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1
2715-2739

  • ریش او پر باد کاین هدیه کراست ** لایق چون او شهی این است راست‌‌ 2715
  • His (the husband's) beard was full of wind (he was puffed up with pride): “Who (thought he) has such a gift as this? This, truly, is worthy of a King like him.”

  • زن نمی‌‌دانست کانجا بر گذر ** هست جاری دجله‌‌ی همچون شکر
  • The wife did not know that in that place (Baghdád) on the thoroughfare there is running the Tigris (whose water is) sweet as sugar,

  • در میان شهر چون دریا روان ** پر ز کشتیها و شست ماهیان‌‌
  • Flowing like a sea through the city, full of boats and fishing-nets.

  • رو بر سلطان و کار و بار بین ** حس تجری تحتها الأنهار بین‌‌
  • Go to the Sultan and behold this pomp and state! Behold the senses of (those for whom God hath prepared gardens) beneath which the rivers flow!

  • این چنین حسها و ادراکات ما ** قطره‌‌ای باشد در آن نهر صفا
  • Our senses and perceptions, such as they are, are (but) a single drop in that pure river.

  • در نمد دوختن زن عرب سبوی آب باران را و مهر نهادن بر وی از غایت اعتقاد عرب‌‌
  • How the Arab's wife sewed the jug of rain-water in a felt cloth and put a seal on it because of the Arab's utter conviction (that it was a precious gift for the King).

  • مرد گفت آری سبو را سر ببند ** هین که این هدیه ست ما را سودمند 2720
  • “Yes,” said the husband, “stop up the mouth of the jug. Take care, for this is a gift that will bring us profit.

  • در نمد در دوز تو این کوزه را ** تا گشاید شه به هدیه روزه را
  • Sew this jug in felt, that the King may break his fast with our gift,

  • کاین چنین اندر همه آفاق نیست ** جز رحیق و مایه‌‌ی اذواق نیست‌‌
  • For there is no (water) like this in all the world: it is naught but pure wine and the source of pleasures (to the taste).”

  • ز آن که ایشان ز آبهای تلخ و شور ** دایما پر علت‌‌اند و نیم کور
  • (This he said) because they (people like him) are always full of infirmity and half-blind from (drinking) bitter and briny waters.

  • مرغ کآب شور باشد مسکنش ** او چه داند جای آب روشنش‌‌
  • The bird whose dwelling-place is the briny water, how should it know where to find in it the clear (and sweet) water?

  • ای که اندر چشمه‌ی شورست جان ** تو چه دانی شط و جیحون و فرات 2725
  • O thou whose abode is in the briny spring, how shouldst thou know the Shatt and the Jayhún and the Euphrates?

  • ای تو نارسته از این فانی رباط ** تو چه دانی محو و سکر و انبساط
  • O thou who hast not escaped from this fleeting caravanseray (the material world), how shouldst thou know (the meaning of) “self-extinction” and (mystical) “intoxication” and “expansion”?

  • ور بدانی نقلت از اب وز جد است ** پیش تو این نامها چون ابجد است‌‌
  • And if thou knowest, ’tis (by rote, like the knowledge) handed down to thee from father and grandfather: to thee these names are like abjad.

  • ابجد و هوز چه فاش است و پدید ** بر همه طفلان و معنی بس بعید
  • How plain and evident to all children are abjad and hawwaz, and (yet) the real meaning is far away (hard to reach).

  • پس سبو برداشت آن مرد عرب ** در سفر شد می‌‌کشیدش روز و شب‌‌
  • Then the Arab man took up the jug and set out to journey, carrying it along (with him) day and night.

  • بر سبو لرزان بد از آفات دهر ** هم کشیدش از بیابان تا به شهر 2730
  • He was trembling for the jug, in fear of Fortune's mischiefs: all the same, he conveyed it from the desert to the city (Baghdád).

  • زن مصلا باز کرده از نیاز ** رب سلم ورد کرده در نماز
  • His wife unrolled the prayer-rug in supplication; she made (the words) Rabbi sallim (Save, O Lord) her litany in prayer,

  • که نگه دار آب ما را از خسان ** یا رب آن گوهر بدان دریا رسان‌‌
  • Crying, “Keep our water safe from scoundrels! O Lord, let that pearl arrive at that sea!

  • گر چه شویم آگه است و پر فن است ** لیک گوهر را هزاران دشمن است‌‌
  • Although my husband is shrewd and artful, yet the pearl has thousands of enemies.

  • خود چه باشد گوهر آب کوثر است ** قطره‌‌ای زین است کاصل گوهر است‌‌
  • Pearl indeed! ’Tis the water of Kawthar: ’tis a drop of this that is the origin of the pearl.”

  • از دعاهای زن و زاری او ** وز غم مرد و گرانباری او 2735
  • Through the prayers and lamentation of the wife, and through the husband's anxiety and his patience under the heavy burden,

  • سالم از دزدان و از آسیب سنگ ** برد تا دار الخلافه بی‌‌درنگ‌‌
  • He bore it without delay, safe from robbers and unhurt by stones, to the seat of the Caliphate (the Caliph's palace).

  • دید درگاهی پر از انعامها ** اهل حاجت گستریده دامها
  • He saw a bountiful Court, (where) the needy had spread their nets;

  • دم به دم هر سوی صاحب حاجتی ** یافته ز آن در عطا و خلعتی‌‌
  • Everywhere, moment by moment, some petitioner gained (and carried away) from that Court a donation and robe of honour:

  • بهر گبر و مومن و زیبا و زشت ** همچو خورشید و مطر نی چون بهشت‌‌
  • ’Twas like sun and rain, nay, like Paradise, for infidel and true believer and good folk and bad.