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آن چه معشوق است صورت نیست آن ** خواه عشق این جهان خواه آن جهان
- That which is the object of love is not the form, whether it be love for (the things of) this world or yonder world.
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آن چه بر صورت تو عاشق گشتهای ** چون برون شد جان چرایش هشتهای
- That which you have come to love for its form—why have you abandoned it after the spirit has fled?
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صورتش بر جاست این سیری ز چیست ** عاشقا واجو که معشوق تو کیست 705
- Its form is still there: whence (then) this satiety (disgust)? O lover, inquire who your beloved (really) is.
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آن چه محسوس است اگر معشوقه است ** عاشق استی هر که او را حس هست
- If the beloved is that which the senses perceive, every one that has senses would be in love (with it).
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چون وفا آن عشق افزون میکند ** کی وفا صورت دگرگون میکند
- Inasmuch as constancy is increased by that (spiritual) love, how is constancy altered (impaired) by the (decay of the material) form?
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پرتو خورشید بر دیوار تافت ** تابش عاریتی دیوار یافت
- The sunbeam shone upon the wall: the wall received a borrowed splendour.
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بر کلوخی دل چه بندی ای سلیم ** واطلب اصلی که تابد او مقیم
- Why set your heart on a piece of turf, O simple man? Seek out the source which shines perpetually.
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ای که تو هم عاشقی بر عقل خویش ** خویش بر صورت پرستان دیده بیش 710
- You who are in love with your intellect, deeming yourself superior to worshippers of form,
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پرتو عقل است آن بر حس تو ** عاریت میدان ذهب بر مس تو
- That (intellect) is a beam of (Universal) Intellect (cast) on your sense-perception; regard it as borrowed gold on your copper.
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چون زر اندود است خوبی در بشر ** ور نه چون شد شاهد تو پیر خر
- Beauty in humankind is like gilding; else, how did your sweetheart become (as ugly as) an old ass?
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چون فرشته بود همچون دیو شد ** کان ملاحت اندر او عاریه بد
- She was like an angel, she became like a demon, for that loveliness in her was a borrowed (transient) thing.
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اندک اندک میستانند آن جمال ** اندک اندک خشک میگردد نهال
- Little by little they take away that beauty: little by little the sapling withers.
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رو نعمره ننکسه بخوان ** دل طلب کن دل منه بر استخوان 715
- Go, recite (the text) to whom so We grant length of days, him We cause to decline. Seek the heart (spirit), set not thy heart on bones;
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کان جمال دل جمال باقی است ** دولتش از آب حیوان ساقی است
- For that beauty of the heart is the lasting beauty: its fortune gives to drink of the Water of Life.
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خود هم او آب است و هم ساقی و مست ** هر سه یک شد چون طلسم تو شکست
- Truly it is both the water and the giver of drink and the drunken: all three become one when your talisman is shattered.
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آن یکی را تو ندانی از قیاس ** بندگی کن ژاژ کم خا ناشناس
- That oneness you cannot know by reasoning. Do service (to God) and refrain from foolish gabble, O undiscerning man!
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معنی تو صورت است و عاریت ** بر مناسب شادی و بر قافیت
- Your reality is the form and that which is borrowed: you rejoice in what is relative and (secondary like) rhyme.
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معنی آن باشد که بستاند ترا ** بینیاز از نقش گرداند ترا 720
- Reality is that which seizes (enraptures) you and makes you independent of form.
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معنی آن نبود که کور و کر کند ** مرد را بر نقش عاشقتر کند
- Reality is not that which makes blind and deaf and causes a man to be more in love with form.
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کور را قسمت خیال غم فزاست ** بهرهی چشم این خیالات فناست
- The portion of the blind is the fancy that increases pain; the share of the (spiritual) eye is these fancies (ideas) of dying to self (faná).
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حرف قرآن را ضریران معدناند ** خر نبینند و به پالان بر زنند
- The blind are a mine (full) of the letter of the Qur’án: they do not see the ass, and (only) cling to the pack-saddle.
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چون تو بینایی پی خر رو که جست ** چند پالان دوزی ای پالان پرست
- Since you have sight, go after the ass which has jumped (away from you): how long (will you persist in) stitching the saddle, O saddle-worshipper?
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خر چو هست آید یقین پالان ترا ** کم نگردد نان چو باشد جان ترا 725
- When the ass is there, the saddle will certainly be yours: bread does not fail when you have the (vital) spirit.
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پشت خر دکان و مال و مکسب است ** در قلبت مایهی صد قالب است
- (On) the back of the ass is shop and wealth and gain; the pearl of your heart is the stock (which provides wealth) for a hundred bodies.
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خر برهنه بر نشین ای بو الفضول ** خر برهنه نه که راکب شد رسول
- Mount the ass bare-backed, O busybody: did not the Prophet ride the ass bare-backed?