دید بس نادر گیاهی سبز و تر ** می‌ربود آن سبزیش نور از بصر
He saw a very uncommon plant, green and fresh: its green ness took away the light from (dazzled) the sight.
پس سلامش کرد در حال آن حشیش ** او جوابش گفت و بشکفت از خوشیش1375
Then that herb at once saluted him: he answered it (returned its salutation) and marvelled at its beauty.
گفت نامت چیست برگو بی‌دهان ** گفت خروبست ای شاه جهان
I said, “What is thy name? Say (it) without mouth.” It said, ‘‘It is ‘carob,’ O king of the world.’’
گفت اندر تو چه خاصیت بود ** گفت من رستم مکان ویران شود
He said, “What special property is (resides) in thee?” It replied, “(Where) I have grown, the place becomes desolate.
من که خروبم خراب منزلم ** هادم بنیاد این آب و گلم
I, who am carob (kharrub), am the ruin (kharàb) of the abode: I am the destroyer of the building (made) of this water and clay.”
پس سلیمان آن زمان دانست زود ** که اجل آمد سفر خواهد نمود
Then at that moment Solomon immediately understood that the appointed term (of his life) was come and that the (hour of) departure would (soon) appear.
گفت تا من هستم این مسجد یقین ** در خلل ناید ز آفات زمین1380
He said, “So long as I exist, assuredly this Mosque will not be damaged by the banes of the earth.
تا که من باشم وجود من بود ** مسجداقصی مخلخل کی شود
Whilst I am (here) and my existence continues, how should the Farther Mosque become riven with cracks (fall into decay)?”
پس که هدم مسجد ما بی‌گمان ** نبود الا بعد مرگ ما بدان
Know, then, that without doubt the ruin of our mosque does not occur except after our death.
مسجدست آن دل که جسمش ساجدست ** یار بد خروب هر جا مسجدست
The mosque is the heart to which the body bows down: wherever the mosque is, the bad companion is the carob.
یار بد چون رست در تو مهر او ** هین ازو بگریز و کم کن گفت وگو
When love for a bad companion has grown in you, beware, flee from him and do not converse (with him).
برکن از بیخش که گر سر بر زند ** مر ترا و مسجدت را بر کند1385
Tear it up by the root, for if it shoot up its head it wilt demolish (both) you and your mosque.
عاشقا خروب تو آمد کژی ** هم‌چو طفلان سوی کژ چون می‌غژی
O lover, your carob is falseness: why do you creep, like children, towards the false?
خویش مجرم دان و مجرم گو مترس ** تا ندزدد از تو آن استاد درس
Know yourself a sinner and calf yourself a sinner—do not be afraid—so that that Master may not steal (secretly take away) the lesson from you.
چون بگویی جاهلم تعلیم ده ** این چنین انصاف از ناموس به
When you say, “I am ignorant; give (me) instruction,” such fair-dealing is better than (a false) reputation.
از پدر آموز ای روشن‌جبین ** ربنا گفت و ظلمنا پیش ازین
Learn from your father (Adam), O clear-browed man: he said heretofore, “O our Lord” and “We have done wrong.”
نه بهانه کرد و نه تزویر ساخت ** نه لوای مکر و حیلت بر فراخت1390
He made no excuse, nor did he invent falsehood nor lift up the banner of deceit and evasion.
باز آن ابلیس بحث آغاز کرد ** که بدم من سرخ رو کردیم زرد
That Iblís, on the other hand, began to dispute, saying, “I was red-faced (honourable): Thou hast made me yellow (disgraced).
رنگ رنگ تست صباغم توی ** اصل جرم و آفت و داغم توی
The colour is Thy colour: Thou art my dyer, Thou art the origin of my sin and bane and brand.”
هین بخوان رب بما اغویتنی ** تا نگردی جبری و کژ کم تنی
Beware! Recite (the text) because Thou hast seduced me, in order that you may not become a necessitarian and may not weave untruth.
بر درخت جبر تا کی بر جهی ** اختیار خویش را یک‌سو نهی
How long will you leap up the tree of necessitarianism and lay your free-will aside,
هم‌چو آن ابلیس و ذریات او ** با خدا در جنگ و اندر گفت و گو1395
Like that Iblís and his progeny, (engaged) in battle and argument with God?
چون بود اکراه با چندان خوشی ** که تو در عصیان همی دامن کشی
How should there be compulsion when you are trailing your skirt (sweeping along) into sin with such complacence?
آن‌چنان خوش کس رود در مکرهی ** کس چنان رقصان دود در گم‌رهی
Does any one under compulsion walk so complacently? Does any one, having lost his way’, go dancing (gleefully) like that?
بیست مرده جنگ می‌کردی در آن ** کت همی‌دادند پند آن دیگران
You were fighting like twenty men (to prevail) in the matter concerning which those others were giving you good advice.
که صواب اینست و راه اینست و بس ** کی زند طعنه مرا جز هیچ‌کس
You said, “This is right and this is the only (approved) way: how should any one but a nobody (worthless person) rail at me?”
کی چنین گوید کسی کو مکر هست ** چون چنین جنگد کسی کو بی‌رهست1400
How should one who is compelled speak thus? How should one who has lost his way wrangle like this?
هر چه نفست خواست داری اختیار ** هر چه عقلت خواست آری اضطرار
Whatever your fleshly soul desires, you have free-will (in regard to that); whatever your reason desires, you plead necessity (as an excuse for rejecting it).
داند او کو نیک‌بخت و محرمست ** زیرکی ز ابلیس و عشق از آدمست
He that is blessed and familiar (with spiritual mysteries) knows that intelligence is of Iblís, while love is of Adam.
زیرکی سباحی آمد در بحار ** کم رهد غرقست او پایان کار
Intelligence is (like) swimming in the seas: he (the swimmer) is not saved: he is drowned at the end of the business.
هل سباحت را رها کن کبر و کین ** نیست جیحون نیست جو دریاست این
Leave off swimming, let pride and enmity go: this is not a Jayhun (Oxus) or a (lesser) river, it is an ocean;
وانگهان دریای ژرف بی‌پناه ** در رباید هفت دریا را چو کاه1405
And, moreover, (it is) the deep Ocean without refuge: it sweeps away the seven seas like straw.
عشق چون کشتی بود بهر خواص ** کم بود آفت بود اغلب خلاص
Love is as a ship for the elect: seldom is calamity (the result); for the most part it is deliverance.
زیرکی بفروش و حیرانی بخر ** زیرکی ظنست و حیرانی نظر
Sell intelligence and buy bewilderment: intelligence is opinion, while bewilderment is (immediate) vision.
عقل قربان کن به پیش مصطفی ** حسبی الله گو که الله‌ام کفی
Sacrifice your understanding in the presence of Mustafá (Mohammed) say, “hasbiya ‘lláh, for God sufficeth me.”
هم‌چو کنعان سر ز کشتی وا مکش ** که غرورش داد نفس زیرکش
Do not draw back your head from the ship (ark), like Kan‘án (Canaan), whom his intelligent soul deluded,
که برآیم بر سر کوه مشید ** منت نوحم چرا باید کشید1410
Saying, “I will go up to the top of the lofty mountain: why must I bear gratitude (be under an obligation) to Noah?”
چون رمى از منتش اى بىرشد ** كه خدا هم منت او مىكشد
How should you recoil from being grateful to him, O unrighteous one, when even God bears gratitude to him?
چون رمی از منتش بر جان ما ** چونک شکر و منتش گوید خدا
How should gratitude to him not be (as an obligation) on our souls, when God gives him words of thankful praise and gratitude?
تو چه دانی ای غراره‌ی پر حسد ** منت او را خدا هم می‌کشد
What do you know (about his exalted state), O sack full of envy? Even God bears gratitude to him.
کاشکی او آشنا ناموختی ** تا طمع در نوح و کشتی دوختی
Would that he (one like Kan‘án) had not learned to swim, so that he might have fixed his hope on Noah and the ark!
کاش چون طفل از حیل جاهل بدی ** تا چو طفلان چنگ در مادر زدی1415
Would that, like a child, he had been ignorant of devices, so that, like children, he might have clung to his mother,
یا به علم نقل کم بودی ملی ** علم وحی دل ربودی از ولی
Or that he had not been filled with traditional knowledge, (but) had carried away from a saint the knowledge divinely revealed to the heart!
با چنین نوری چو پیش آری کتاب ** جان وحی آسای تو آرد عتاب
When you bring forward a book (in rivalry) with such a light (of inspiration), your soul, that resembles inspiration (in its nature), reproaches (you).
چون تیمم با وجود آب دان ** علم نقلی با دم قطب زمان
Know that beside the breath (words) of the Qutb of the time traditional knowledge is like performing the ritual ablution with sand when there is water (available).
خویش ابله کن تبع می‌رو سپس ** رستگی زین ابلهی یابی و بس
Make yourself foolish (simple) and follow behind (him): only by means of this foolishness will you gain deliverance.
اکثر اهل الجنه البله ای پسر ** بهر این گفتست سلطان البشر1420
On this account, O father, the Sultan of mankind (Mohammed hath said, “Most of the people of Paradise are the foolish.”
زیرکی چون کبر و باد انگیز تست ** ابلهی شو تا بماند دل درست
Since, intelligence is the exciter of pride and vanity in you, become a fool in order that your heart may remain sound—
ابلهی نه کو به مسخرگی دوتوست ** ابلهی کو واله و حیران هوست
Not the fool that is bent double (abases himself) in buffoonery, (but) the fool that is distraught and bewildered (lost) in Him (God).
ابلهان‌اند آن زنان دست بر ** از کف ابله وز رخ یوسف نذر
The foolish are (like) those women (of Egypt) who cut their hands—foolish in respect of their hands, (but) giving (wise) notice to beware of the face (beauty) of Joseph.