زیرک و داناست اما نیست نیست ** تا فرشته لا نشد اهریمنی است
It is clever and knowing, but it is not naught (devoid of self-existence): until the angel has become naught, he is an Ahriman (Devil).
او به قول و فعل یار ما بود ** چون به حکم حال آیی لا بود
It (partial reason) is our friend in word and deed, (but) when you come to the case of inward feeling (ecstasy), it is naught (of no account).
لا بود چون او نشد از هست نیست ** چون که طوعا لا نشد کرها بسی است1985
It is naught because it did not (pass away) from existence and become nonexistent: since it did not become naught willingly, (it must become naught nevertheless, for) there is many a one (who became naught, i.e. died) unwillingly.
جان کمال است و ندای او کمال ** مصطفی گویان ارحنا یا بلال
The Spirit is perfection and its call is perfection: Mustafá (Mohammed) used to say, “Refresh us, O Bilál!
ای بلال افراز بانگ سلسلت ** ز آن دمی کاندر دمیدم در دلت
O Bilál, lift up thy mellifluous voice (drawn) from that breath which I breathed into thy heart,
ز آن دمی کادم از آن مدهوش گشت ** هوش اهل آسمان بی‌‌هوش گشت
From that breath by which Adam was dumbfounded and the wits of the people of Heaven were made witless.”
مصطفی بی‌‌خویش شد ز آن خوب صوت ** شد نمازش از شب تعریس فوت
Mustafá became beside himself at that beautiful voice: his prayer escaped him (was left unperformed) on the night of the ta‘rís.
سر از آن خواب مبارک بر نداشت ** تا نماز صبحدم آمد به چاشت1990
He did not raise his head from that blessed sleep until the (time of the) dawn prayer had advanced to (the time of) forenoon.
در شب تعریس پیش آن عروس ** یافت جان پاک ایشان دستبوس
On the night of the ta‘rís his holy spirit gained (the privilege of) kissing hands in the presence of the Bride.
عشق و جان هر دو نهانند و ستیر ** گر عروسش خوانده‌‌ام عیبی مگیر
Love and the Spirit are, both of them, hidden and veiled: if I have called Him (God) the Bride, do not find fault.
از ملولی یار خامش کردمی ** گر همو مهلت بدادی یک دمی
I would have been silent from (fear of) the Beloved's displeasure, if He had granted me a respite for one moment,
But He keeps saying, “Say on! Come, ’tis no fault, ’tis but the requirement of the (Divine) destiny in the World Unseen.”
عیب باشد کاو نبیند جز که عیب ** عیب کی بیند روان پاک غیب1995
The fault is (in him) who sees nothing but fault: how should the Pure Spirit of the Invisible see fault?
عیب شد نسبت به مخلوق جهول ** نی به نسبت با خداوند قبول
Fault arises (only) in relation to the ignorant creature, not in relation to the Lord of favour (clemency).
کفر هم نسبت به خالق حکمت است ** چون به ما نسبت کنی کفر آفت است
Infidelity, too, is wisdom in relation to the Creator, (but) when you impute it to us, infidelity is a noxious thing.
ور یکی عیبی بود با صد حیات ** بر مثال چوب باشد در نبات
And if there be one fault together with a hundred advantages (excellences), it resembles the wood (woody stalk) in the sugarcane.
در ترازو هر دو را یکسان کشند ** ز آن که آن هر دو چو جسم و جان خوشند
Both (sugar and stalk) alike are put into the scales, because they both are sweet like body and soul.
پس بزرگان این نگفتند از گزاف ** جسم پاکان عین جان افتاد صاف2000
Not idly, therefore, the great (mystics) said this: “The body of the holy ones (the saints) is essentially pure as (their) spirit.”
گفتشان و نفسشان و نقششان ** جمله جان مطلق آمد بی‌‌نشان
Their speech and soul and form, all (this) is absolute spirit without (external) trace.
جان دشمن دارشان جسم است صرف ** چون زیاد از نرد او اسم است صرف
The spirit that regards them with enmity is a mere body; like the plus in (the game called) nard, it is a mere name.
آن به خاک اندر شد و کل خاک شد ** وین نمک اندر شد و کل پاک شد
That one (the body of the enemy of the saints) went into the earth (grave) and became earth entirely; this (holy body) went into the salt and became entirely pure—
آن نمک کز وی محمد املح است ** ز آن حدیث با نمک او افصح است
The (spiritual) salt through which Mohammed is more refined (than all others): he is more eloquent than that salt-seasoned (elegantly expressed) Hadíth.
این نمک باقی است از میراث او ** با تواند آن وارثان او بجو2005
This salt is surviving in his heritage: those heirs of his are with thee. Seek them!
پیش تو شسته ترا خود پیش کو ** پیش هستت جان پیش اندیش کو
He (the spiritual heir of Mohammed) is seated in front of thee, (but) where indeed is thy “front”? He is before thee, (but) where is the soul that thinks “before”?
گر تو خود را پیش و پس داری گمان ** بسته‌‌ی جسمی و محرومی ز جان
If thou fancy thou hast a “before” and “behind,” thou art tied to body and deprived of spirit.
زیر و بالا پیش و پس وصف تن است ** بی‌‌جهت آن ذات جان روشن است
“Below” and “above,” “before” and “behind” are attributes of the body: the essence of the bright spirit is without relations (not limited by relations of place).
بر گشا از نور پاک شه نظر ** تا نپنداری تو چون کوته نظر
Open thy (inward) vision with the pure light of the King. Beware of fancying, like one who is short-sighted,
که همینی در غم و شادی و بس ** ای عدم کو مر عدم را پیش و پس2010
That thou art only this very (body living) in grief and joy. O (thou who art really) non-existence, where (are) “before” and “behind” (appertaining) to non-existence?
روز باران است می‌‌رو تا به شب ** نی از این باران از آن باران رب
’Tis a day of rain: journey on till night—not (sped) by this (earthly) rain but by the rain of the Lord.
قصه‌‌ی سؤال کردن عایشه از مصطفی علیه السلام که امروز باران بارید چون تو سوی گورستان رفتی جامه‌‌های تو چون تر نیست
The story of ‘Á’isha, may God be well-pleased with her, how she asked Mustafá (Mohammed), on whom be peace, saying, “It rained to-day: since thou wentest to the graveyard, how is it that thy clothes are not wet?”
مصطفی روزی به گورستان برفت ** با جنازه‌‌ی مردی از یاران برفت
One day Mustafá went to the graveyard: he went with the bier of a man (who was one) of his friends.
خاک را در گور او آگنده کرد ** زیر خاک آن دانه‌‌اش را زنده کرد
He made the earth so that it filled his grave: he quickened his seed under the earth.
این درختانند همچون خاکیان ** دستها بر کرده‌‌اند از خاکدان
These trees are like the interred ones: they have lifted up their hands from the earth.
سوی خلقان صد اشارت می‌‌کنند ** و آن که گوش استش عبارت می‌‌کنند2015
They are making a hundred signs to the people and speaking plainly to him that hath ears (to hear).
با زبان سبز و با دست دراز ** از ضمیر خاک می‌‌گویند راز
With green tongue and with long hand (fingers) they are telling secrets from the earth's conscience (inmost heart).
همچو بطان سر فرو برده به آب ** گشته طاوسان و بوده چون غراب
(Sunk in earth) like ducks that have plunged their heads in water, they have become (gay as) peacocks, though (in winter) they were (dark and bare) as crows.
در زمستانشان اگر محبوس کرد ** آن غرابان را خدا طاوس کرد
If during the winter He imprisoned them (in ice and snow), God made those “crows” “peacocks” (in spring).
در زمستانشان اگر چه داد مرگ ** زنده‌‌شان کرد از بهار و داد برگ
Although He put them to death in winter, He revived them by means of spring and gave (them) leaves.
منکران گویند خود هست این قدیم ** این چرا بندیم بر رب کریم2020
The sceptics say, “This (creation), surely, is eternal: why should we fix it on a beneficent Lord?”
کوری ایشان درون دوستان ** حق برویانید باغ و بوستان
God, in despite of them, caused (spiritual) gardens and plots of sweet flowers to grow in the hearts of His friends.
هر گلی کاندر درون بویا بود ** آن گل از اسرار کل گویا بود
Every rose that is sweet-scented within, that rose is telling of the secrets of the rose.
بوی ایشان رغم انف منکران ** گرد عالم می‌‌رود پرده دران
Their scent, to the confusion of the sceptics, is going round the world, rending the veil (of doubt and disbelief).
منکران همچون جعل ز آن بوی گل ** یا چو نازک مغز در بانگ دهل
The sceptics, (shrinking) from the scent of the rose like a beetle, or like a delicate (sensitive) brain at the noise of the drum,