پارسی گو گرچه تازی خوشترست ** عشق را خود صد زبان دیگرست
Speak Persian, though Arabic is sweeter: Love indeed hath a hundred other tongues (besides these two).
بوی آن دلبر چو پران می‌شود ** آن زبانها جمله حیران می‌شود
When the scent of that Charmer of hearts begins to fly (abroad), all those tongues become dumbfounded.
بس کنم دلبر در آمد در خطاب ** گوش شو والله اعلم بالصواب
I will cease (from speech): the Sweetheart has begun to speak, be (all) ear—and God best knoweth the right course.
چونک عاشق توبه کرد اکنون بترس ** کو چو عیاران کند بر دار درس3845
Since the lover has repented, now beware (of misapprehension), for he will lecture, like the adepts (in mystical love), on the gallows.
گرچه این عاشق بخارا می‌رود ** نه به درس و نه به استا می‌رود
Although this lover is going to Bukhárá, he is not going to (attend) lectures or to (learn from) a teacher.
عاشقان را شد مدرس حسن دوست ** دفتر و درس و سبقشان روی اوست
For lovers, the (only) lecturer is the beauty of the Beloved, their (only) book and lecture and lesson is His face.
خامشند و نعره‌ی تکرارشان ** می‌رود تا عرش و تخت یارشان
They are silent (outwardly), but the shrill noise of their repetition is going up to the throne and high-seat of their Friend.
درسشان آشوب و چرخ و زلزله ** نه زیاداتست و باب سلسله
Their (only) lesson is enthusiasm and the whirling dance and quaking agitation; not the Ziyádát and the chapter on “the chain.”
سلسله‌ی این قوم جعد مشکبار ** مسله‌ی دورست لیکن دور یار3850
The “chain” of these people (the lovers of God) is the musk-dropping curls (of the Beloved); they have the question of “the circle,” but it is the “circle” of the Friend.
مسله‌ی کیس ار بپرسد کس ترا ** گو نگنجد گنج حق در کیسه‌ها
If any one ask you about the question of “the purse,” tell (him) that God's treasure is not contained in purses.
گر دم خلع و مبارا می‌رود ** بد مبین ذکر بخارا می‌رود
If talk of khul‘ and mubárá is going on (among them), do not disapprove: (inwardly) mention is being made of “Bukhárá.”
ذکر هر چیزی دهد خاصیتی ** زانک دارد هرصفت ماهیتی
The mention (recollection) of any thing produces a particular (spiritual) effect, inasmuch as every quality has a quiddity.
در بخارا در هنرها بالغى ** چون به خوارى رو نهى ز آن فارغى
In Bukhárá you attain to (perfection in) the sciences: when you turn to lowliness (ba-khwárí), you are freed from them.
آن بخاری غصه‌ی دانش نداشت ** چشم بر خورشید بینش می‌گماشت3855
That man of Bukhárá had not the vexation of knowledge: he was fixing his eyes on the sun of vision.
هرکه درخلوت ببینش یافت راه ** او ز دانشها نجوید دستگاه
No one who in solitude has found the way to vision will seek power by means of the (diverse) kinds of knowledge.
با جمال جان چوشد هم‌کاسه‌ای ** باشدش ز اخبار و دانش تاسه‌ای
When he has become a boon-companion to the beauty of the Soul, he will have a disgust of traditional learning and knowledge.
دید بردانش بود غالب فرا ** زان همی دنیا بچربد عامه را
Vision is superior to knowledge: hence the present world prevails (over the next world) in the view of the vulgar,
زانک دنیا را همی‌بینند عین ** وآن جهانی را همی‌دانند دین
Because they regard this world as ready money, while they deem what concerns that (other) world to be (like) a debt.
رو نهادن آن بنده‌ی عاشق سوی بخارا
How that loving servant turned his face towards Bukhárá.
رو نهاد آن عاشق خونابه‌ریز ** دل‌طپان سوی بخارا گرم و تیز3860
With throbbing heart the lover, who shed tears mingled with blood, set out for Bukhárá in hot haste.
ریگ آمون پیش او همچون حریر ** آب جیحون پیش او چون آبگیر
The sands of Ámún seemed to him like silk, the river Oxus seemed to him like a pond.
آن بیابان پیش او چون گلستان ** می‌فتاد از خنده او چون گلستان
To him that wilderness was like a rose-garden: he was falling on his back from laughter, like the (full-blown) rose.
در سمرقندست قند اما لبش ** از بخارا یافت و آن شد مذهبش
The (material) candy is in Samarcand; but his lip got it from “Bukhárá,” and that (spiritual candy) became his creed.
ای بخارا عقل‌افزا بوده‌ای ** لیکن ازمن عقل و دین بربوده‌ای
“O Bukhárá, thou hast increased understanding (in others) but thou hast robbed me of understanding and religion.
بدر می‌جویم از آنم چون هلال ** صدر می‌جویم درین صف نعال3865
I am seeking the Full Moon: hence I am (thin) as the new moon. I am seeking the Sadr (Prince) in this ‘shoe-row’ (vestibule).”
چون سواد آن بخارا را بدید ** در سواد غم بیاضی شد پدید
When he described that “Bukhárá” looming black (in the distance), a whiteness (a mystic illumination) appeared in the blackness of his grief.
ساعتی افتاد بیهوش و دراز ** عقل او پرید در بستان راز
He fell (and lay) awhile senseless and outstretched: his reason flew into the garden of the mystery.
بر سر و رویش گلابی می‌زدند ** از گلاب عشق او غافل بدند
They were sprinkling rose-water on his head and face; they were unaware of the rose-water of his love.
او گلستانی نهانی دیده بود ** غارت عشقش ز خود ببریده بود
He had beheld a hidden rose-garden: the raiding foray of Love had cut him off from himself.
تو فسرده درخور این دم نه‌ای ** با شکر مقرون نه‌ای گرچه نیی3870
Thou, frozen (in spirit), art not worthy of this (inspiring) breath (of love): though thou art a reed (cane), thou art not associated with sugar.
رخت عقلت با توست و عاقلی ** کز جنودا لم تروها غافلی
The baggage of intellect is with thee, and thou art (still) possessed of thy wits, for thou art unaware of armies which ye did not see.
در آمدن آن عاشق لاابالی در بخارا وتحذیر کردن دوستان او را از پیداشدن
How the reckless lover entered Bukhárá, and how his friends deterred him from showing himself.
اندر آمد در بخارا شادمان ** پیش معشوق خود و دارالامان
Joyously he entered Bukhárá near his beloved and (him who was) the abode of (his) security,
همچو آن مستی که پرد بر اثیر ** مه کنارش گیرد و گوید که گیر
Like the man intoxicated (with love) who (in imagination) flies to heaven: the Moon embraces him and says, “Embrace (me)!”
هرکه دیدش در بخارا گفت خیز ** پیش از پیدا شدن منشین گریز
Every one that saw him in Bukhárá said (to him), “Arise (and go) before showing thyself! Do not sit (still)! Flee!
که ترا می‌جوید آن شه خشمگین ** تا کشد از جان تو ده ساله کین3875
For that Prince is seeking thee in anger, that he may wreak a ten years' vengeance on thy life.
الله الله درمیا در خون خویش ** تکیه کم کن بر دم و افسون خویش
By God, by God, do not plunge in thine own blood, do not rely on thy artful words and wiles.
شحنه‌ی صدر جهان بودی و راد ** معتمد بودی مهندس اوستاد
Thou wert the Sadr-i Jahán's constable and a noble; thou wert the trusted (agent) and master-engineer (in his affairs).
غدو کردی وز جزا بگریختی ** رسته بودی باز چون آویختی
(Then) thou didst act treacherously and flee from punishment: thou hadst escaped: how hast thou let thyself be caught again?
از بلا بگریختی با صد حیل ** ابلهی آوردت اینجا یا اجل
With a hundred devices thou didst flee from tribulation: has folly brought thee hither or (thy) fate?
ای که عقلت بر عطارد دق کند ** عقل و عاقل را قضا احمق کند3880
O thou whose intellect jeers at Mercury (the celestial Scribe), Destiny makes a fool of intellect and the intelligent.
نحس خرگوشی که باشد شیرجو ** زیرکی و عقل و چالاکیت کو
Luckless is the hare that seeks (to encounter) the lion: where is thy cleverness and intelligence and quick-wittedness?
هست صد چندین فسونهای قضا ** گفت اذا جاء القضا ضاق الفضا
The wiles of Destiny are a hundred times as many (as thine): he (the Prophet) has said, ‘When Destiny comes, the wide field is straitened.’
صد ره و مخلص بود از چپ و راست ** از قضا بسته شود کو اژدهاست
There are a hundred ways and places of refuge on left and right, (but) they are barred by Destiny, for it is a dragon.”
جواب گفتن عاشق عاذلان را وتهدید کنندگان را
How the lover answered those who scolded and threatened him.
گفت من مستسقیم آبم کشد ** گرچه می‌دانم که هم آبم کشد
He said, “I am dropsical: the water draws me, though I know that the water too will kill me.
هیچ مستقسقی بنگریزد ز آب ** گر دو صد بارش کند مات و خراب3885
None afflicted with dropsy will flee from the water, even if it checkmate and ruin him two hundred times.
گر بیاماسد مرا دست و شکم ** عشق آب از من نخواهد گشت کم
If my hands and belly become swollen, (yet) the passionate desire for the water will not abate (and depart) from me.
گویم آنگه که بپرسند از بطون ** کاشکی بحرم روان بودی درون
At the time when they ask me of my inward state, I say, ‘Would that the Sea were flowing within me!’
خیک اشکم گو بدر از موج آب ** گر بمیرم هست مرگم مستطاب
Let the water-skin, my belly, be burst by the waves of the water: if I die, my death is acceptable.
من بهر جایی که بینم آب جو ** رشکم آید بودمی من جای او
Wherever I see the water of a stream, jealousy comes over me (and I wish) that I might be in its place.
دست چون دف و شکم همچون دهل ** طبل عشق آب می‌کوبم چو گل3890
(With) hands (swollen) like a tambourine and belly like a drum, I am beating the drum of (I am proclaiming) my love for the water, as the rose (does).
گر بریزد خونم آن روح الامین ** جرعه جرعه خون خورم همچون زمین
If that Trusty Spirit spill my blood, I will drink draught on draught of blood, like the earth.