تا نشد پر بر سر دریا چو طشت ** چون که پر شد طشت در وی غرق گشت
Until they become full, (they float) like bowls on the top of the sea, (but) when the bowl is filled it sinks therein.
عقل پنهان است و ظاهر عالمی ** صورت ما موج یا از وی نمی
Reason is hidden, and (only) a world (of phenomena) is visible: our forms are the waves or a spray of it (of that hidden ocean).
هر چه صورت می وسیلت سازدش ** ز آن وسیلت بحر دور اندازدش
Whatsoever (thing) the form makes (uses as) a means of approach to It (to Reason), by that (same) means the ocean (of Reason) casts it (the form) far away.
تا نبیند دل دهندهی راز را ** تا نبیند تیر دور انداز را
So long as the heart does not see the Giver of (its) conscience, so long as the arrow does not see the far-shooting Archer,
اسب خود را یاوه داند وز ستیز ** میدواند اسب خود در راه تیز1115
He (who is thus blind) thinks his horse is lost, though (all the while) he is obstinately speeding his horse on the road.
اسب خود را یاوه داند آن جواد ** و اسب خود او را کشان کرده چو باد
That fine fellow thinks his horse is lost, while the horse in truth is sweeping him onward like the wind.
در فغان و جستجو آن خیرهسر ** هر طرف پرسان و جویان دربدر
In lamentation and inquiry that scatterbrain (runs) from door to door in every direction, asking and searching:
کان که دزدید اسب ما را کو و کیست ** این که زیر ران تست ای خواجه چیست
“Where and who is he that stole my horse?” What is this (animal) under thy thigh, O master?
آری این اسب است لیک این اسب کو ** با خود آ ای شهسوار اسب جو
“Yes, this is the horse, but where is this horse?” O dexterous rider in search of thy horse, come to thyself!
جان ز پیدایی و نزدیکی است گم ** چون شکم پر آب و لب خشکی چو خم1120
The Spirit is lost (to view) because of its being so manifest and near: how, having thy belly full of water, art thou dry-lipped like a jar?
کی ببینی سرخ و سبز و فور را ** تا نبینی پیش از این سه نور را
How wilt thou see red and green and russet, unless before (seeing) these three (colours) thou see the light?
لیک چون در رنگ گم شد هوش تو ** شد ز نور آن رنگها رو پوش تو
But since thy mind was lost (absorbed) in (perception of) the colour, those colours became to thee a veil from (debarred thee from contemplating) the light.
چون که شب آن رنگها مستور بود ** پس بدیدی دید رنگ از نور بود
Inasmuch as at night those colours were hidden, thou sawest that thy vision of the colour was (derived) from the light.
نیست دید رنگ بینور برون ** همچنین رنگ خیال اندرون
There is no vision of colour without the external light: even so it is with the colour of inward phantasy.
این برون از آفتاب و از سها ** و اندرون از عکس انوار علی1125
This outward (light) is (derived) from the sun and from Suhá, while the inward (light) is from the reflexion of the beams of (Divine) Glory.
نور نور چشم خود نور دل است ** نور چشم از نور دلها حاصل است
The light which gives light to the eye is in truth the light of the heart: the light of the eye is produced by the light of hearts.
باز نور نور دل نور خداست ** کاو ز نور عقل و حس پاک و جداست
Again, the light which gives light to the heart is the Light of God, which is pure and separate from the light of intellect and sense.
شب نبد نوری ندیدی رنگها ** پس به ضد نور پیدا شد ترا
At night there was no light and thou didst not see the colours; then it (the light) was made manifest by the opposite of light (by darkness).
دیدن نور است آن گه دید رنگ ** وین به ضد نور دانی بیدرنگ
(First) comes the seeing of light, then the seeing of colour; and this thou knowest immediately by the opposite of light (darkness).
رنج و غم را حق پی آن آفرید ** تا بدین ضد خوش دلی آید پدید1130
God created pain and sorrow for the purpose that happiness might be made manifest by means of this opposite.
پس نهانیها به ضد پیدا شود ** چون که حق را نیست ضد پنهان بود
Hidden things, then, are manifested by means of their opposite; since God hath no opposite, He is hidden;
که نظر بر نور بود آن گه به رنگ ** ضد به ضد پیدا بود چون روم و زنگ
For the sight fell (first) on the light, then on the colour: opposite is made manifest by opposite, like Greeks and Ethiopians.
پس به ضد نور دانستی تو نور ** ضد ضد را مینماید در صدور
Therefore thou knewest light by its opposite: opposite reveals opposite in (the process of) coming forth.
نور حق را نیست ضدی در وجود ** تا به ضد او را توان پیدا نمود
The Light of God hath no opposite in (all) existence, that by means of that opposite it should be possible to make Him manifest:
لاجرم أبصارنا لا تدرکه ** و هو یدرک بین تو از موسی و که1135
Necessarily (therefore) our eyes do not perceive Him, though He perceives (us): see this (fact) from (the case of) Moses and the mountain (Sinai).