بره‌ای بدهی رمه بازت دهد ** پرورنده‌ی هر صفت خود رب بود
(If) you give (Him) a lamb, He will give you back a (whole) flock (of sheep): verily the Lord is the fosterer of every (good) quality.
بره پیش گرگ امانت می‌نهی ** گرگ و یوسف را مفرما همرهی
Will you entrust the lamb to the wolf? (Nay), do not tell the wolf and Joseph to travel in company with each other.
گرگ اگر با تو نماید روبهی ** هین مکن باور که ناید زو بهی
If the wolf show foxiness towards you (fawn upon you), beware, do not believe (him), for no goodness comes from him.
جاهل ار با تو نماید هم‌دلی ** عاقبت زحمت زند از جاهلی
If a churl show sympathy towards you, (yet) in the end he will inflict blows upon you because of his churlishness.
او دو آلت دارد و خنثی بود ** فعل هر دو بی‌گمان پیدا شود 1425
Ille duo instrumenta habet et androgynus est: amborum effectus sine dubio apparet. [He has two organs and is a hermaphrodite: the operation of both is obvious, without doubt.]
او ذکر را از زنان پنهان کند ** تا که خود را خواهر ایشان کند
Penem oculis feminarum subtrahit ut sese earum sororem faciat. [He hides (his) penis from women in order to make himself (seem like) their sister.]
شله از مردان به کف پنهان کند ** تا که خود را جنس آن مردان کند
Vulvam ne viri videant manu obtegit, ut sese de genere virorum faciat. [He hides (his) vulva from men with (his) hand in order to make himself (seem like) the (same) gender as the men.]
گفت یزدان زان کس مکتوم او ** شله‌ای سازیم بر خرطوم او
Dixit Deus, “Ex ejus cunno occulto scissuram in naso ejus faciemus, [God said, “Because of that hidden vulva of his, We will make a slit on his nose,]
تا که بینایان ما زان ذو دلال ** در نیایند از فن او در جوال
In order that Our seers may not be entrapped by the artfulness of that ogler.”
حاصل آنک از هر ذکر ناید نری ** هین ز جاهل ترس اگر دانش‌وری 1430
The gist (of the matter) is that masculinity does not come from every male: beware of the ignorant man if you are wise.
دوستی جاهل شیرین‌سخن ** کم شنو کان هست چون سم کهن
Do not listen to the friendliness of the fair-spoken ignorant man, for it is like old (virulent) poison.
جان مادر چشم روشن گویدت ** جز غم و حسرت از آن نفزویدت
He says to you, “O soul of thy mother! O light of my eye!” (but) from those (endearments) only grief and sorrow are added to you.
مر پدر را گوید آن مادر جهار ** که ز مکتب بچه‌ام شد بس نزار
That (foolish) mother says plainly to your father, “My child has grown very thin because of (going to) school.
از زن دیگر گرش آوردیی ** بر وی این جور و جفا کم کردیی
If thou hadst gotten him by another wife, thou wouldst not have treated him with such cruelty and unkindness.”
از جز تو گر بدی این بچه‌ام ** این فشار آن زن بگفتی نیز هم 1435
(Your father replies), “Had this child of mine been (born) of another (wife), not of thee, that wife too would have talked this (same) nonsense.”
هین بجه زن مادر و تیبای او ** سیلی بابا به از حلوای او
Beware, recoil from this mother and from her blandishments: your father's slaps are better than her sweetmeat.
هست مادر نفس و بابا عقل راد ** اولش تنگی و آخر صد گشاد
The mother is the carnal soul, and the father is noble reason: its beginning is constraint, but its end is a hundred expansions (of the spirit).
ای دهنده‌ی عقلها فریاد رس ** تا نخواهی تو نخواهد هیچ کس
O Giver of (all) understandings, come to my help: none wills (aught) unless Thou will (it).
هم طلب از تست و هم آن نیکوی ** ما کییم اول توی آخر توی
Both the desire (for good) and the good action (itself) proceed from Thee: who are we? Thou art the First, Thou art the Last.
هم بگو تو هم تو بشنو هم تو باش ** ما همه لاشیم با چندین تراش 1440
Do Thou speak and do Thou hear and do Thou be! We are wholly naught notwithstanding all this hewing.
زین حواله رغبت افزا در سجود ** کاهلی جبر مفرست و خمود
Because of this resignation (to Thy will) do Thou increase our desire for worship (of Thee): do not send (upon us) the sloth and stagnation of necessitarianism.
جبر باشد پر و بال کاملان ** جبر هم زندان و بند کاهلان
Necessitarianism is the wing and pinion of the perfect; necessitarianism is also the prison and chains of the slothful.
هم‌چو آب نیل دان این جبر را ** آب مومن را و خون مر گبر را
Know that this necessitarianism is like the water of the Nile— water to the true believer and blood to the infidel.
بال بازان را سوی سلطان برد ** بال زاغان را به گورستان برد
Wings carry falcons to the king; wings carry crows to the graveyard.
باز گرد اکنون تو در شرح عدم ** که چو پازهرست و پنداریش سم 1445
Now return to the description of non-existence, for it (non-existence) is like bezoar, though you think it is poison.
هم‌چو هندوبچه هین ای خواجه‌تاش ** رو ز محمود عدم ترسان مباش
Hark, O fellow-servant, go and, like the Hindú boy, be not afraid of the Mahmúd of non-existence.
از وجودی ترس که اکنون در ویی ** آن خیالت لاشی و تو لا شیی
Be afraid of the existence in which you are now: that phantasy of yours is nothing and you (yourself) are nothing.
لاشیی بر لاشیی عاشق شدست ** هیچ نی مر هیچ نی را ره زدست
One nothing has fallen in love with another nothing: has any naught ever waylaid (and attacked) any other naught?
چون برون شد این خیالات از میان ** گشت نامعقول تو بر تو عیان
When these phantasies have departed from before you, that which your understanding hath not conceived becomes clear to you.
لیس للماضین هم الموت انما لهم حسره الموت
Those who have passed away do not grieve on account of death; their only regret is to have missed the opportunities (of life).
راست گفتست آن سپهدار بشر ** که هر آنک کرد از دنیا گذر 1450
That captain of mankind has said truly that no one who has passed away from this world
نیستش درد و دریغ و غبن موت ** بلک هستش صد دریغ از بهر فوت
Feels sorrow and regret and disappointment on account of death; nay, but he feels a hundred regrets for having missed the opportunity,
که چرا قبله نکردم مرگ را ** مخزن هر دولت و هر برگ را
Saying (to himself), “Why did not I make death my object —(death, which is) the store-house of every fortune and every provision—
قبله کردم من همه عمر از حول ** آن خیالاتی که گم شد در اجل
(And why), through seeing double, did I make the lifelong object of my attention those phantoms that vanished at the fated hour?”
حسرت آن مردگان از مرگ نیست ** زانست کاندر نقشها کردیم ایست
The grief of the dead is not on account of death; it is because (so they say) “we dwelt upon the (phenomenal) forms,
ما ندیدیم این که آن نقش است و کف ** کف ز دریا جنبد و یابد علف 1455
And this we did not perceive, that those are (mere) form and foam, (and that) the foam is moved and fed by the Sea.”
چونک بحر افکند کفها را به بر ** تو بگورستان رو آن کفها نگر
When the Sea has cast the foam-flakes on the shore, go to the graveyard and behold those flakes of foam!
پس بگو کو جنبش و جولانتان ** بحر افکندست در بحرانتان
Then say (to them), “Where is your movement and gyration (now)? The Sea has cast you into the crisis (of a deadly malady)”—
تا بگویندت به لب نی بل به حال ** که ز دریا کن نه از ما این سال
In order that they may say to you, not with their lips but implicitly, “Ask this question of the Sea, not of us.”
نقش چون کف کی بجنبد بی ز موج ** خاک بی بادی کجا آید بر اوج
How should the foam-like (phenomenal) form move without the wave? How should the dust rise to the zenith without a wind?
چون غبار نقش دیدی باد بین ** کف چو دیدی قلزم ایجاد بین 1460
Since you have perceived the dust, namely, the form, perceive the wind; since you have perceived the foam, perceive the ocean of Creative Energy.
هین ببین کز تو نظر آید به کار ** باقیت شحمی و لحمی پود و تار
Come, perceive (it), for insight (is the only thing) in you (that) avails: the rest of you is a piece of fat and flesh, a weft and warp (of bones, muscles, etc.).
شحم تو در شمعها نفزود تاب ** لحم تو مخمور را نامد کباب
Your fat never increased the light in candles, your flesh never became roast-meat for any one drunken with (spiritual) wine.
در گداز این جمله تن را در بصر ** در نظر رو در نظر رو در نظر
Dissolve the whole of this body of yours in vision: pass into sight, pass into sight, into sight!
یک نظر دو گز همی‌بیند ز راه ** یک نظر دو کون دید و روی شاه
One sight perceives (only) two yards of the road; another sight has beheld the two worlds and the Face of the King.
در میان این دو فرقی بی‌شمار ** سرمه جو والله اعلم بالسرار 1465
Between these twain there is an incalculable difference: seek the collyrium—and God best knoweth the things occult.
چون شنیدی شرح بحر نیستی ** کوش دایم تا برین بحر ایستی
Since you have heard the description of the sea of non-existence, continually endeavour to stand (depend) upon this sea.
چونک اصل کارگاه آن نیستیست ** که خلا و بی‌نشانست و تهیست
Inasmuch as the foundation of the workshop is that non-existence which is void and traceless and empty,
جمله استادان پی اظهار کار ** نیستی جویند و جای انکسار
(And inasmuch as) all master-craftsmen seek non-existence and a place of breakage for the purpose of exhibiting their skill,
لاجرم استاد استادان صمد ** کارگاهش نیستی و لا بود
Necessarily the Lord (who is) the Master of (all) masters— His workshop is non-existence and naught.
هر کجا این نیستی افزون‌ترست ** کار حق و کارگاهش آن سرست 1470
Wherever this non-existence is greater, (the more manifest) in that quarter is the work and workshop of God.