گر شود مات اندرین آن بوالعلا ** آن نباشد مات باشد ابتلا
If that exalted one (the prophet or saint) is checkmated (worsted) in this (matter), ’tis not (really) checkmate, ’tis tribulation.
یک بلا از صد بلااش وا خرد ** یک هبوطش بر معارجها برد 2765
A single tribulation redeems him from a hundred tribulations, a single fall takes him (high) up on the ladders (of spiritual ascent).
خام شوخی که رهانیدش مدام ** از خمار صد هزاران زشت خام
The half-baked saucy fellow, whom the wine (of Love) has relieved from the surfeit of intoxication with a hundred thousand wicked half-baked (persons like himself),
عاقبت او پخته و استاد شد ** جست از رق جهان و آزاد شد
Finally becomes mature and adept: he escapes from enslavement to this world and is made free.
از شراب لایزالی گشت مست ** شد ممیز از خلایق باز رست
He is made drunken with the everlasting wine, he becomes (spiritually) discerning, and is delivered from created beings,
ز اعتقاد سست پر تقلیدشان ** وز خیال دیدهی بیدیدشان
From their weak conventional faith and from the illusions of their unseeing eyes.
ای عجب چه فن زند ادراکشان ** پیش جزر و مد بحر بینشان 2770
Oh, what device can their mental perception employ, I wonder, against the ebb and flow of the trackless Sea?
زان بیابان این عمارتها رسید ** ملک و شاهی و وزارتها رسید
From that Desert came (all) these signs of cultivation and prosperity; (thence) came (all) empires and kingships and vizierates.
Yearning with desire they (phenomenal ideas) come in troops from the Desert of Non-existence into the visible (material) world.
کاروان بر کاروان زین بادیه ** میرسد در هر مسا و غادیه
Caravan on caravan, they arrive from this Desert every evening and morning.
آید و گیرد وثاق ما گرو ** که رسیدم نوبت ما شد تو رو
They come and seize our houses in distraint, (each one) saying, “I have arrived, ’tis my turn, do thou begone!”
چون پسر چشم خرد را بر گشاد ** زود بابا رخت بر گردون نهاد 2775
When the son has opened the eye of reason (attained to years of discretion), the father at once puts his (own) baggage in the cart.
جادهی شاهست آن زین سو روان ** وآن از آن سو صادران و واردان
’Tis (like) the King's highway—(travellers) departing and arriving, one going in this direction, another in that direction.
نیک بنگر ما نشسته میرویم ** مینبینی قاصد جای نویم
Consider well! We, (though apparently) sitting still, are (really) marching: don't you see that we are bound for a new place (of abode)?
بهر حالی مینگیری راس مال ** بلک از بهر غرضها در مل
You do not get (and spend) your capital for any present need; nay, but (you keep it) for your ultimate purposes.
پس مسافر این بود ای رهپرست ** که مسیر و روش در مستقبلست
The traveller, then, O devotee of the Way, is he whose march and face are towards the future,
همچنانک از پردهی دل بیکلال ** دم به دم در میرسد خیل خیال 2780
Even as the troops of Phantasy are at every moment arriving (and passing) unweariedly through the curtains of the heart.
گر نه تصویرات از یک مغرساند ** در پی هم سوی دل چون میرسند
If (these) ideas are not (sprung) from one (and the same) Plantation, how are they coming to the heart on each other's heels?
جوق جوق اسپاه تصویرات ما ** سوی چشمهی دل شتابان از ظما
Company after company, the army of our ideas, (impelled) by thirst, is speeding towards the fountain of the heart.
جرهها پر میکنند و میروند ** دایما پیدا و پنهان میشوند
They fill their jars and go: they are continually appearing and vanishing.
فکرها را اختران چرخ دان ** دایر اندر چرخ دیگر آسمان
Regard (your) thoughts as stars of the sky (which are) revolving in the sphere of another heaven.
سعد دیدی شکر کن ایثار کن ** نحس دیدی صدقه و استغفار کن 2785
(If) you have experienced good fortune (spiritual thoughts), give thanks (to God) and do works of charity; (if) you have experienced bad fortune (sensual thoughts), give alms and ask pardon (of God).
ما کییم این را بیا ای شاه من ** طالعم مقبل کن و چرخی بزن
Who am I in relation to this? Come, O my King, make my ruling star auspicious and wheel once (towards me).
روح را تابان کن از انوار ماه ** که ز آسیب ذنب جان شد سیاه
Illumine my spirit with moonbeams, for my soul is blackened (eclipsed) by contact with the (Dragon's) Tail.
از خیال و وهم و ظن بازش رهان ** از چه و جور رسن بازش رهان
Deliver it from fancy and vain imagination and opinion, deliver it from the well and the tyranny of the rope,