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او چو فرعونست در قحط آنچنان ** پیش موسی سر نهد لابهکنان 3625
- It is like Pharaoh: in (the time of) famine it lays its head before Moses, as he (Pharaoh) did, making supplication;
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چونک مستغنی شد او طاغی شود ** خر چو بار انداخت اسکیزه زند
- (But) when it has been freed from want, it rebels (once more) when the donkey has cast off his load, he kicks.
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پس فراموشش شود چون رفت پیش ** کار او زان آه و زاریهای خویش
- So, when its business has gone forward (prosperously), it (the carnal soul) forgets its sighs and lamentations.
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سالها مردی که در شهری بود ** یک زمان که چشم در خوابی رود
- The man who lives in a city (many) years, as soon as his eye goes asleep,
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شهر دیگر بیند او پر نیک و بد ** هیچ در یادش نیاید شهر خود
- Beholds another city full of good and evil, and his own city comes not into his memory at all,
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که من آنجا بودهام این شهر نو ** نیست آن من درینجاام گرو 3630
- So that (he should say), “I have lived there (so many years); this new city is not mine: here I am (only) in pawn.”
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بل چنان داند که خود پیوسته او ** هم درین شهرش به دست ابداع و خو
- Nay, he thinks that in sooth he has always lived in this very city and has been born and bred in it.
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چه عجب گر روح موطنهای خویش ** که بدستش مسکن و میلاد پیش
- What wonder (then) if the spirit does not remember its (ancient) abodes, which have been its dwelling-place and birthplace aforetime,
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مینیارد یاد کین دنیا چو خواب ** میفرو پوشد چو اختر را سحاب
- Since this world, like sleep, is covering it over as clouds cover the stars? —
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خاصه چندین شهرها را کوفته ** گردها از درک او ناروفته
- Especially as it has trodden so many cities, and the dust has not (yet) been swept from its perceptive faculty,
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اجتهاد گرم ناکرده که تا ** دل شود صاف و ببیند ماجرا 3635
- Nor has it made ardent efforts that its heart should become pure and behold the past;
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سر برون آرد دلش از بخش راز ** اول و آخر ببیند چشم باز
- That its heart should put forth its head (peep forth) from the aperture of the mystery and should see the beginning and the end with open eye.
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اطوار و منازل خلقت آدمی از ابتدا
- The diverse modes and stages of the nature of Man from the beginning.
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آمده اول به اقلیم جماد ** وز جمادی در نباتی اوفتاد
- First he came into the clime (world) of inorganic things, and from the state of inorganic things he passed into the vegetable state.
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سالها اندر نباتی عمر کرد ** وز جمادی یاد ناورد از نبرد
- (Many) years he lived in the vegetable state and did not remember the inorganic state because of the opposition (between them);
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وز نباتی چون به حیوانی فتاد ** نامدش حال نباتی هیچ یاد
- And when he passed from the vegetable into the animal state, the vegetable state was not remembered by him at all,
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جز همین میلی که دارد سوی آن ** خاصه در وقت بهار و ضیمران 3640
- Save only for the inclination which he has towards that (state), especially in the season of spring and sweet herbs—
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همچو میل کودکان با مادران ** سر میل خود نداند در لبان
- Like the inclination of babes towards their mothers: it (the babe) does not know the secret of its desire for being suckled;
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همچو میل مفرط هر نو مرید ** سوی آن پیر جوانبخت مجید
- (Or) like the excessive inclination of every novice towards the noble spiritual Elder, whose fortune is young (and flourishing).
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جزو عقل این از آن عقل کلست ** جنبش این سایه زان شاخ گلست
- The particular intelligence of this (disciple) is derived from that Universal Intelligence: the motion of this shadow is derived from that Rose-bough.
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سایهاش فانی شود آخر درو ** پس بداند سر میل و جست و جو
- His (the disciple's) shadow disappears at last in him (the Master); then he knows the secret of his inclination and search and seeking.
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سایهی شاخ دگر ای نیکبخت ** کی بجنبد گر نجنبد این درخت 3645
- How should the shadow of the other's (the disciple's) bough move, O fortunate one, if this Tree move not?
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باز از حیوان سوی انسانیش ** میکشید آن خالقی که دانیش
- Again, the Creator, whom thou knowest, was leading him (Man) from the animal (state) towards humanity.
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همچنین اقلیم تا اقلیم رفت ** تا شد اکنون عاقل و دانا و زفت
- Thus did he advance from clime to clime (from one world of being to another), till he has now become intelligent and wise and mighty.
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عقلهای اولینش یاد نیست ** هم ازین عقلش تحول کردنیست
- He hath no remembrance of his former intelligences (souls); from this (human) intelligence also there is a migration to be made by him,
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تا رهد زین عقل پر حرص و طلب ** صد هزاران عقل بیند بوالعجب
- That he may escape from this intelligence full of greed and self-seeking and may behold a hundred thousand intelligences most marvellous.