من چو مرغ اوجم اندیشه مگس ** کی بود بر من مگس را دسترس
I am as a bird of the zenith, thought is a gnat: how should a gnat have power over me?
قاصدا زیر آیم از اوج بلند ** تا شکسته پایگان بر من تنند
Purposely I come down from the lofty zenith, that those of base degree may attain to me.
چون ملالم گیرد از سفلی صفات ** بر پرم همچون طیور الصافات
When disgust at the qualities of the low (world) seizes me, I soar up like the birds which spread their pinions.
پر من رسته ست هم از ذات خویش ** بر نچسبانم دو پر من با سریش
My wings have grown out of my very essence: I do not stick two wings on with glue.
جعفر طیار را پر جاریه ست ** جعفر عیار را پر عاریه ست3565
The wings of Ja‘far-i Tayyár are permanent; the wings of Ja‘far-i Tarrár are borrowed (unreal and transitory).
نزد آن که لم یذق دعوی است این ** نزد سکان افق معنی است این
In the view of him that has not experienced (it), this is (mere) pretension; in the view of the inhabitants of the (spiritual) horizon, this is the reality.
لاف و دعوی باشد این پیش غراب ** دیگ تی و پر یکی پیش ذباب
This is brag and pretension in the eyes of the crow: an empty or full pot is all one to the fly.
چون که در تو میشود لقمه گهر ** تن مزن چندان که بتوانی بخور
When morsels of food become (changed to) pearls within you, do not forbear: eat as much as you can.”
شیخ روزی بهر دفع سوء ظن ** در لگن قی کرد پر در شد لگن
One day the Shaykh, in order to rebut (these) ill thoughts, vomited in a basin, and the basin became full of pearls.
گوهر معقول را محسوس کرد ** پیر بینا بهر کم عقلی مرد3570
On account of the (abusive) man's little understanding, the clairvoyant Pír made the intelligible pearls objects of sense-perception.
چون که در معده شود پاکت پلید ** قفل نه بر حلق و پنهان کن کلید
When pure (lawful food) turns to impurity in your stomach, put a lock upon your gullet and hide the key;
هر که در وی لقمه شد نور جلال ** هر چه خواهد تا خورد او را حلال
(But) any one in whom morsels of food become the light of (spiritual) glory, let him eat whatever he will, it is lawful to him.
بیان دعویی که عین آن دعوی گواه صدق خویش است
Explaining (that there are) some assertions the truth of which is attested by their very nature.
گر تو هستی آشنای جان من ** نیست دعوی گفت معنی لان من
If you are my soul's familiar friend, my words full of (real) meaning are not (mere) assertion.
گر بگویم نیم شب پیش توام ** هین مترس از شب که من خویش توام
If at midnight I say, “I am near you: come now, be not afraid of the night, for I am your kinsman,”
این دو دعوی پیش تو معنی بود ** چون شناسی بانگ خویشاوند خود3575
These two assertions are to you reality, since you recognise the voice of your own relative.
پیشی و خویشی دو دعوی بود لیک ** هر دو معنی بود پیش فهم نیک
Nearness and kinship were (only) two assertions, but both (of them) were reality to the good understanding.
قرب آوازش گواهی میدهد ** کاین دم از نزدیک یاری میجهد
The proximity of the voice gives him (the hearer) testimony that these words spring from a near friend;
لذت آواز خویشاوند نیز ** شد گوا بر صدق آن خویش عزیز
Moreover, (his) delight at (hearing) the voice of his kinsman has borne witness to the truthfulness of that dear relative.
Again, the uninspired fool who in his ignorance does not know a stranger's voice from a kinsman's—
پیش او دعوی بود گفتار او ** جهل او شد مایهی انکار او3580
To him his (the speaker's) words are (mere) assertion: his ignorance has become the source of his disbelief;
پیش زیرک کاندرونش نورهاست ** عین این آواز معنی بود راست
(But) to him of keen insight, within whom are the (spiritual) lights, the very nature of this voice was just the (immediate evidence of its) reality.
یا به تازی گفت یک تازی زبان ** که همیدانم زبان تازیان
Or (for example) one whose mother-tongue is Arabic says in Arabic, “I know the language of the Arabs.”
عین تازی گفتنش معنی بود ** گر چه تازی گفتنش دعوی بود
The very fact of his speaking in Arabic is (evidence of) the reality (of his assertion), although his saying (that he knows) Arabic is (only) an assertion.
یا نویسد کاتبی بر کاغذی ** کاتب و خط خوانم و من ابجدی
Or a writer may write on a piece of paper, “I am a writer and a reader, and I am a most accomplished person.”
این نوشته گر چه خود دعوی بود ** هم نوشته شاهد معنی بود3585
Although this written (statement) itself is a (mere) assertion, still the script is evidence of the reality (of the assertion).