عاقبت دیدند هر گون ملتی ** لاجرم گشتند اسیر زلتی
Every sort of religious sect foresaw the end (according to their own surmise): of necessity they fell captive to error.
عاقبت دیدن نباشد دست‌‌باف ** ور نه کی بودی ز دینها اختلاف
To foresee the end is not (as simple as) a hand-loom; otherwise, how would there have been difference in religions?
در یکی گفته که استا هم تویی ** ز انکه استا را شناسا هم تویی
In one he said: “You are the master, because you know the master.
مرد باش و سخره‌‌ی مردان مشو ** رو سر خود گیر و سر گردان مشو
Be a man and be not subject to men. Go, take your own head (choose your own way), and be not one whose head is turning (bewildered in search of a guide).”
در یکی گفته که این جمله یکی است ** هر که او دو بیند احول مردکی است495
In one he said: “All this (multiplicity) is one: whoever sees two is a squint-eyed manikin.”
در یکی گفته که صد یک چون بود ** این کی اندیشد مگر مجنون بود
In one he said: “How should a hundred be one? He who thinks this is surely mad.”
هر یکی قولی است ضد همدگر ** چون یکی باشد یکی زهر و شکر
The doctrines, every one, are contrary to each other: how should they be one? Are poison and sugar one?
تا ز زهر و از شکر در نگذری ** کی تو از گلزار وحدت بر بری
Until you pass beyond (the difference of) poison and sugar, how will you catch a scent from the garden of Unity?
این نمط وین نوع ده طومار و دو ** بر نوشت آن دین عیسی را عدو
Twelve scrolls of this style and fashion were drawn up in writing by that enemy to the religion of Jesus.
بیان آن که این اختلافات در صورت روش است نه در حقیقت راه
Showing how this difference lies in the form of the doctrine, not in the real nature of the Way.
او ز یک رنگی عیسی بو نداشت ** وز مزاج خم عیسی خو نداشت500
He had no scent (perception) of the unicolority of Jesus, nor had he a disposition from (imbued with) the tincture of the dyeing-vat of Jesus.
جامه‌‌ی صد رنگ از آن خم صفا ** ساده و یک رنگ گشتی چون صبا
From that pure vat a garment of a hundred colours would become as simple and one-coloured as the zephyr.
نیست یک رنگی کز او خیزد ملال ** بل مثال ماهی و آب زلال
(This) is not the unicolority from which weariness ensues; nay, it is (a case) like (that of) fishes and clear water:
گر چه در خشکی هزاران رنگهاست ** ماهیان را با یبوست جنگهاست
Although there are thousands of colours on dry land, (yet) fishes are at war with dryness.
کیست ماهی چیست دریا در مثل ** تا بدان ماند ملک عز و جل
Who is the fish and what is the sea in (my) simile, that the King Almighty and Glorious should resemble them?
صد هزاران بحر و ماهی در وجود ** سجده آرد پیش آن اکرام و جود505
In (the world of) existence myriads of seas and fishes prostrate themselves in adoration before that Munificence and Bounty.
چند باران عطا باران شده ** تا بدان آن بحر در افشان شده
How many a rain of largesse hath rained, so that the sea was made thereby to scatter pearls!
چند خورشید کرم افروخته ** تا که ابر و بحر جود آموخته
How many a sun of generosity hath shone, so that cloud and sea learned to be bountiful!
پرتو دانش زده بر آب و طین ** تا شده دانه پذیرنده‌‌ی زمین
The sunbeams of Wisdom struck on soil and clay, so that the earth became receptive of the seed.
خاک امین و هر چه در وی کاشتی ** بی‌‌خیانت جنس آن برداشتی
The soil is faithful to its trust, and whatever you have sown in it, you carry away the (equivalent in) kind thereof without fraud (on the part of the soil).
این امانت ز آن امانت یافته ست ** کافتاب عدل بر وی تافته ست510
It has derived this faithfulness from that (Divine) faithfulness, inasmuch as the sun of Justice has shone upon it.
تا نشان حق نیارد نو بهار ** خاک سرها را نکرده آشکار
Until springtide brings the token of God, the soil does not reveal its secrets.
آن جوادی که جمادی را بداد ** این خبرها وین امانت وین سداد
The Bounteous One who gave to an inanimate thing these informations and this faithfulness and this righteousness,
مر جمادی را کند فضلش خبیر ** عاقلان را کرده قهر او ضریر
His grace makes an inanimate thing informed, (while) His wrath makes blind the men of understanding.
جان و دل را طاقت آن جوش نیست ** با که گویم در جهان یک گوش نیست
Soul and heart cannot endure that ferment: to whom shall I speak? There is not in the world a single ear (capable of apprehension).
هر کجا گوشی بد از وی چشم گشت ** هر کجا سنگی بد از وی یشم گشت515
Wherever there was an ear, through Him it became an eye; wherever there was a stone, through Him it became a jasper.