این زمین و آسمان بس فراخ ** سخت تنگ آمد به هنگام مناخ
This very wide earth and heaven becomes exceedingly narrow at the time of lying down (to sleep).
جسم بند آمد فراخ وسخت تنگ ** خنده‌ی او گریه فخرش جمله ننگ
It (the world) is an eye-bandage (a spell that blinds the eye): (it is) wide (in appearance), and (in reality) mighty narrow: its laughter is weeping, its glory is entirely shame.
تشبیه دنیا کی بظاهر فراخست و بمعنی تنگ و تشبیه خواب کی خلاص است ازین تنگی
Comparison of this world, which is wide in appearance and narrow in reality, (to a bathroom), and comparison (of the next world) to sleep, which is the (means of) release from this narrowness.
همچو گرمابه که تفسیده بود ** تنگ آیی جانت پخسیده شود3545
(This world is) like a bath-room which is very hot, (so that) you are distressed and your soul is melted (with anguish).
گرچه گرمابه عریضست و طویل ** زان تبش تنگ آیدت جان و کلیل
Although the bath-room is broad and long, your soul is distressed and fatigued by the heat.
تا برون نایی بنگشاید دلت ** پس چه سود آمد فراخی منزلت
Your heart does not expand (you feel no relief) till you come out: what advantage, then, is the spaciousness of the room to you?
یا که کفش تنگ پوشی ای غوی ** در بیابان فراخی می‌روی
Or (it is) as though you should put on tight shoes, O misguided one, and go into a wide desert.
آن فراخی بیابان تنگ گشت ** بر تو زندان آمد آن صحرا و دشت
The spaciousness of the desert becomes narrow (distressing); that desert and plain becomes a prison to you.
هر که دید او مر ترا از دور گفت ** کو در آن صحرا چو لاله تر شکفت3550
Whoever sees you from afar says, “He blooms like a fresh anemone (he is cheerful and happy) in that desert”;
او نداند که تو همچون ظالمان ** از برون در گلشنی جان در فغان
He does not know that you, like the wicked, are outwardly in the rose-garden, (while) your soul is in lamentation.
خواب تو آن کفش بیرون کردنست ** که زمانی جانت آزاد از تنست
Your sleep is to put those shoes off, for (then) your soul is free from the body for a while.
اولیا را خواب ملکست ای فلان ** همچو آن اصحاب کهف اندر جهان
To the saints, O reader, sleep is a kingdom, as (it was to) the Men of the Cave in this world.
خواب می‌بینند و آنجا خواب نه ** در عدم در می‌روند و باب نه
They (sleep and) dream, and no (physical) sleep is there; they go into nonexistence, and no (material) door (is there).
خانه‌ی تنگ و درون جان چنگ‌لوک ** کرد ویران تا کند قصر ملوک3555
“(The body is) a narrow house, and the soul within is cramped: He (God) ruined it in order that He might make a royal palace.
چنگ‌لوکم چون جنین اندر رحم ** نه‌مهه گشتم شد این نقلان مهم
I am cramped like the embryo in the womb: I have become nine months old: this migration has become urgent.
گر نباشد درد زه بر مادرم ** من درین زندان میان آذرم
Unless the throes of childbirth overtake my mother, (what should I do?): in this prison I am amidst the fire.
مادر طبعم ز درد مرگ خویش ** می‌کند ره تا رهد بره ز میش
My mother, namely, my nature (natural body), in consequence of its death-throes, is giving birth (to the spirit), to the end that the lamb (the spirit) may be released from the ewe,
تا چرد آن بره در صحرای سبز ** هین رحم بگشا که گشت این بره گبز
So that the lamb may graze in the green fields. Come, open thy womb, for this lamb has grown big.”
درد زه گر رنج آبستان بود ** بر جنین اشکستن زندان بود3560
If the pain of childbirth is grievous to the pregnant (woman), it is, for the embryo, the breaking of (its) prison.
حامله گریان ز زه کاین المناص ** و آن جنین خندان که پیش آمد خلاص
The pregnant woman weeps at childbirth, saying, “Where is the refuge?”—but the embryo laughs, saying, “Deliverance has appeared.”
هرچه زیر چرخ هستند امهات ** از جماد و از بهیمه وز نبات
Whatever mothers (bodies) there are under the sky—mineral, animal, or vegetable—
هر یکی از درد غیری غافل اند ** جز کسانی که نبیه و کامل‌اند
They are heedless, every one, of another's pain, except those persons that are discerning and perfect.
آنچ کوسه داند از خانه‌ی کسان ** بلمه از خانه خودش کی داند آن
How should the man with a bushy beard know of his own house that which the man with a few hairs on his chin knows of (other) people's houses?
آنچ صاحب‌دل بداند حال تو ** تو ز حال خود ندانی ای عمو3565
What the man of heart (the clairvoyant mystic) knows of your condition you do not know of your own condition, O uncle.
بیان آنک هرچه غفلت و غم و کاهلی و تاریکیست همه از تنست کی ارضی است و سفلی
Setting forth that whatever is (denoted by the terms) heedlessness and anxiety and indolence and darkness is all (derived) from the body, which belongs to the earth and the lower world.
غفلت از تن بود چون تن روح شد ** بیند او اسرار را بی هیچ بد
Heedlessness was (derived) from the body: when the body has become spirit, it inevitably beholds the mysteries (of the Unseen).
چون زمین برخاست از جو فلک ** نه شب و نه سایه باشد نه دلک
When the earth is removed from the celestial atmosphere, there is neither night nor shade nor sunset.