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1
2695-2744

  • شب پران را گر نظر و آلت بدی ** روزشان جولان و خوش حالت بدی‌‌ 2695
  • If bats had sight and means (ability to bear the sunshine), they would fly about and enjoy themselves by day.”

  • گفت چون شاه کرم میدان رود ** عین هر بی‌‌آلتی آلت شود
  • The wife said, “When the gracious King goes into the field (maydán), the essence of every lack of means (inability) becomes a means (ability),

  • ز آن که آلت دعوی است و هستی است ** کار در بی‌‌آلتی و پستی است‌‌
  • Because the means (ability) is (involves) pretension and self-existence: the (pith of the) matter lies in lack of means (inability) and non-existence.”

  • گفت کی بی‌‌آلتی سودا کنم ** تا نه من بی‌‌آلتی پیدا کنم‌‌
  • “How,” said he, “should I do business without means, unless I make it manifest that I (really) have no means?

  • پس گواهی بایدم بر مفلسی ** تا شهم رحمی کند یا مونسی‌‌
  • Therefore I must needs have attestation of my want of means, that the King who wants naught may take pity on me.

  • تو گواهی غیر گفت‌‌وگو و رنگ ** وانما تا رحم آرد شاه شنگ‌‌ 2700
  • Do thou produce some attestation besides talk and show, so that the beauteous King may take pity,

  • کاین گواهی که ز گفت و رنگ بد ** نزد آن قاضی القضاة آن جرح شد
  • For the testimony that consisted of talk and show was (ever) invalidated before that Supreme Judge.

  • صدق می‌‌خواهد گواه حال او ** تا بتابد نور او بی‌‌قال او
  • He requires truth (veracity) as witness to his (the indigent man's) state, so that his (inner) light shall shine forth (and proclaim his indigence) without any words of his.”

  • هدیه بردن عرب سبوی آب باران از میان بادیه سوی بغداد به نزد خلیفه بر پنداشت آن که آن جا هم قحط آب است‌‌
  • How the Arab carried a jug of rain-water from the midst of the desert as a gift to the Commander of the Faithful at Baghdád, in the belief that in that town also there was a scarcity of water.

  • گفت زن صدق آن بود کز بود خویش ** پاک برخیزی تو از مجهود خویش‌‌
  • The wife said, “When with all thy might thou dost (endeavour to) rise up entirely purged of self-existence—that is veracity.

  • آب باران است ما را در سبو ** ملکت و سرمایه و اسباب تو
  • We have the rain-water in the jug: ’tis thy property and capital and means.

  • این سبوی آب را بردار و رو ** هدیه ساز و پیش شاهنشاه شو 2705
  • Take this jug of water and depart, make it a gift and go into the presence of the King of kings.

  • گو که ما را غیر این اسباب نیست ** در مفازه هیچ به زین آب نیست‌‌
  • Say, ‘We have no means except this: in the desert there is nothing better than this water.’

  • گر خزینه‌‌ش پر متاع فاخر است ** این چنین آبش نباشد نادر است‌‌
  • If his treasury is full of splendid merchandise, (yet) he will have no water like this: ’tis rare.”

  • چیست آن کوزه تن محصور ما ** اندر او آب حواس شور ما
  • What is that jug? Our confined body: within it is the briny water of our senses.

  • ای خداوند این خم و کوزه‌‌ی مرا ** در پذیر از فضل الله اشتری‌‌
  • O Lord, accept this jar and jug of mine by the grace of “God hath purchased (from the believers their lives and wealth in return for Paradise).”

  • کوزه‌‌ای با پنج لوله‌‌ی پنج حس ** پاک دار این آب را از هر نجس‌‌ 2710
  • (’Tis) a jug with five spouts, the five senses: keep this water pure (and safe) from every filth,

  • تا شود زین کوزه منفذ سوی بحر ** تا بگیرد کوزه‌‌ی من خوی بحر
  • That there may be from this jug a passage to the sea, and that my jug may assume the nature of the sea,

  • تا چو هدیه پیش سلطانش بری ** پاک بیند باشدش شه مشتری‌‌
  • So that when you carry it as a gift to the King, the King may find it pure and be its purchaser;

  • بی‌‌نهایت گردد آبش بعد از آن ** پر شود از کوزه‌‌ی من صد جهان‌‌
  • (And) after that, its water will become without end: a hundred worlds will be filled from my jug.

  • لوله‌‌ها بر بند و پر دارش ز خم ** گفت غضوا عن هوا ابصارکم‌‌
  • Stop up its spouts and keep it filled (with water) from the jar (of Reality): God said, “Close your eyes to vain desire.”

  • ریش او پر باد کاین هدیه کراست ** لایق چون او شهی این است راست‌‌ 2715
  • His (the husband's) beard was full of wind (he was puffed up with pride): “Who (thought he) has such a gift as this? This, truly, is worthy of a King like him.”

  • زن نمی‌‌دانست کانجا بر گذر ** هست جاری دجله‌‌ی همچون شکر
  • The wife did not know that in that place (Baghdád) on the thoroughfare there is running the Tigris (whose water is) sweet as sugar,

  • در میان شهر چون دریا روان ** پر ز کشتیها و شست ماهیان‌‌
  • Flowing like a sea through the city, full of boats and fishing-nets.

  • رو بر سلطان و کار و بار بین ** حس تجری تحتها الأنهار بین‌‌
  • Go to the Sultan and behold this pomp and state! Behold the senses of (those for whom God hath prepared gardens) beneath which the rivers flow!

  • این چنین حسها و ادراکات ما ** قطره‌‌ای باشد در آن نهر صفا
  • Our senses and perceptions, such as they are, are (but) a single drop in that pure river.

  • در نمد دوختن زن عرب سبوی آب باران را و مهر نهادن بر وی از غایت اعتقاد عرب‌‌
  • How the Arab's wife sewed the jug of rain-water in a felt cloth and put a seal on it because of the Arab's utter conviction (that it was a precious gift for the King).

  • مرد گفت آری سبو را سر ببند ** هین که این هدیه ست ما را سودمند 2720
  • “Yes,” said the husband, “stop up the mouth of the jug. Take care, for this is a gift that will bring us profit.

  • در نمد در دوز تو این کوزه را ** تا گشاید شه به هدیه روزه را
  • Sew this jug in felt, that the King may break his fast with our gift,

  • کاین چنین اندر همه آفاق نیست ** جز رحیق و مایه‌‌ی اذواق نیست‌‌
  • For there is no (water) like this in all the world: it is naught but pure wine and the source of pleasures (to the taste).”

  • ز آن که ایشان ز آبهای تلخ و شور ** دایما پر علت‌‌اند و نیم کور
  • (This he said) because they (people like him) are always full of infirmity and half-blind from (drinking) bitter and briny waters.

  • مرغ کآب شور باشد مسکنش ** او چه داند جای آب روشنش‌‌
  • The bird whose dwelling-place is the briny water, how should it know where to find in it the clear (and sweet) water?

  • ای که اندر چشمه‌ی شورست جان ** تو چه دانی شط و جیحون و فرات 2725
  • O thou whose abode is in the briny spring, how shouldst thou know the Shatt and the Jayhún and the Euphrates?

  • ای تو نارسته از این فانی رباط ** تو چه دانی محو و سکر و انبساط
  • O thou who hast not escaped from this fleeting caravanseray (the material world), how shouldst thou know (the meaning of) “self-extinction” and (mystical) “intoxication” and “expansion”?

  • ور بدانی نقلت از اب وز جد است ** پیش تو این نامها چون ابجد است‌‌
  • And if thou knowest, ’tis (by rote, like the knowledge) handed down to thee from father and grandfather: to thee these names are like abjad.

  • ابجد و هوز چه فاش است و پدید ** بر همه طفلان و معنی بس بعید
  • How plain and evident to all children are abjad and hawwaz, and (yet) the real meaning is far away (hard to reach).

  • پس سبو برداشت آن مرد عرب ** در سفر شد می‌‌کشیدش روز و شب‌‌
  • Then the Arab man took up the jug and set out to journey, carrying it along (with him) day and night.

  • بر سبو لرزان بد از آفات دهر ** هم کشیدش از بیابان تا به شهر 2730
  • He was trembling for the jug, in fear of Fortune's mischiefs: all the same, he conveyed it from the desert to the city (Baghdád).

  • زن مصلا باز کرده از نیاز ** رب سلم ورد کرده در نماز
  • His wife unrolled the prayer-rug in supplication; she made (the words) Rabbi sallim (Save, O Lord) her litany in prayer,

  • که نگه دار آب ما را از خسان ** یا رب آن گوهر بدان دریا رسان‌‌
  • Crying, “Keep our water safe from scoundrels! O Lord, let that pearl arrive at that sea!

  • گر چه شویم آگه است و پر فن است ** لیک گوهر را هزاران دشمن است‌‌
  • Although my husband is shrewd and artful, yet the pearl has thousands of enemies.

  • خود چه باشد گوهر آب کوثر است ** قطره‌‌ای زین است کاصل گوهر است‌‌
  • Pearl indeed! ’Tis the water of Kawthar: ’tis a drop of this that is the origin of the pearl.”

  • از دعاهای زن و زاری او ** وز غم مرد و گرانباری او 2735
  • Through the prayers and lamentation of the wife, and through the husband's anxiety and his patience under the heavy burden,

  • سالم از دزدان و از آسیب سنگ ** برد تا دار الخلافه بی‌‌درنگ‌‌
  • He bore it without delay, safe from robbers and unhurt by stones, to the seat of the Caliphate (the Caliph's palace).

  • دید درگاهی پر از انعامها ** اهل حاجت گستریده دامها
  • He saw a bountiful Court, (where) the needy had spread their nets;

  • دم به دم هر سوی صاحب حاجتی ** یافته ز آن در عطا و خلعتی‌‌
  • Everywhere, moment by moment, some petitioner gained (and carried away) from that Court a donation and robe of honour:

  • بهر گبر و مومن و زیبا و زشت ** همچو خورشید و مطر نی چون بهشت‌‌
  • ’Twas like sun and rain, nay, like Paradise, for infidel and true believer and good folk and bad.

  • دید قومی در نظر آراسته ** قوم دیگر منتظر برخاسته‌‌ 2740
  • He beheld some people arrayed (with favour) in the sight (of the Caliph), and others who had risen to their feet (and were) waiting (to receive his commands).

  • خاص و عامه از سلیمان تا به مور ** زنده گشته چون جهان از نفخ صور
  • High and low, from Solomon to the ant, they (all) had become quickened with life, like the world at the blast of the trumpet (on the Day of Resurrection).

  • اهل صورت در جواهر بافته ** اهل معنی بحر معنی یافته‌‌
  • The followers of Form were woven (entangled) in pearls, the followers of Reality had found the Sea of Reality.

  • آن که بی‌‌همت چه با همت شده ** و آن که با همت چه با نعمت شده‌‌
  • Those without aspiration—how aspiring had they become! and those of high aspiration—to what felicity had they attained!

  • در بیان آن که چنان که گدا عاشق کرم است و عاشق کریم، کرم کریم هم عاشق گداست اگر گدا را صبر بیش بود کریم بر در او آید و اگر کریم را صبر بیش بود گدا بر در او آید اما صبر گدا کمال گداست و صبر کریم نقصان اوست‌‌
  • Showing that, as the beggar is in love with bounty and in love with the bountiful giver, so the bounty of the bountiful giver is in love with the beggar: if the beggar have the greater patience, the bountiful giver will come to his door; and if the bountiful giver have the greater patience, the beggar will come to his door; but the beggar's patience is a virtue in the beggar, while the patience of the bountiful giver is in him a defect.

  • بانگ می‌‌آمد که ای طالب بیا ** جود محتاج گدایان چون گدا
  • A loud call was coming (to his ears): “Come, O seeker! Bounty is in need of beggars: (it is needy) like a beggar.