طفل راه را فکرت مردان کجاست ** کو خیال او و کو تحقیق راست
Where is the thought of the (holy) men in relation to the child of the (mystic) Way? Where is his fancy in comparison with true realisation?
فکر طفلان دایه باشد یا که شیر ** یا مویز و جوز یا گریه و نفیر
The thought of children is (of) the nurse or milk or raisins and walnuts or weeping and crying.
آن مقلد هست چون طفل علیل ** گر چه دارد بحث باریک و دلیل
The imitator is like a sick child, although he may have (at his disposal) subtle argumentation and (logical) proofs.
آن تعمق در دلیل و در شکال ** از بصیرت می‌کند او را گسیل 1290
That profundity in (dealing with) proofs and difficult problems is severing him from (spiritual) insight.
مایه‌ای کو سرمه‌ی سر ویست ** برد و در اشکال گفتن کار بست
It took away (from him) the stock (of insight), which is the collyrium of his inmost consciousness, and applied itself to the discussion of (formal) problems.
ای مقلد از بخارا باز گرد ** رو به خواری تا شوی تو شیرمرد
O imitator, turn back from Bukhárá: go to self-abasement (ba-khwárí) that thou mayst become a (spiritual) hero,
تا بخارای دگر بینی درون ** صفدران در محفلش لا یفقهون
And that thou mayst behold within (thee) another Bukhárá, in the assembly-place whereof the champions are unlearned.
پیک اگر چه در زمین چابک‌تگیست ** چون به دریا رفت بسکسته رگیست
Although the courier is a swift runner on land, when he goes to sea his sinews are broken.
او حملناهم بود فی‌البر و بس ** آنک محمولست در بحر اوست کس 1295
He is only (like those of whom God says in the Qur’án) We have borne them on the land; (but) that one who is borne on the sea—he is somebody.
بخشش بسیار دارد شه بدو ** ای شده در وهم و تصویری گرو
The King (God) hath great bounty: run (to receive it), O thou who hast become in pawn to an imagination and fancy.
آن مرید ساده از تقلید نیز ** گریه‌ای می‌کرد وفق آن عزیز
From conformity that simple disciple, too, was weeping in concert with the venerable (Shaykh);
او مقلدوار هم‌چون مرد کر ** گریه می‌دید و ز موجب بی‌خبر
(For), like the deaf man, he regarded the (Shaykh's) weeping in the manner of a conformist and was unaware of the cause.
چون بسی بگریست خدمت کرد و رفت ** از پیش آمد مرید خاص تفت
When he had wept a long while, he paid his respects and departed: the (Shaykh's) favourite disciple came quickly after him,
گفت ای گریان چو ابر بی‌خبر ** بر وفاق گریه‌ی شیخ نظر 1300
And said, “O thou who art weeping like a witless cloud in concert with the weeping of the Shaykh (possessed) of insight,
الله الله الله ای وافی مرید ** گر چه درتقلید هستی مستفید
For God's sake, for God's sake, for God's sake, O loyal disciple, although in (thy) conformity thou art seeking (spiritual) profit,
تا نگویی دیدم آن شه می‌گریست ** من چو او بگریستم که آن منکریست
Take heed not to say, ‘I saw that (spiritual) king weeping, and I wept like him’; for that is denial (of his exalted state).”
گریه‌ی پر جهل و پر تقلید و ظن ** نیست هم‌چون گریه‌ی آن متمن
A weeping full of ignorance and conformity and (mere) opinion is not like the weeping of that trusted one.
تو قیاس گریه بر گریه مساز ** هست زین گریه بدان راه دراز
Do not judge (one) weeping by the analogy of (another) weeping: ’tis a long way from this weeping to that (weeping).
هست آن از بعد سی‌ساله جهاد ** عقل آنجا هیچ نتواند فتاد 1305
That (weeping) is after a thirty years' (spiritual) warfare: the intellect can never get there.
هست زان سوی خرد صد مرحله ** عقل را واقف مدان زان قافله
Beyond reason there are a hundred stages: deem not the intellect to be acquainted with that caravan.
گریه‌ی او نه از غمست و نه از فرح ** روح داند گریه‌ی عین الملح
His weeping is neither from sorrow nor from joy: (only) the spirit knows the weeping of (him who is) the fountain of beauties.
گریه‌ی او خنده‌ی او آن سریست ** زانچ وهم عقل باشد آن بریست
His weeping, his laughter—(both) are of Yonder (World) and transcend all that the intellect may conceive.
آب دیده‌ی او چو دیده‌ی او بود ** دیده‌ی نادیده دیده کی شود
His tears are like his eye: how should the sightless eye become a (seeing) eye?
آنچ او بیند نتان کردن مساس ** نه از قیاس عقل و نه از راه حواس 1310
That which he sees cannot be touched (apprehended) either by the analogical judgement of the intellect or by way of the senses.
شب گریزد چونک نور آید ز دور ** پس چه داند ظلمت شب حال نور
Night flees when Light comes from afar: what, then, should the darkness of Night know concerning Light?