او نباشد بعدی او باشد معی ** خود معی چه بود منم بیمدعی
He is not ‘after me,’ he is with me. What of ‘with me,’ indeed? I am without rival.”
شرح این فرض است گفتن لیک من ** باز میگردم به قصهی مرد و زن2615
’Tis my duty to explain this, but (now) I will return to the story of the man and wife.
مخلص ماجرای عرب و جفت او
The moral of the altercation of the Arab and his wife.
ماجرای مرد و زن را مخلصی ** باز میجوید درون مخلصی
The heart of one who is sincere is seeking (to find) a moral for the altercation of the man and wife.
ماجرای مرد و زن افتاد نقل ** آن مثال نفس خود میدان و عقل
The altercation of the man and wife has been related (as a story): know that it is a parable of your own flesh (nafs) and reason.
این زن و مردی که نفس است و خرد ** نیک بایسته ست بهر نیک و بد
This man and wife, which are the flesh and the reason, are very necessary for (the manifestation of) good and evil;
وین دو بایسته در این خاکی سرا ** روز و شب در جنگ و اندر ماجرا
And this necessary pair in this house of earth are (engaged) in strife and altercation day and night.
زن همیخواهد هویج خانگاه ** یعنی آب رو و نان و خوان و جاه2620
The wife is craving requisites for the household, that is to say, reputation and bread and viands and rank.
نفس همچون زن پی چارهگری ** گاه خاکی گاه جوید سروری
Like the wife, the flesh, in order to contrive the means (of gratifying its desires), is at one time seeking (having recourse to) humility and at another time to domination.
عقل خود زین فکرها آگاه نیست ** در دماغش جز غم الله نیست
The reason is really unconscious of these (worldly) thoughts: in its brain is nothing but love of God.
گر چه سر قصه این دانه ست و دام ** صورت قصه شنو اکنون تمام
Although the inner meaning of the tale is this bait and trap, listen now to the outward form of the tale in its entirety.
گر بیان معنوی کافی شدی ** خلق عالم عاطل و باطل بدی
If the spiritual explanation were sufficient, the creation of the world would have been vain and idle.
گر محبت فکرت و معنیستی ** صورت روزه و نمازت نیستی2625
If love were (only spiritual) thought and reality, the form of your fasting and prayer would be non-existent.
هدیههای دوستان با همدیگر ** نیست اندر دوستی الا صور
The gifts of lovers to one another are, in respect of love, naught but forms;
تا گواهی داده باشد هدیهها ** بر محبتهای مضمر در خفا
(But the purpose is) that the gifts may have borne testimony to feelings of love which are concealed in secrecy,
ز آن که احسانهای ظاهر شاهدند ** بر محبتهای سر ای ارجمند
Because outward acts of kindness bear witness to feelings of love in the heart, O dear friend.
شاهدت گه راست باشد گه دروغ ** مست گاهی از می و گاهی ز دوغ
Your witness is sometimes true, sometimes false, sometimes drunken with wine, sometimes with sour curds.
دوغ خورده مستیی پیدا کند ** های و هوی و سر گرانیها کند2630
He that has drunk sour curds makes a show of intoxication, shouts ecstatically, and behaves like one whose head is heavy (with the fumes of wine);
آن مرایی در صیام و در صلاست ** تا گمان آید که او مست ولاست
That hypocrite is (assiduous) in fasting and praying, in order that it may be supposed that he is drunken with devotion (to God).
حاصل افعال برونی دیگر است ** تا نشان باشد بر آن چه مضمر است
In short, external acts are different (from internal feelings), (and their purpose is) to indicate that which is hidden.
یا رب آن تمییز ده ما را به خواست ** تا شناسیم آن نشان کژ ز راست
O Lord, grant us according to our desire such discernment that we may know the false indication from the true.
حس را تمییز دانی چون شود ** آن که حس ینظر بنور الله بود
Do you know how the sense-perception becomes discerning? In this way, that the sense-perception should be seeing by the light of God.
ور اثر نبود سبب هم مظهر است ** همچو خویشی کز محبت مخبر است2635
And if there be no effect (outward sign), the cause too makes manifest (that which is hidden), as (for example) kinship gives information concerning love (enables you to infer the presence of love).
نبود آن که نور حقش شد امام ** مر اثر را یا سببها را غلام
He to whom the light of God has become a guide is not a slave to effects or causes—
یا محبت در درون شعله زند ** زفت گردد وز اثر فارغ کند
Or (if he is a slave to them) Love will throw a spark within, wax mighty, and make (the illumined one) independent of effect.
حاجتش نبود پی اعلام مهر ** چون محبت نور خود زد بر سپهر
He has no need to make his love known, since Love has shot its radiance over the sky (of his heart).
هست تفصیلات تا گردد تمام ** این سخن لیکن بجو تو و السلام
There are detailed explanations (which I could give) in order to complete this subject; but seek them (for yourself), and (now) farewell.
گر چه شد معنی در این صورت پدید ** صورت از معنی قریب است و بعید2640
Although the inner meaning is visible in this outward form, the form is (both) near to the meaning and far (from it).
در دلالت همچو آباند و درخت ** چون به ماهیت روی دورند سخت
In regard to indication, they (the meaning and the form) are like the sap and the tree; (but) when you turn to the quiddity, they are very far (removed from each other).
ترک ماهیات و خاصیات گو ** شرح کن احوال آن دو ماهرو
(Let me) take leave of quiddities and essential properties, and relate what happened to those twain with faces like the moon.
دل نهادن عرب بر التماس دل بر خویش و سوگند خوردن که در این تسلیم مرا حیلتی و امتحانی نیست
How the Arab set his heart on (complying with) his beloved's request and swore that in thus submitting (to her) he had no (idea of) trickery and making trial (of her).
مرد گفت اکنون گذشتم از خلاف ** حکم داری تیغ بر کش از غلاف
The man said, “Now I have ceased to oppose (thee): thou hast authority (to do what thou wilt): draw the sword from the sheath.
هر چه گویی من ترا فرمانبرم ** در بد و نیک آمد آن ننگرم
Whatsoever thou biddest me do, I will obey: I will not consider the bad or good result of it.
در وجود تو شوم من منعدم ** چون محبم حب یعمی و یصم2645
I will become non-existent in thy existence, because I am thy lover: love makes blind and deaf.”
گفت زن آهنگ برم میکنی ** یا به حیلت کشف سرم میکنی
The wife said, “Dost thou intend to treat me with kindness, or art thou (bent on) discovering my secret by trickery?”
گفت و الله عالم السر الخفی ** کافرید از خاک آدم را صفی
He said, “(No), by God who knows the thought most deeply hid, who out of dust created Adam pure (chosen above all),
در سه گز قالب که دادش وا نمود ** هر چه در الواح و در ارواح بود
Who, in the body three cubits long which He gave him, displayed everything that was contained in the tablets (of destiny) and the (world of) spirits.
تا ابد هر چه بود او پیش پیش ** درس کرد از علم الاسماء خویش
Through his He (God) taught him (Adam) the Names (through his God-given knowledge) he at the very first gave instruction (to the angels) concerning everything that shall come to pass unto everlasting,
تا ملک بیخود شد از تدریس او ** قدس دیگر یافت از تقدیس او2650
So that the angels became beside themselves (in amazement) at his teaching, and gained from his glorification (of God) a holiness other (than they possessed before).
آن گشادیشان کز آدم رو نمود ** در گشاد آسمانهاشان نبود
The revelation that appeared to them from Adam was not (contained) in the amplitude of their heavens.
در فراخی عرصهی آن پاک جان ** تنگ آمد عرصهی هفت آسمان
In comparison with the spaciousness of the range of that pure spirit (Adam), the expanse of the seven heavens became narrow.
گفت پیغمبر که حق فرموده است ** من نگنجم هیچ در بالا و پست
The Prophet said that God has said, ‘I am not contained at all in “high” and “low” (spatial dimensions);
در زمین و آسمان و عرش نیز ** من نگنجم این یقین دان ای عزیز
I am not contained in earth or heaven or even in the empyrean—know this for certain, O noble one;
در دل مومن بگنجم ای عجب ** گر مرا جویی در آن دلها طلب2655
(But) I am contained in the true believer's heart: oh, how wonderful! If thou seekest Me, search in those hearts.’
گفت ادخل فی عبادی تلتقی ** جنة من رؤیتی یا متقی
He (God) said (also), ‘Enter among My servants, thou wilt meet with a Paradise (consisting) of vision of Me, O God-fearing one.’
عرش با آن نور با پهنای خویش ** چون بدید آن را برفت از جای خویش
The empyrean, notwithstanding its wide (far-extending) light, when it beheld that (spirit of Adam), was confounded.
خود بزرگی عرش باشد بس مدید ** لیک صورت کیست چون معنی رسید
Truly, the magnitude of the empyrean is very great, but who (what) is form when reality has arrived?
هر ملک میگفت ما را پیش از این ** الفتی میبود بر گرد زمین
Every angel was saying (to Adam), ‘Before this (time) we had a friendship (with thee) on the face of the earth.
تخم خدمت بر زمین میکاشتیم ** ز آن تعلق ما عجب میداشتیم2660
On the earth we were sowing the seed of service (worship): we were marveling at that connexion,
کاین تعلق چیست با این خاکمان ** چون سرشت ما بده ست از آسمان
Marvelling what connexion we had with this dust, inasmuch as our nature is of heaven.
الف ما انوار با ظلمات چیست ** چون تواند نور با ظلمات زیست
(We said), Why (this) friendship in us, who are light, with darkness? How can light live with darkness?
آدما آن الف از بوی تو بود ** ز آن که جسمت را زمین بد تار و پود
O Adam, that friendship was owing to the scent of thee, because earth was the woof and warp of thy body.