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گربه در انبانم اندر دست عشق ** یکدمی بالا و یکدم پست عشق
- In the hand of Love I am like a cat in a bag, now lifted high and now flung low by Love.
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او همیگرداندم بر گرد سر ** نه به زیر آرام دارم نه زبر
- He is whirling me round His head: I have no rest either below or aloft.
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عاشقان در سیل تند افتادهاند ** بر قضای عشق دل بنهادهاند 910
- The lovers (of God) have fallen into a fierce torrent: they have set their hearts on (resigned themselves to) the ordinance of Love.
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همچو سنگ آسیا اندر مدار ** روز و شب گردان و نالان بیقرار
- (They are) like the millstone turning, day and night, in (continual) revolution and moaning incessantly.
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گردشش بر جوی جویان شاهدست ** تا نگوید کس که آن جو راکدست
- Its turning is evidence for those who seek the River, lest any one should say that the River is motionless.
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گر نمیبینی تو جو را در کمین ** گردش دولاب گردونی ببین
- If thou seest not the hidden River, see the (perpetual) turning of the celestial water-wheel.
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چون قراری نیست گردون را ازو ** ای دل اختروار آرامی مجو
- Since the heavens have no rest from (being moved by) Him (Love), (be) thou, O heart, like a star, (and) seek no rest.
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گر زنی در شاخ دستی کی هلد ** هر کجا پیوند سازی بسکلد 915
- If thou lay hold of a branch, how should He let (thee cling to it)? Wherever thou makest an attachment, He will break it.
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گر نمیبینی تو تدویر قدر ** در عناصر جوشش و گردش نگر
- If thou seest not the revolutionary action of the (Divine) decree, look at the surging and whirling (that appears) in the (four) elements;
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زانک گردشهای آن خاشاک و کف ** باشد از غلیان بحر با شرف
- For the whirling of the sticks and straws and foam are caused by the boiling of the noble Sea (of Love).
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باد سرگردان ببین اندر خروش ** پیش امرش موج دریا بین بجوش
- See the giddy wind howling; see the billows surging at His command.
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آفتاب و ماه دو گاو خراس ** گرد میگردند و میدارند پاس
- The sun and moon are two mill-oxen, going round and round and keeping watch (over the world).
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اختران هم خانه خانه میدوند ** مرکب هر سعد و نحسی میشوند 920
- The stars likewise run from house to house (in the sky) and convey every good and evil fortune.
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اختران چرخ گر دورند هی ** وین حواست کاهلاند و سستپی
- Hark, though the stars of heaven are far away and thy senses are (too) dull and slack (to apprehend their motions),
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اختران چشم و گوش و هوش ما ** شب کجااند و به بیداری کجا
- (Yet ask thyself) where are our stars—eye, ear, and mind—at night, and where (are they) when we are awake?
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گاه در سعد و وصال و دلخوشی ** گاه در نحس فراق و بیهشی
- Now (they are) in good luck and union and happiness; now in ill-luck and separation and insensibility.
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ماه گردون چون درین گردیدنست ** گاه تاریک و زمانی روشنست
- Since the moon of heaven is (engaged) in making this circuit, she is sometimes dark and sometimes bright.
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گه بهار و صیف همچون شهد و شیر ** گه سیاستگاه برف و زمهریر 925
- Sometimes ’tis spring and summer, (delicious) as honey and milk; sometimes (the world is) a place of punishment by snow and piercing cold.
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چونک کلیات پیش او چو گوست ** سخره و سجده کن چوگان اوست
- Seeing that before Him (God) universals are like a ball, subject (to Him) and prostrating themselves before His bat,
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تو که یک جزوی دلا زین صدهزار ** چون نباشی پیش حکمش بیقرار
- How shouldst thou, O heart, which art (but) one of these hundred thousand particulars, not be in restless movement at His decree?
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چون ستوری باش در حکم امیر ** گه در آخر حبس گاهی در مسیر
- Be at the disposal of the Prince, like a horse (or mule), now confined in the stable, now going (on the road).
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چونک بر میخت ببندد بسته باش ** چونک بگشاید برو بر جسته باش
- When He fastens thee to a peg, be fastened (quiet and submissive); when He looses thee, go, be exultant (prance and bound).
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آفتاب اندر فلک کژ میجهد ** در سیهروزی خسوفش میدهد 930
- (But keep on the right road, for when) the sun in heaven jumps crookedly, He causes it to be eclipsed in black disgrace,
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کز ذنب پرهیز کن هین هوشدار ** تا نگردی تو سیهرو دیگوار
- Saying, “Avoid the (Dragon's) Tail: hark, take heed, lest thou become black of face like a cooking-pot.”
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ابر را هم تازیانهی آتشین ** میزنندش کانچنان رو نه چنین
- The cloud, too, is lashed with a whip of fire, (as through to say), “Go that way, do not go this way!