Hark, show the white hand, O King: out of the black nights reveal a new dawn!
دوزخی افروخت در وی دم فسون ** ای دم تو از دم دریا فزون
A hell hath blazed forth; breathe (thy) enchantment over it, O thou whose breath is more (excellent) than the breath of the sea.
بحر مکار است بنموده کفی ** دوزخ است از مکر بنموده تفی2290
She (the fleshly soul) is the guileful sea that shows (but) a (little) foam; she is the hell that from guile shows (but) a (little) heat.
ز آن نماید مختصر در چشم تو ** تا زبون بینیش جنبد خشم تو
She appears exiguous in your eyes, to the end that you may regard her as feeble and that your wrath may be stirred (against her);
همچنان که لشکر انبوه بود ** مر پیمبر را به چشم اندک نمود
Even as there was a dense host (of infidels), (but) to the Prophet’s eye it seemed small,
تا بر ایشان زد پیمبر بیخطر ** ور فزون دیدی از آن کردی حذر
So that the Prophet set upon them without (fear of) the danger; but if he had deemed (them) more (in number), he would have acted cautiously in that (affair).
آن عنایت بود و اهل آن بدی ** احمدا ور نه تو بد دل میشدی
That was the Divine favour, and thou wert worthy of it, O Ahmad (Mohammed); else, thou wouldst have become faint-hearted.
کم نمود او را و اصحاب و را ** آن جهاد ظاهر وباطن خدا2295
God caused the outward and inward warfare to seem little to him and his Companions,
تا میسر کرد یسری را بر او ** تا ز عسری او بگردانید رو
In order that He might make it easy for him to gain ease (success), and that he might turn away his face from difficulty (unsuccess).
کم نمودن مر و را پیروز بود ** که حقش یار و طریق آموز بود
For him, (God’s) causing (the warfare) to seem little was victory, since God was his friend and taught him the way.
آن که حق پشتش نباشد از ظفر ** وای اگر گربش نماید شیر نر
(But) he that hath not God for his victorious support, alas if the fierce lion seem to him a cat.
وای اگر صدرا یکی بیند ز دور ** تا به چالش اندر آید از غرور
Alas if from afar he see a hundred as one, so that in vain confidence he enters on the fray.
ز آن نماید ذو الفقاری حربهای ** ز آن نماید شیر نر چون گربهای2300
He (God) causes a Prophet’s sword to seem a dart and makes the fierce lion appear as a cat,
تا دلیر اندر فتد احمق به جنگ ** و اندر آردشان بدین حیلت به چنگ
To the end that the fool may fall boldly to fighting, and that He may catch them by this device;
تا به پای خویش باشند آمده ** آن فلیوان جانب آتشکده
(And besides He is acting thus), in order that those dolts may have come towards the fire-temple by means of their own feet (by their own free will).
کاه برگی مینماید تا تو زود ** پف کنی کاو را برانی از وجود
He is showing (what seems to you) a blade of straw, in order that you may quickly give a puff so as to make it vanish out of existence.
هین که آن که کوهها بر کنده است ** زو جهان گریان و او در خنده است
Beware! for that straw has uprooted mountains: through it the world is weeping, while it (the straw) is in laughter.
مینماید تا به کعب این آب جو ** صد چو عاج ابن عنق شد غرق او2305
He makes this river-water seem (only) up to the ankle, (but) a hundred such as Áj son of 'Unuq have ben drowned therein.
مینماید موج خونش تل مشک ** مینماید قعر دریا خاک خشک
He makes the wave of blood seem to him a mound of musk: He makes the bottom of the sea seem dry land.