کم گریز از شیر و اژدرهای نر ** ز آشنایان و ز خویشان کن حذر
Do not flee from lions and fierce dragons, (but) beware of friends and kinsmen.
در تلاقی روزگارت می‌برند ** یادهاشان غایبی‌ات می‌چرند
They waste your time (when you are) face to face (with them), and your recollections of them devour (the time of) your absence (from them).
چون خر تشنه خیال هر یکی ** از قف تن فکر را شربت‌مکی
Like a thirsty ass, the image of each one (in your phantasy) is licking up the sherbet of (spiritual) thought from the flagon of the body.
نشف کرد از تو خیال آن وشات ** شبنمی که داری از بحر الحیات
The (mental) image of those talebearers has sucked out of you the dew that you have (derived) from the Sea of Life.
پس نشان نشف آب اندر غصون ** آن بود کان می‌نجنبد در رکون 2230
The sign, then, of the absorption (drying up) of the water (sap) in the boughs is that they are not moved to sway (to and fro).
عضو حر شاخ تر و تازه بود ** می‌کشی هر سو کشیده می‌شود
The limb of him who is free (detached from the world) is (like) a moist fresh bough: (if) you pull it in any direction, it is (easily) pulled.
گر سبد خواهی توانی کردنش ** هم توانی کرد چنبر گردنش
If you want a basket, you can make it (a basket); you can also make its neck a hoop;
چون شد آن ناشف ز نشف بیخ خود ** ناید آن سویی که امرش می‌کشد
(But) when it has been sucked dry by the draining of (the sap from) its root, it does not come (readily) in the direction to which (your) command is pulling it.
پس بخوان قاموا کسالی از نبی ** چون نیابد شاخ از بیخش طبی
Recite, then, from the Qur’án (the words) they stand up languidly, when the bough gets no medicinal (curative) treatment from its root.
آتشین است این نشان کوته کنم ** بر فقیر و گنج و احوالش زنم 2235
This symbol (allegory) is fiery, (but) I will cut it short and resume (the story of) the fakir and the treasure and the circumstances connected with it.
آتشی دیدی که سوزد هر نهال ** آتش جان بین کزو سوزد خیال
You have seen the fire that burns every (dry) sapling; (now) see the fire of the Spirit by which phantasy is burnt.
نه خیال و نه حقیقت را امان ** زین چنین آتش که شعله زد ز جان
Neither for phantasy nor for reality is there any protection against a fire like this which flamed forth from the Spirit.
خصم هر شیر آمد و هر روبه او ** کل شیء هالک الا وجهه
He is the adversary of every lion and every fox: everything is perishing except His Face.
در وجوه وجه او رو خرج شو ** چون الف در بسم در رو درج شو
Go into His aspects (attributes) and Face (Essence), become spent (emptied of self): go in, become enveloped (suppressed), like the alif in bism.
آن الف در بسم پنهان کرد ایست ** هست او در بسم و هم در بسم نیست 2240
In bism the alif has stayed hidden: it is in bism and also it is not in bism.
هم‌چنین جمله‌ی حروف گشته مات ** وقت حذف حرف از بهر صلات
Such is the case with all the letters that disappear when they are elided for the purpose of (effecting) conjunctions.
از صله‌ست و بی و سین زو وصل یافت ** وصل بی و سین الف را بر نتافت
It (the suppressed alif in bism) is a sila (means of conjunction) and through it the b and the s have attained to union: the union of the b and the s could not bear the (external intervention of the) alif.
چونک حرفی برنتابد این وصال ** واجب آید که کنم کوته مقال
Since this union cannot bear (the intervention of) a single letter, it behoves me to cut short the discourse.
چون یکی حرفی فراق سین و بیست ** خامشی اینجا مهمتر واجبیست
Since a single letter is the cause of separation between the s and the b, here silence is a most urgent duty.
چون الف از خود فنا شد مکتنف ** بی و سین بی او همی‌گویند الف 2245
When the alif has passed away from self(-existence), taking shelter (in self-abandonment), the b and the s say “alif” without it.
ما رمیت اذ رمیت بی ویست ** هم‌چنین قال الله از صمتش بجست
(The words) thou didst not throw when thou threwest are (an utterance spoken) without him (the Prophet); likewise (the words) God said sprang from his silence.
تا بود دارو ندارد او عمل ** چونک شد فانی کند دفع علل
So long as a drug exists (independently), it has no effect; it removes diseases (only) when it has perished (has been dissolved and assimilated).
گر شود بیشه قلم دریا مداد ** مثنوی را نیست پایانی امید
(Even) if (all) the forest should become pens and (all) the ocean ink, (yet) there is no hope of bringing the Mathnawí to an end.
چارچوب خشت‌زن تا خاک هست ** می‌دهد تقطیع شعرش نیز دست
So long as the Brick-maker's mould is (filled with) earth, the scansion of its (the Mathnawí's) poetry, too, will be kept up.
چون نماند خاک و بودش جف کند ** خاک سازد بحر او چون کف کند 2250
When earth remains no more and He (God) dries (withers and destroys) its existence, His sea when it foams will make (fresh) earth.