گر لطیفی زشت را در پی کند ** تسخری باشد که او بر وی کند
If a charming person makes an ugly one (follow) at his heels, ’tis (but) a mockery that he makes of him.
کی ببینم روی خود را ای عجب ** تا چه رنگم همچو روزم یا چو شب
How, I wonder, shall I behold my own face, so as to see what complexion I have and whether I am like day or like night?
نقش جان خویش میجستم بسی ** هیچ میننمود نقشم از کسی
For a long while I was seeking the image of my soul, (but) my image was not displayed (reflected) by any one.
گفتم آخر آینه از بهر چیست ** تا بداند هر کسی کاو چیست و کیست
“After all,” I said, “what is a mirror for? (The use of it is this), that every one may know what and who he is.”
آینهی آهن برای پوستهاست ** آینهی سیمای جان سنگین بهاست95
The mirror of iron is (only) for husks (external forms); the mirror that shows the aspect of the heart is of great price.
آینهی جان نیست الا روی یار ** روی آن یاری که باشد ز آن دیار
The soul's mirror is naught but the face of the friend, the face of that friend who is of yonder country (the spiritual land).
گفتم ای دل آینهی کلی بجو ** رو به دریا کار برناید به جو
I said, “O heart, seek the Universal Mirror, go to the Sea: the business will not succeed (be successfully accomplished) by means of the river.”
زین طلب بنده به کوی تو رسید ** درد مریم را به خرما بن کشید
In this quest thy slave (at last) arrived at thy dwelling-place, (as) the pains (of childbirth) drew Mary to the palm-tree.
دیدهی تو چون دلم را دیده شد ** این دل نادیده غرق دیده شد
When thine eye became an eye for my heart, my blind heart went and became drowned in vision.
آینهی کلی ترا دیدم ابد ** دیدم اندر چشم تو من نقش خود100
I saw that thou art the Universal Mirror unto everlasting: I saw my own image in thine eye.
گفتم آخر خویش را من یافتم ** در دو چشمش راه روشن یافتم
I said, “At last I have found myself: in his eyes I have found the shining Way.”
گفت وهمم کان خیال تست هان ** ذات خود را از خیال خود بدان
My false instinct said, “Beware! That (image) is (only) thy phantom: distinguish thy essence from thy phantom”;
نقش من از چشم تو آواز داد ** که منم تو تو منی در اتحاد
(But) my image gave voice (spoke) from thine eye (and said), “I am thou and thou art I in (perfect) oneness;
کاندر این چشم منیر بیزوال ** از حقایق راه کی یابد خیال
For how should a phantom find the way into this illumined eye which never ceases from (contemplating) the (Divine) realities?”
در دو چشم غیر من تو نقش خود ** گر ببینی آن خیالی دان و رد105
(Thou saidst), “If you behold your image in the eyes of any other than me, know that ’tis a phantom and reprobate,
ز آن که سرمهی نیستی در میکشد ** باده از تصویر شیطان میچشد
Because he (every one except me) is applying (to his eye) the collyrium of nonexistence (unreality) and is imbibing the wine of Satan's illusion-making.
چشمشان خانهی خیال است و عدم ** نیستها را هست بیند لاجرم
Their eye is the home of phantasy and non-existence: necessarily it sees as existent the things which are non-existent;
چشم من چون سرمه دید از ذو الجلال ** خانهی هستی است نه خانهی خیال
(But) since my eye saw (got) collyrium from the Glorious (God), it is the home of (real) existence, not the home of phantasy.”
تا یکی مو باشد از تو پیش چشم ** در خیالت گوهری باشد چو یشم
So long as a single hair of you is before your eye, in your phantasy a pearl will be as jasper.
یشم را آن گه شناسی از گهر ** کز خیال خود کنی کلی عبر110
You will know jasper from pearls (only) at the time when you pass away from (abandon) your phantasy entirely.
یک حکایت بشنو ای گوهر شناس ** تا بدانی تو عیان را از قیاس
O connoisseur of pearls, listen to a story, that you may distinguish actual seeing from (mere) inference.
هلال پنداشتن آن شخص خیال را در عهد عمر
How in the time of ‘Umar, may God be well-pleased with him, a certain person imagined that what he saw was the new moon.
ماه روزه گشت در عهد عمر ** بر سر کوهی دویدند آن نفر
The Fasting-month (Ramadán) came round in ‘Umar's time. Some people ran to the top of a hill,
تا هلال روزه را گیرند فال ** آن یکی گفت ای عمر اینک هلال
In order to take (the appearance of) the new moon as a good omen, and one of them said, “Look, O ‘Umar, here is the new moon!”
چون عمر بر آسمان مه را ندید ** گفت کاین مه از خیال تو دمید
As ‘Umar did not see the moon in the sky, he said, “This moon has risen from thy phantasy.
ور نه من بیناترم افلاک را ** چون نمیبینم هلال پاک را115
Otherwise, (since) I am a better seer of the heavens (than thou), how is it that I do not see the pure crescent?