در نگنجد عشق در گفت و شنید ** عشق دریاییست قعرش ناپدید
Love is not contained in speech and hearing: Love is an ocean whereof the depth is invisible.
قطره‌های بحر را نتوان شمرد ** هفت دریا پیش آن بحرست خرد
The drops of the sea cannot be numbered: the Seven Seas are petty in comparison with that Ocean.
این سخن پایان ندارد ای فلان ** باز رو در قصه‌ی شیخ زمان
This discourse hath no end. Return, O reader, to the story of the Shaykh of the time.
در معنی لولاک لما خلقت الافلاک
On the meaning of “But for thee, I would not have created the heavens.”
شد چنین شیخی گدای کو به کو ** عشق آمد لاابالی اتقوا
A Shaykh like this became a beggar (going) from street to street. Love is reckless: beware!
عشق جوشد بحر را مانند دیگ ** عشق ساید کوه را مانند ریگ 2735
Love makes the sea boil like a kettle; Love crumbles the mountain like sand;
عشق‌بشکافد فلک را صد شکاف ** عشق لرزاند زمین را از گزاف
Love cleaves the sky with a hundred clefts; Love unconscionably makes the earth to tremble.
با محمد بود عشق پاک جفت ** بهر عشق او را خدا لولاک گفت
The pure Love was united with Mohammed: for Love's sake God said to him, “But for thee.”
منتهی در عشق چون او بود فرد ** پس مر او را ز انبیا تخصیص کرد
Since he alone was the ultimate goal in Love, therefore God singled him out from the (other) prophets,
گر نبودی بهر عشق پاک را ** کی وجودی دادمی افلاک را
(Saying), “Had it not been for pure Love's sake, how should I have bestowed an existence on the heavens?
من بدان افراشتم چرخ سنی ** تا علو عشق را فهمی کنی 2740
I have raised up the lofty celestial sphere, that thou mayst apprehend the sublimity of Love.
منفعتهای دیگر آید ز چرخ ** آن چو بیضه تابع آید این چو فرخ
Other benefits come from the celestial sphere: it is like the egg, (while) these (benefits) are consequential, like the chick.
خاک را من خوار کردم یک سری ** تا ز خواری عاشقان بویی بری
I have made the earth altogether lowly, that thou mayst gain some notion of the lowliness of lovers.
خاک را دادیم سبزی و نوی ** تا ز تبدیل فقیر آگه شوی
We have given greenness and freshness to the earth, that thou mayst become acquainted with the (spiritual) transmutation of the dervish.”
با تو گویند این جبال راسیات ** وصف حال عاشقان اندر ثبات
These firm-set mountains describe (represent) to thee the state of lovers in steadfastness,
گرچه آن معنیست و این نقش ای پسر ** تا به فهم تو کند نزدیک‌تر 2745
Although that (state) is a reality, while this (description) is (only) an image, O son, (which is employed) in order that he (who offers it) may bring it nearer to thy understanding.
غصه را با خار تشبیهی کنند ** آن نباشد لیک تنبیهی کنند
They liken anguish to thorns; it is not that (in reality), but they do so as a means of arousing (thy) attention.
آن دل قاسی که سنگش خواندند ** نامناسب بد مثالی راندند
When they called a hard heart “stony,” that was (really) inappropriate, (but) they made it serve as a similitude.
در تصور در نیاید عین آن ** عیب بر تصویر نه نفیش مدان
The archetype of that (object of comparison) is inconceivable: put the blame on thy conceptual faculty, and do not regard it (the archetype) as negated (nonexistent).
رفتن این شیخ در خانه‌ی امیری بهر کدیه روزی چهار بار به زنبیل به اشارت غیب و عتاب کردن امیر او را بدان وقاحت و عذر گفتن او امیر را
How the Shaykh, in obedience to the intimation from the Unseen, went with his basket four times in one day to the house of a certain Amír for the purpose of begging; and how the Amír rebuked him for his impudence, and how he excused himself to the Amír.
شیخ روزی چار کرت چون فقیر ** بهر کدیه رفت در قصر امیر
One day the Shaykh went four times to the palace of an Amír, in order to beg like a dervish,
در کفش زنبیل و شی لله زنان ** خالق جان می‌بجوید تای نان 2750
(With) a basket in his hand, crying, “Something for God's sake! The Creator of the soul is seeking a piece of bread.”
نعلهای بازگونه‌ست ای پسر ** عقل کلی را کند هم خیره‌سر
’Tis preposterous, O son: it makes even Universal Reason giddy-headed (astounded).
چون امیرش دید گفتش ای وقیح ** گویمت چیزی منه نامم شحیح
When the Amír saw him, he said to him, “O impudent man, I will tell you something, (but) do not fasten on me the name of niggard.
این چه سغری و چه رویست و چه کار ** که به روزی اندر آیی چار بار
What callousness and effrontery and (insolent) behaviour is this, that you come in (here) four times in one day?
کیست اینجا شیخ اندر بند تو ** من ندیدم نر گدا مانند تو
Who here is attached to you, Shaykh? Never have I seen a sturdy beggar like you.
حرمت و آب گدایان برده‌ای ** این چه عباسی زشت آورده‌ای 2755
You have brought (all) beggars into contempt and disgrace: what abominable importunity, worthy of ‘Abbás (himself), is this that you have shown!