شادیت را غم کنم چون آب نیل ** که نیابی سوی شادیها سبیل3525
I turn thy joy into sorrow like the (polluted) water of the Nile, so that thou wilt not find the way to rejoicings.
باز چون تجدید ایمان بر تنی ** باز از فرعون بیزاری کنی
Again, when thou art intent on renewing thy faith and abjurest Pharaoh once more,
موسی رحمت ببینی آمده ** نیل خون بینی ازو آبی شده
Thou wilt see (that) the Moses of Mercy (has) come, thou wilt see the Nile of blood turned by him into water.
چون سر رشته نگه داری درون ** نیل ذوق تو نگردد هیچ خون
When thou keepest safe within (thee) the end of the rope (of faith), the Nile of thy spiritual delight will never be changed into blood.’
من گمان بردم که ایمان آورم ** تا ازین طوفان خون آبی خورم
I thought I would profess the Faith in order that from this deluge of blood I might drink some water.
من چه دانستم که تبدیلی کند ** در نهاد من مرا نیلی کند3530
How did I know that He would work a transformation in my nature and make me a (spiritual) Nile?
سوی چشم خود یکی نیلم روان ** برقرارم پیش چشم دیگران
To my own eye, I am a flowing Nile, (but) to the eyes of others I am at rest.”
هم‌چنانک این جهان پیش نبی ** غرق تسبیحست و پیش ما غبی
Just as, to the Prophet, this world is plunged in glorification of God, while to us it is heedless (insensible).
پیش چشمش این جهان پر عشق و داد ** پیش چشم دیگران مرده و جماد
To his eye, this world is filled with love and bounty; to the eyes of others it is dead and inert.
پست و بالا پیش چشمش تیزرو ** از کلوخ و خشت او نکته شنو
To his eye, vale and hill are moving swiftly: he hears subtle discourse from clod and brick.
با عوام این جمله بسته و مرده‌ای ** زین عجب‌تر من ندیدم پرده‌ای3535
To the vulgar, all this (world) is a bound and dead (thing): I have not seen a veil (of blindness) more wonderful than this.
گورها یکسان به پیش چشم ما ** روضه و حفره به چشم اولیا
To our eye, (all) the graves are alike; to the eyes of the saints, (one is) a garden (in Paradise), and (another is) a pit (in Hell).
عامه گفتندی که پیغامبر ترش ** از چه گشتست و شدست او ذوق‌کش
The vulgar would say, “Wherefore has the Prophet become sour (of visage) and why has he become pleasure-killing?”
خاص گفتندی که سوی چشمتان ** می‌نماید او ترش ای امتان
The elect would say, “To your eyes, O peoples, he appears to be sour;
یک زمان درچشم ما آیید تا ** خنده‌ها بینید اندر هل اتی
(But) come for once into our eyes, that ye may behold the laughs (of delight described) in (the Súra beginning with the words) Hal atá (Did not there come?).”
از سر امرود بن بنماید آن ** منعکس صورت بزیر آ ای جوان3540
That appears (to thee) in the form of inversion (illusion) from the top of the pear-tree: come down, O youth!
آن درخت هستی است امرودبن ** تا بر آنجایی نماید نو کهن
The pear-tree is the tree of (phenomenal) existence: whilst thou art there, the new appears old.
تا بر آنجایی ببینی خارزار ** پر ز کزدمهای خشم و پر ز مار
Whilst thou art there, thou wilt see (only) a thorn-brake full of the scorpions of wrath and full of snakes.
چون فرود آیی ببینی رایگان ** یک جهان پر گل‌رخان و دایگان
When thou comest down, thou wilt behold, free of cost, a world filled with rose-cheeked (beauties) and (their) nurses.
حکایت آن زن پلیدکار کی شوهر را گفت کی آن خیالات از سر امرودبن می‌نماید ترا کی چنینها نماید چشم آدمی را سر آن امرودبن از سر امرودبن فرود آی تا آن خیالها برود و اگر کسی گوید کی آنچ آن مرد می‌دید خیال نبود و جواب این مثالیست نه مثل در مثال همین قدر بس بود کی اگر بر سر امرودبن نرفتی هرگز آنها ندیدی خواه خیال خواه حقیقت
Story of the lewd woman who said to her husband, "Those illusions appear to thee from the top of the pear-tree, for the top of that pear-tree causes the human eye to see such things: come down from the top of the pear-tree, that those illusions may vanish." And if any one should say that what that man saw was not an illusion, the answer is that this (story) is a parable, not a (precise) similitude. In the (story regarded as a) parable this amount (of resemblance) is sufficient, for if he had not gone to the top of the peartree, he would never have seen those things, whether illusory or real.
آن زنی می‌خواست تا با مول خود ** بر زند در پیش شوی گول خود
That woman desired to embrace her paramour in the presence of her foolish husband.
پس به شوهر گفت زن کای نیکبخت ** من برآیم میوه چیدن بر درخت3545
Therefore the woman said to her husband, “O fortunate one, I will climb the tree to gather fruit.”
چون برآمد بر درخت آن زن گریست ** چون ز بالا سوی شوهر بنگریست
As soon as she had climbed the tree, the woman burst into tears when from the top she looked in the direction of her husband.
گفت شوهر را کای مابون رد ** کیست آن لوطی که بر تو می‌فتد
Marito dixit, “O cinaede improbe, quis est ille paedicator qui super te incumbit?” [She told (her) husband, “O wicked sodomite, who is that sodomizer who is lying on top of you?”]
تو به زیر او چو زن بغنوده‌ای ** ای فلان تو خود مخنث بوده‌ای
Tu sub eo velut femina quietus es: O homo tu vero catamitus evasisti.” [You have been lying underneath him (passively) like a woman: O so-and-so, you have certainly become a catamite.” ]
گفت شوهر نه سرت گویی بگشت ** ورنه اینجا نیست غیر من به دشت
“Nay,” said the husband: “one would think thy head is turned (thou hast lost thy wits); at any rate, there is nobody here on the plain except me.”