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چیست اصل و مایهی هر پیشهای ** جز خیال و جز عرض و اندیشهای
- What but some fancy and accident and idea is the origin and source of every handicraft?
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جمله اجزای جهان را بیغرض ** درنگر حاصل نشد جز از عرض
- Look disinterestedly on all the (various) parts of the world: they are not the result of (anything) except accident.
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اول فکر آخر آمد در عمل ** بنیت عالم چنان دان در ازل 970
- The beginning, which is thought, comes to an end in action; know that in such wise was the construction of the world in eternity.
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میوهها در فکر دل اول بود ** در عمل ظاهر به آخر میشود
- The fruits are first in the mind's thought, (but only) at the last do they become manifest actually:
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چون عمل کردی شجر بنشاندی ** اندر آخر حرف اول خواندی
- When you have done work (and) planted the tree—at the end (when the fruit appears) you read the first words.
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گر چه شاخ و برگ و بیخش اول است ** آن همه از بهر میوه مرسل است
- Although its boughs, leaves, and roots are first, (yet) all those are sent for the sake of the fruit.
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پس سری که مغز آن افلاک بود ** اندر آخر خواجهی لولاک بود
- Hence that hidden Thought which was the brain (core) of those (nine) heavens was in the end the lord of lawlák.
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نقل اعراض است این بحث و مقال ** نقل اعراض است این شیر و شگال 975
- This discussion and talk are (involve) the carrying over of accidents; this lion and jackal are (examples of) the carrying over of accidents.
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جمله عالم خود عرض بودند تا ** اندر این معنی بیامد هل أتی
- Indeed, all created beings were accidents (once), so that in this sense (the text) was revealed—Did there not come…?
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این عرضها از چه زاید از صور ** وین صور هم از چه زاید از فکر
- Whence arise these accidents? From ideas. And whence arise these ideas? From thoughts.
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این جهان یک فکرت است از عقل کل ** عقل چون شاه است و صورتها رسل
- This world is one thought (emanating) from the Universal Intellect: the Intellect is like a king, and the ideas (are his) envoys.
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عالم اول جهان امتحان ** عالم ثانی جزای این و آن
- The first world is the world of probation; the second world is the (world of) recompense for this and that.
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چاکرت شاها جنایت میکند ** آن عرض زنجیر و زندان میشود 980
- Thy servant, O King, commits a sin: that accident becomes (a substance, namely) chains and prison.
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بندهات چون خدمت شایسته کرد ** آن عرض نه خلعتی شد در نبرد
- When thy slave performed goodly service, did not that accident become a robe of honour in the battle (between the flesh and the spirit)?
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این عرض با جوهر آن بیضه است و طیر ** این از آن و آن از این زاید به سیر
- This accident with the substance (belonging to it) is egg and bird: this is produced by that, and that by this, in succession.”
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گفت شاهنشه چنین گیر المراد ** این عرضهای تو یک جوهر نزاد
- The King said, “Take the meaning (to be) so: (why then) have these accidents of yours not produced any substance?”
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گفت مخفی داشته ست آن را خرد ** تا بود غیب این جهان نیک و بد
- “(Divine) Wisdom,” replied the slave, “has kept it concealed, in order that this world of good and evil may be a mystery,
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ز انکه گر پیدا شدی اشکال فکر ** کافر و مومن نگفتی جز که ذکر 985
- Because, if the (substantial) forms of thought were to become manifest, infidel and believer (alike) would speak naught but praise (of God).
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پس عیان بودی نه غیب ای شاه این ** نقش دین و کفر بودی بر جبین
- Then, were this clearly seen, O King, not hidden, and were the mark of religion or infidelity (visible) on the forehead,
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کی درین عالم بت و بتگر بدی ** چون کسی را زهرهی تسخر بدی
- How would there be idol and idolater in this world? How would any one have the stomach to mock (at holy things)?
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پس قیامت بودی این دنیای ما ** در قیامت کی کند جرم و خطا
- Then this world of ours would be (like) the Resurrection: who commits sin and wrong at the Resurrection?”
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گفت شه پوشید حق پاداش بد ** لیک از عامه نه از خاصان خود
- The King said, “God has veiled the retribution of evil, but (only) from the vulgar, not from His own elect.
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گر به دامی افکنم من یک امیر ** از امیران خفیه دارم نه از وزیر 990
- If I entrap one Amír, I keep it hidden from the (other) Amírs, (but) not from the Vizier.
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حق به من بنمود پس پاداش کار ** وز صورهای عملها صد هزار
- God, then, has shown to me the retribution of work and myriads of the (substantial) forms of actions.
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تو نشانی ده که من دانم تمام ** ماه را بر من نمیپوشد غمام
- Give a sign (outwardly), for I know all: the cloud does not veil the moon from me.”
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گفت پس از گفت من مقصود چیست ** چون تو میدانی که آن چه بود چیست
- The slave said, “Then what is the object of my speaking, since thou knowest what is (the real nature of) that which has been?”
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گفت شه حکمت در اظهار جهان ** آن که دانسته برون آید عیان
- The King said, “The wisdom (of God) in making the world manifest (was) that the (thing) known should come forth (to be seen) plainly.
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آن چه میدانست تا پیدا نکرد ** بر جهان ننهاد رنج طلق و درد 995
- Until He made visible that which He knew, He did not lay upon the world the pain of parturition and the throes (thereof).
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یک زمان بیکار نتوانی نشست ** تا بدی یا نیکیی از تو نجست
- You cannot sit inactive for one moment: (you cannot rest) till some badness or goodness has issued from you.
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این تقاضاهای کار از بهر آن ** شد موکل تا شود سرت عیان
- These demands (cravings) for action were appointed in order that your inward consciousness should come clearly into (outward) view.
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پس کلابهی تن کجا ساکن شود ** چون سر رشتهی ضمیرش میکشد
- How, then, should the reel, which is the body, become still, when the thread's end, which is the mind, is pulling it?
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تاسهی تو شد نشان آن کشش ** بر تو بیکاری بود چون جان کنش
- The sign of that pulling is your anguish: to be inactive is to you like the death-agony.
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این جهان و آن جهان زاید ابد ** هر سبب مادر اثر از وی ولد 1000
- This world and that world are for ever giving birth: every cause is a mother, the effect is the child (born) from it.
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چون اثر زایید آن هم شد سبب ** تا بزاید او اثرهای عجب
- When the effect was born, that too became a cause, so that it might give birth to wondrous effects.
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این سببها نسل بر نسل است لیک ** دیدهای باید منور نیک نیک
- These causes are generation on generation, but it needs a very well illumined eye (to see all the links in their chain).”
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شاه با او در سخن اینجا رسید ** یا بدید از وی نشانی یا ندید
- The King, in conversation with him, arrived at this point: he either saw or did not see a sign.
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گر بدید آن شاه جویا دور نیست ** لیک ما را ذکر آن دستور نیست
- If that searching King saw (such a sign), ’tis not strange; but we are not permitted to mention it.
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چون ز گرمابه بیامد آن غلام ** سوی خویشش خواند آن شاه و همام 1005
- When that (other) slave came from the warm bath, that King and lofty personage called him to his presence,
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گفت صحا لک نعیم دایم ** بس لطیفی و ظریف و خوب رو
- (And) said, “Health (to you)! Lasting happiness be yours! You are very fine and elegant and good-looking.
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ای دریغا گر نبودی در تو آن ** که همیگوید برای تو فلان
- Oh, alas! If there were not in you that which so-and-so says about you,
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شاد گشتی هر که رویت دیدهیی ** دیدنت ملک جهان ارزیدیی
- Whoever beheld your face would become glad; the sight of you would be worth the empire of the world.”
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گفت رمزی ز آن بگو ای پادشاه ** کز برای من بگفت آن دین تباه
- He said, “O King, utter some hint of what that miscreant said about me.”
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گفت اول وصف دو روییت کرد ** کاشکارا تو دوایی خفیه درد 1010
- The King said, “In the first place he described you as double-faced, saying that you are ostensibly a remedy (but) secretly a disease.”
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خبث یارش را چو از شه گوش کرد ** در زمان دریای خشمش جوش کرد
- When he heard from the King the malice of his companion, at once the sea of his anger surged up.
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کف بر آورد آن غلام و سرخ گشت ** تا که موج هجو او از حد گذشت
- That slave foamed and reddened, so that the billows of his vituperation exceeded (all) bounds.
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کاو ز اول دم که با من یار بود ** همچو سگ در قحط بس گه خوار بود
- He said, “From the first moment that he was associated with me, he was a great eater of dung, like a dog in (time of) famine.”
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چون دمادم کرد هجوش چون جرس ** دست بر لب زد شهنشاهش که بس
- As he satirised him in succession (without intermission), like a bell, the King put his hand on his (the slave's) lips, saying, “Enough!”
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گفت دانستم ترا از وی بدان ** از تو جان گنده ست و از یارت دهان 1015
- He said, “I know you from him by that (which you have spoken): in you the spirit is foul, and in your companion (only) the mouth.
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پس نشین ای گنده جان از دور تو ** تا امیر او باشد و مأمور تو
- Therefore do you sit far off, O foul-spirited one, that he may be the commander and you under his command.”
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در حدیث آمد که تسبیح از ریا ** همچو سبزهی گولخن دان ای کیا
- It is (said) in the Hadíth (Traditions of the Prophet): “Know, sire, that glorification (of God) from hypocrisy is like the verdure on a midden.”