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چینیان صد رنگ از شه خواستند ** پس خزینه باز کرد آن ارجمند
- The Chinese requested the King to give them a hundred colours: then that excellent (king) opened the treasury.
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هر صباحی از خزینه رنگها ** چینیان را راتبه بود از عطا
- Every morning, by (his) bounty, the colours were dispensed from the treasury to the Chinese.
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رومیان گفتند نی نقش و نه رنگ ** در خور آید کار را جز دفع زنگ
- The Greeks said, “No tints and pictures are proper for our work, (nothing is needed) except to remove the rust.”
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در فرو بستند و صیقل میزدند ** همچو گردون ساده و صافی شدند 3475
- They shut the door and went on burnishing: they became clear and pure like the sky.
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از دو صد رنگی به بیرنگی رهی است ** رنگ چون ابر است و بیرنگی مهی است
- There is a way from many-colouredness to colourlessness: colour is like the clouds, and colourlessness is a moon.
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هر چه اندر ابر ضو بینی و تاب ** آن ز اختر دان و ماه و آفتاب
- Whatsoever light and splendour you see in the clouds, know that it comes from the stars and the moon and the sun.
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چینیان چون از عمل فارغ شدند ** از پی شادی دهلها میزدند
- When the Chinese had finished their work, they were beating drums for joy.
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شه در آمد دید آن جا نقشها ** میربود آن عقل را و فهم را
- The King entered and saw the pictures there: that (sight) was robbing him of his wits and understanding.
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بعد از آن آمد به سوی رومیان ** پرده را بالا کشیدند از میان 3480
- After that, he came towards the Greeks: they drew up the intervening curtain.
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عکس آن تصویر و آن کردارها ** زد بر این صافی شده دیوارها
- The reflexion of those (Chinese) pictures and works (of art) struck upon these walls which had been made pure (from stain).
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هر چه آن جا دید اینجا به نمود ** دیده را از دیده خانه میربود
- All that he had seen there (in the Chinese room) seemed more beautiful here: ’twas snatching the eye from the socket.
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رومیان آن صوفیانند ای پدر ** بیز تکرار و کتاب و بیهنر
- The Greeks, O father, are the Súfís: (they are) without (independent of) study and books and erudition,
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لیک صیقل کردهاند آن سینهها ** پاک از آز و حرص و بخل و کینهها
- But they have burnished their breasts (and made them) pure from greed and cupidity and avarice and hatreds.
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آن صفای آینه وصف دل است ** کاو نقوش بیعدد را قابل است 3485
- That purity of the mirror is the attribute of the heart (which) receives the infinite form.
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صورت بیصورت بیحد غیب ** ز آینهی دل تافت بر موسی ز جیب
- That Moses (the perfect saint) holds in his bosom the formless infinite form of the Unseen (reflected) from the mirror of his heart.
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گر چه آن صورت نگنجد در فلک ** نه به عرش و فرش و دریا و سمک
- Although that form is not contained in Heaven, nor in the empyrean nor the earth nor the sea nor the Fish,
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ز آن که محدود است و معدود است آن ** آینهی دل را نباشد حد بدان
- Because (all) those are bounded and numbered—(yet is it contained in the heart): know that the mirror of the heart hath no bound.
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عقل اینجا ساکت آمد یا مضل ** ز آنکه دل با اوست یا خود اوست دل
- Here the understanding becomes silent or (else) it leads into error, because the heart is with Him (God), or indeed the heart is He.
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عکس هر نقشی نتابد تا ابد ** جز ز دل هم با عدد هم بیعدد 3490
- The reflexion of every image shines unto everlasting from the heart alone, both with plurality and without.
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تا ابد هر نقش نو کاید بر او ** مینماید بیحجابی اندر او
- Unto everlasting every new image that falls on it (the heart) is appearing therein without any veil.
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اهل صیقل رستهاند از بوی و رنگ ** هر دمی بینند خوبی بیدرنگ
- They that burnish (their hearts) have escaped from (mere) scent and colour: they behold Beauty at every moment without tarrying.
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نقش و قشر علم را بگذاشتند ** رایت عین الیقین افراشتند
- They have relinquished the form and husk of knowledge, they have raised the banner of the eye of certainty.
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رفت فکر و روشنایی یافتند ** نحر و بحر آشنایی یافتند
- Thought is gone, and they have gained light: they have gained the throat (core and essence) and the sea (ultimate source) of gnosis.
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مرگ کاین جمله از او در وحشتاند ** میکنند این قوم بر وی ریشخند 3495
- Death, of which all these (others) are sore afraid, this people (the perfect Súfís) are holding in derision.
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کس نیابد بر دل ایشان ظفر ** بر صدف آید ضرر نی بر گهر
- None gains the victory over their hearts: the hurt falls on the oyster-shell, not on the pearl.