گفت قاضی ثبت العرش ای پسر ** تا برو نقشی کنم از خیر و شر
The Cadi said (to the Súfí), “Make the roof firm, O son, in order that I may decorate it with good and evil.
کو زننده کو محل انتقام ** این خیالی گشته است اندر سقام 1535
Where is the assailant? Where is that which is subject to vengeance? This man in (consequence of) sickness has become a (mere) phantom.
شرع بهر زندگان و اغنیاست ** شرع بر اصحاب گورستان کجاست
The law is for the living and self-sufficient: where (how) is the law (binding) upon the occupants of the graveyard?”
آن گروهی کز فقیری بی‌سرند ** صد جهت زان مردگان فانی‌تراند
The class (of men) who are headless (selfless) because of (their spiritual) poverty are in a hundred respects more naughted than those dead (and buried).
مرده از یک روست فانی در گزند ** صوفیان از صد جهت فانی شدند
The dead man is naughted (only) from one point of view, namely), as regards loss (of bodily life); the Súfís have been naughted in a hundred respects.
مرگ یک قتلست و این سیصد هزار ** هر یکی را خونبهایی بی‌شمار
(Bodily) death is a single killing, while this (spiritual death) is three hundred thousand (killings), for each one of which there is a blood-price beyond reckoning.
گرچه کشت این قوم را حق بارها ** ریخت بهر خونبها انبارها 1540
Though God hath killed these folk many a time, (yet) He hath poured forth (infinite) stores (of grace) in payment of the blood-price.
هم‌چو جرجیس‌اند هر یک در سرار ** کشته گشته زنده گشته شصت بار
Every one (of these martyrs) is inwardly like Jirjís (St George): they have been killed and brought to life (again) sixty times.
کشته از ذوق سنان دادگر ** می‌بسوزد که بزن زخمی دگر
From his delight in (being smitten by) the spear-point of the (Divine) Judge, the killed one is ever burning (in rapture) and crying. Strike another blow!”
والله از عشق وجود جان‌پرست ** کشته بر قتل دوم عاشق‌ترست
(I swear) by God, from love for the existence that fosters the spirit, the killed one longs (still) more passionately to be killed a second time.
گفت قاضی من قضادار حیم ** حاکم اصحاب گورستان کیم
The Cadi said, “I am the cadi for the living: how am I the judge of the occupants of the graveyard?
این به صورت گر نه در گورست پست ** گورها در دودمانش آمدست 1545
If to outward seeming this man is not laid low in the grave, (yet) graves have entered into his household.
بس بدیدی مرده اندر گور تو ** گور را در مرده بین ای کور تو
You have seen many a dead man in the grave: (now), O, blind one, see the grave in a dead man.
گر ز گوری خشت بر تو اوفتاد ** عاقلان از گور کی خواهند داد
If bricks from the grave have fallen on you, how should reasonable persons seek redress from the grave?
گرد خشم و کینه‌ی مرده مگرد ** هین مکن با نقش گرمابه نبرد
Do not concern yourself with anger and hatred against a dead man: beware, do not wake war on (one who is as dead as) the pictures in a bath-house.
شکر کن که زنده‌ای بر تو نزد ** کانک زنده رد کند حق کرد رد
Give thanks that a living one did not strike you, for he whom the living one rejects is rejected of God.
خشم احیا خشم حق و زخم اوست ** که به حق زنده‌ست آن پاکیزه‌پوست 1550
The anger of the living ones is God’s anger and His blows for that pure-skinned one is living through God.
حق بکشت او را و در پاچه‌ش دمید ** زود قصابانه پوست از وی کشید
God killed him and breathed on his trotters and quickly, like a butcher, stripped off his skin.
نفخ در وی باقی آمد تا مب ** نفخ حق نبود چو نفخه‌ی آن قصاب
The breath remains in him till (he reaches) the final bourn: the breathing of God is not as the breathing of the butcher.
فرق بسیارست بین النفختین ** این همه زینست و آن سر جمله شین
There is a great difference between the two breathings: this is wholly honour, while that (other) side is entirely, shame.
این حیات از وی برید و شد مضر ** وان حیات از نفخ حق شد مستمر
This (the latter) took life away from it (the slaughtered beast) and injured it, while by the breathing of God that (spiritual) life was made perpetual.
این دم آن دم نیست کاید آن به شرح ** هین بر آ زین قعر چه بالای صرح 1555
This (Divine) breath is not a breath that can be described: hark, come up from the bottom of the pit to the top of the palace.
نیستش بر خر نشاندن مجتهد ** نقش هیزم را کسی بر خر نهد
‘Tis not a sound legal decision to mount him (the defendant) on an ass (and parade him): does any one lay upon an ass a (mere) picture of firewood?
بر نشست او نه پشت خر سزد ** پشت تابوتیش اولیتر سزد
The back of an ass is not his proper seat: the back of a bier is more fitting for him.
ظلم چه بود وضع غیر موضعش ** هین مکن در غیر موضع ضایعش
What is injustice? To put (a thing) out of its proper place: beware, do not let it be lost (by putting it) out of its place.”