیر نبات
If you see not the flow of the Water of Life, look at the stream and at this movement of the weeds (in it).
آب چون انبهتر آید در گذر ** زو کند قشر صور زوتر گذر3300
When the water begins to pass by in fuller volume, the husks, (which are) the ideas, pass along it more quickly.
چون به غایت تیز شد این جو روان ** غم نپاید در ضمیر عارفان
When this stream has become extremely rapid in its flow, no care lingers in the minds of the gnostics.
چون به غایت ممتلی بود و شتاب ** پس نگنجید اندر او الا که آب
Since it is (then) exceedingly full and swift, on that account there is no room in it for anything but the water.
طعنه زدن بیگانه ای در شیخ و جواب گفتن مرید شیخ او را
How a stranger reviled the Shaykh and how the Shaykh's disciple answered him.
آن یکی یک شیخ را تهمت نهاد ** کاو بد است و نیست بر راه رشاد
A certain man brought charges against a Shaykh, saying, “He is wicked and not on the path of righteousness;
شارب خمر است و سالوس و خبیث ** مر مریدان را کجا باشد مغیث
He is a wine-drinker and a hypocrite and a scoundrel: how should he be one to succour his disciples?”
آن یکی گفتش ادب را هوش دار ** خرد نبود این چنین ظن بر کبار3305
One (of the disciples) said to him, “Observe respect: ’tis no light matter to think so ill of the great.
دور از او و دور از آن اوصاف او ** که ز سیلی تیره گردد صاف او
Far is it from him and far from those (saintly) qualities of his that his clear (spirit) should be darkened by a flood (of sin).