آنچنان که بر سرت مرغی بود ** کز فواتش جان تو لرزان شود
’Tis as when a bird is (perched) on your head, and your soul trembles for fear of its flitting,
پس نیاری هیچ جنبیدن ز جا ** تا نگیرد مرغ خوب تو هوا
So you dare not stir from your place, lest your beautiful bird should take to the air;
دم نیاری زد ببندی سرفه را ** تا نباید که بپرد آن هما
You dare not breathe, you suppress a cough, lest that humá should fly away;
ور کست شیرین بگوید یا ترش ** بر لب انگشتی نهی یعنی خمش
And if any one speak sweet or sour (words) to you, you lay a finger on your lip, meaning, “Hush!”
حیرت آن مرغست خاموشت کند ** بر نهد سردیگ و پر جوشت کند 3250
Bewilderment is (like) that bird: it makes you silent: it puts the lid on the kettle and fills you with the boiling (of love).
پرسیدن پادشاه قاصدا ایاز را کی چندین غم و شادی با چارق و پوستین کی جمادست می‌گویی تا ایاز را در سخن آورد
How the King (Mahmúd) purposely asked Ayáz, “(Why) art thou telling all this sorrow and joy to a rustic shoe and a sheepskin jacket, which are inanimate?” (His purpose was) that he might induce Ayáz to speak.
ای ایاز این مهرها بر چارقی ** چیست آخر هم‌چو بر بت عاشقی
(The King said), “O Ayáz, pray, why are these marks of affection, like (those of) a lover to his adored one, (shown by thee) to a rustic shoe?
هم‌چو مجنون از رخ لیلی خویش ** کرده‌ای تو چارقی را دین و کیش
Thou hast made a rustic shoe (the object of) thy devotion and religion, as Majnún (made) of his Laylá’s face (an object of the same kind).
با دو کهنه مهر جان آمیخته ** هر دو را در حجره‌ای آویخته
Thou hast mingled thy soul’s love with two old articles (of dress) and hung them both in a chamber.
چند گویی با دو کهنه نو سخن ** در جمادی می‌دمی سر کهن
How long wilt thou speak new words to (those) two old things and breathe the ancient secret into a substance devoid of life?
چون عرب با ربع و اطلال ای ایاز ** می‌کشی از عشق گفت خود دراز 3255
Like (the poets among) the Arabs, O Ayáz, thou art drawing out long and lovingly thy converse with the (deserted) abodes and the traces of former habitation.
چارقت ربع کدامین آصفست ** پوستین گویی که کرته‌ی یوسفست
Of what Ásaf are thy shoon the abode? One would say that thy sheepskin jacket is the shirt of Joseph.”
هم‌چو ترسا که شمارد با کشش ** جرم یکساله زنا و غل و غش
(This is) like (the case of) the Christian who recounts to his priest a year’s sins––fornication and malice and hypocrisy––
تا بیامرزد کشش زو آن گناه ** عفو او را عفو داند از اله
In order that the priest may pardon his sins, for he regards his (the priest’s) forgiveness as forgiveness from God.
نیست آگه آن کشش از جرم و داد ** لیک بس جادوست عشق و اعتقاد
The priest has no (real) knowledge of sin and pardon; but love and firm belief are mightily bewitching.
دوستی و وهم صد یوسف تند ** اسحر از هاروت و ماروتست خود 3260
Love and imagination weave (create) a hundred (forms beautiful as) Joseph: in sooth they are greater sorcerers than Hárút and Márút.
صورتی پیدا کند بر یاد او ** جذب صورت آردت در گفت و گو
They cause a form (of phantasy) to appear in memory of him (your Beloved): the attraction of the form leads you into (conversation with it).
رازگویی پیش صورت صد هزار ** آن چنان که یار گوید پیش یار
You tell a hundred thousand secrets in the form’s presence, just as a friend speaks (intimately) in the presence of a friend.
نه بدانجا صورتی نه هیکلی ** زاده از وی صد الست و صد بلی
No (material) form or shape is there; (yet) from it proceed a hundred (utterances of the words) “Am not I (thy Beloved)?” and (from you) a hundred “Yeas.”
آن چنان که مادری دل‌برده‌ای ** پیش گور بچه‌ی نومرده‌ای
(‘Tis) as when a mother, distraught (with grief) beside the grave of a child newly dead,
رازها گوید به جد و اجتهاد ** می‌نماید زنده او را آن جماد 3265
Utters heart-felt words earnestly and intensely: the inanimate (corpse) seems to her to be alive.
حی و قایم داند او آن خاک را ** چشم و گوشی داند او خاشاک را
She regards that dust as living and erect, she regards that rubbish as (having) an eye and an ear.
پیش او هر ذره‌ی آن خاک گور ** گوش دارد هوش دارد وقت شور
To her, at the moment when she is crazed (with grief), every atom of the earth in the grave seems to have hearing and intelligence.
مستمع داند به جد آن خاک را ** خوش نگر این عشق ساحرناک را
She believes with all her might that the earth is hearkening (to her): look well at this Love that works magic!
آنچنان بر خاک گور تازه او ** دم‌بدم خوش می‌نهد با اشک رو
Fondly and with tears she lays her face, time after time, on the fresh earth of the grave in such wise
که بوقت زندگی هرگز چنان ** روی ننهادست بر پور چو جان 3270
As during his life she never laid her face on the son who was so dear to her;