چون که مطرب پیرتر گشت و ضعیف ** شد ز بیکسبی رهین یک رغیف
When the minstrel grew older and feeble, through not earning (anything) he became indebted for a single loaf of bread.
گفت عمر و مهلتم دادی بسی ** لطفها کردی خدایا با خسی
He said, “Thou hast given me long life and respite: O God, Thou hast bestowed (many) favours on a vile wretch.
معصیت ورزیدهام هفتاد سال ** باز نگرفتی ز من روزی نوال
For seventy years I have been committing sin, (yet) not for one day hast Thou withheld Thy bounty from me.
نیست کسب امروز مهمان توام ** چنگ بهر تو زنم آن توام2085
I (can) earn nothing: to-day I am Thy guest, I will play the harp for Thee, I am Thine.”
چنگ را برداشت و شد الله جو ** سوی گورستان یثرب آه گو
He took up his harp and went in search of God to the graveyard of Medina, crying “Alas!”
گفت خواهم از حق ابریشم بها ** کاو به نیکویی پذیرد قلبها
He said, “I crave of God the price of silk (for harpstrings), for He in His kindness accepts adulterated coin.”
چون که زد بسیار و گریان سر نهاد ** چنگ بالین کرد و بر گوری فتاد
When he had played a long while and (then), weeping, laid his head down: he made the harp his pillow and dropped on a tomb.
خواب بردش مرغ جانش از حبس رست ** چنگ و چنگی را رها کرد و بجست
Sleep overtook him: the bird, his soul, escaped from captivity, it let harp and harper go and darted away.
گشت آزاد از تن و رنج جهان ** در جهان ساده و صحرای جان2090
It became freed from the body and the pain of this world in the simple (purely spiritual) world and the vast region of the soul.
جان او آن جا سرایان ماجرا ** کاندر اینجا گر بماندندی مرا
There his soul was singing what had befallen (it), saying, “If they would but let me stay here,
خوش بدی جانم در این باغ و بهار ** مست این صحرا و غیبی لالهزار
Happy would be my soul in this garden and springtide, drunken with this (far stretching) plain and mystic anemone-field.
بیپر و بیپا سفر میکردمی ** بیلب و دندان شکر میخوردمی
Without wing or foot I would be journeying, without lip or tooth I would be eating sugar.
ذکر و فکری فارغ از رنج دماغ ** کردمی با ساکنان چرخ لاغ
With a memory and thought free from brain-sickness, I would frolic with the dwellers in Heaven.
چشم بسته عالمی میدیدمی ** ورد و ریحان بیکفی میچیدمی2095
With eye shut I would be seeing a (whole) world, without a hand I would be gathering roses and basil.”
مرغ آبی غرق دریای عسل ** عین ایوبی شراب و مغتسل
The water-bird (his soul) was plunged in a sea of honey— the fountain of Job, to drink and wash in,
که بدو ایوب از پا تا به فرق ** پاک شد از رنجها چون نور شرق
Whereby Job, from his feet to the crown of his head, was purged of afflictions (and made pure) like the light of the sunrise.
مثنوی در حجم گر بودی چو چرخ ** درنگنجیدی در او زین نیم برخ
If the Mathnawí were as the sky in magnitude, not half the portion of this (mystery) would find room in it,
کان زمین و آسمان بس فراخ ** کرد از تنگی دلم را شاخ شاخ
For the exceeding broad earth and sky (of the material world) caused my heart, from (their) narrowness (in comparison with the spiritual universe), to be rent in pieces;
وین جهانی کاندر این خوابم نمود ** از گشایش پر و بالم را گشود2100
And this world that was revealed to me in this dream (of the minstrel) has spread wide my wings and pinions because of (its vast) expansion.
این جهان و راهش ار پیدا بدی ** کم کسی یک لحظهای آن جا بدی
If this world and the way to it were manifest, no one would remain there (in the material world) for a single moment.
امر میآمد که نی طامع مشو ** چون ز پایت خار بیرون شد برو
The (Divine) command was coming (to the minstrel)—“Nay, be not covetous: inasmuch as the thorn is out of thy foot, depart”—
مول مولی میزد آن جا جان او ** در فضای رحمت و احسان او
(Whilst) his soul was lingering there in the spacious demesne of His (God's) mercy and beneficence.
در خواب گفتن هاتف مر عمر را رضی الله عنه که چندین زر از بیت المال به آن مرد ده که در گورستان خفته است
How the heavenly voice spoke to ‘Umar, may God be well-pleased with him, while he was asleep, saying, “Give a certain sum of gold from the public treasury to the man who is sleeping in the graveyard.”
آن زمان حق بر عمر خوابی گماشت ** تا که خویش از خواب نتوانست داشت
Then God sent such a drowsiness upon ‘Umar that he was unable to keep himself from slumber.
در عجب افتاد کاین معهود نیست ** این ز غیب افتاد بیمقصود نیست2105
He fell into amazement saying, “This is (a thing) unknown. This has fallen from the Unseen, ’tis not without purpose.”
سر نهاد و خواب بردش خواب دید ** کامدش از حق ندا جانش شنید
He laid his head down, and slumber overtook him. He dreamed that a voice came to him from God: his spirit heard