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2
958-1007

  • گفت شاها بی‏قنوط عقل نیست ** گر تو فرمایی عرض را نقل نیست‏
  • The slave said, “O King, the mind cannot but despair if you say that accidents are not carried over.

  • پادشاها جز که یاس بنده نیست ** گر عرض کان رفت باز آینده نیست‏
  • O King, there is nothing but despair for the servant (of God), if the accident that has gone is not coming back.

  • گر نبودی مر عرض را نقل و حشر ** فعل بودی باطل و اقوال فشر 960
  • If there were no carrying over and resurrection of accidents, action would be vain and words (mere) babble.

  • این عرضها نقل شد لونی دگر ** حشر هر فانی بود کونی دگر
  • These accidents are carried over in another guise: the resurrection of everything mortal is another (mode of) existence.

  • نقل هر چیزی بود هم لایقش ** لایق گله بود هم سایقش‏
  • The carrying over of everything is just as befits it: what befits the herd is its drover.

  • وقت محشر هر عرض را صورتی است ** صورت هر یک عرض را نوبتی است‏
  • At the time of the Resurrection every accident has a (particular) form, and the form of every accident has a turn (of appearing before God).

  • بنگر اندر خود نه تو بودی عرض ** جنبش جفتی و جفتی با غرض‏
  • Look on thyself. Wert not thou an accident—the movement of copulation, and copulation with a purpose?

  • بنگر اندر خانه و کاشانه‏ها ** در مهندس بود چون افسانه‏ها 965
  • Look on houses and edifices: they were as tales in the (mind of) the architect.

  • آن فلان خانه که ما دیدیم خوش ** بود موزون صفه و سقف و درش‏
  • Such-and-such a house, which seemed to us beautiful, of which the hall, roof, and door were well-proportioned—

  • از مهندس آن عرض و اندیشه‏ها ** آلت آورد و ستون از بیشه‏ها
  • (’Twas) the accident (design) and ideas (proceeding) from the architect (that) brought the tools (into existence) and the pillars (which come) from the forests.

  • چیست اصل و مایه‏ی هر پیشه‏ای ** جز خیال و جز عرض و اندیشه‏ای‏
  • What but some fancy and accident and idea is the origin and source of every handicraft?

  • جمله اجزای جهان را بی‏غرض ** درنگر حاصل نشد جز از عرض‏
  • Look disinterestedly on all the (various) parts of the world: they are not the result of (anything) except accident.

  • اول فکر آخر آمد در عمل ** بنیت عالم چنان دان در ازل‏ 970
  • The beginning, which is thought, comes to an end in action; know that in such wise was the construction of the world in eternity.

  • میوه‏ها در فکر دل اول بود ** در عمل ظاهر به آخر می‏شود
  • The fruits are first in the mind's thought, (but only) at the last do they become manifest actually:

  • چون عمل کردی شجر بنشاندی ** اندر آخر حرف اول خواندی‏
  • When you have done work (and) planted the tree—at the end (when the fruit appears) you read the first words.

  • گر چه شاخ و برگ و بیخش اول است ** آن همه از بهر میوه مرسل است‏
  • Although its boughs, leaves, and roots are first, (yet) all those are sent for the sake of the fruit.

  • پس سری که مغز آن افلاک بود ** اندر آخر خواجه‏ی لولاک بود
  • Hence that hidden Thought which was the brain (core) of those (nine) heavens was in the end the lord of lawlák.

  • نقل اعراض است این بحث و مقال ** نقل اعراض است این شیر و شگال‏ 975
  • This discussion and talk are (involve) the carrying over of accidents; this lion and jackal are (examples of) the carrying over of accidents.

  • جمله عالم خود عرض بودند تا ** اندر این معنی بیامد هل أتی‏
  • Indeed, all created beings were accidents (once), so that in this sense (the text) was revealed—Did there not come…?

  • این عرضها از چه زاید از صور ** وین صور هم از چه زاید از فکر
  • Whence arise these accidents? From ideas. And whence arise these ideas? From thoughts.

  • این جهان یک فکرت است از عقل کل ** عقل چون شاه است و صورتها رسل‏
  • This world is one thought (emanating) from the Universal Intellect: the Intellect is like a king, and the ideas (are his) envoys.

  • عالم اول جهان امتحان ** عالم ثانی جزای این و آن‏
  • The first world is the world of probation; the second world is the (world of) recompense for this and that.

  • چاکرت شاها جنایت می‏کند ** آن عرض زنجیر و زندان می‏شود 980
  • Thy servant, O King, commits a sin: that accident becomes (a substance, namely) chains and prison.

  • بنده‏ات چون خدمت شایسته کرد ** آن عرض نه خلعتی شد در نبرد
  • When thy slave performed goodly service, did not that accident become a robe of honour in the battle (between the flesh and the spirit)?

  • این عرض با جوهر آن بیضه است و طیر ** این از آن و آن از این زاید به سیر
  • This accident with the substance (belonging to it) is egg and bird: this is produced by that, and that by this, in succession.”

  • گفت شاهنشه چنین گیر المراد ** این عرضهای تو یک جوهر نزاد
  • The King said, “Take the meaning (to be) so: (why then) have these accidents of yours not produced any substance?”

  • گفت مخفی داشته ست آن را خرد ** تا بود غیب این جهان نیک و بد
  • “(Divine) Wisdom,” replied the slave, “has kept it concealed, in order that this world of good and evil may be a mystery,

  • ز انکه گر پیدا شدی اشکال فکر ** کافر و مومن نگفتی جز که ذکر 985
  • Because, if the (substantial) forms of thought were to become manifest, infidel and believer (alike) would speak naught but praise (of God).

  • پس عیان بودی نه غیب ای شاه این ** نقش دین و کفر بودی بر جبین‏
  • Then, were this clearly seen, O King, not hidden, and were the mark of religion or infidelity (visible) on the forehead,

  • کی درین عالم بت و بتگر بدی ** چون کسی را زهره‏ی تسخر بدی‏
  • How would there be idol and idolater in this world? How would any one have the stomach to mock (at holy things)?

  • پس قیامت بودی این دنیای ما ** در قیامت کی کند جرم و خطا
  • Then this world of ours would be (like) the Resurrection: who commits sin and wrong at the Resurrection?”

  • گفت شه پوشید حق پاداش بد ** لیک از عامه نه از خاصان خود
  • The King said, “God has veiled the retribution of evil, but (only) from the vulgar, not from His own elect.

  • گر به دامی افکنم من یک امیر ** از امیران خفیه دارم نه از وزیر 990
  • If I entrap one Amír, I keep it hidden from the (other) Amírs, (but) not from the Vizier.

  • حق به من بنمود پس پاداش کار ** وز صورهای عملها صد هزار
  • God, then, has shown to me the retribution of work and myriads of the (substantial) forms of actions.

  • تو نشانی ده که من دانم تمام ** ماه را بر من نمی‏پوشد غمام‏
  • Give a sign (outwardly), for I know all: the cloud does not veil the moon from me.”

  • گفت پس از گفت من مقصود چیست ** چون تو می‏دانی که آن چه بود چیست‏
  • The slave said, “Then what is the object of my speaking, since thou knowest what is (the real nature of) that which has been?”

  • گفت شه حکمت در اظهار جهان ** آن که دانسته برون آید عیان‏
  • The King said, “The wisdom (of God) in making the world manifest (was) that the (thing) known should come forth (to be seen) plainly.

  • آن چه می‏دانست تا پیدا نکرد ** بر جهان ننهاد رنج طلق و درد 995
  • Until He made visible that which He knew, He did not lay upon the world the pain of parturition and the throes (thereof).

  • یک زمان بی‏کار نتوانی نشست ** تا بدی یا نیکیی از تو نجست‏
  • You cannot sit inactive for one moment: (you cannot rest) till some badness or goodness has issued from you.

  • این تقاضاهای کار از بهر آن ** شد موکل تا شود سرت عیان‏
  • These demands (cravings) for action were appointed in order that your inward consciousness should come clearly into (outward) view.

  • پس کلابه‏ی تن کجا ساکن شود ** چون سر رشته‏ی ضمیرش می‏کشد
  • How, then, should the reel, which is the body, become still, when the thread's end, which is the mind, is pulling it?

  • تاسه‏ی تو شد نشان آن کشش ** بر تو بی‏کاری بود چون جان کنش‏
  • The sign of that pulling is your anguish: to be inactive is to you like the death-agony.

  • این جهان و آن جهان زاید ابد ** هر سبب مادر اثر از وی ولد 1000
  • This world and that world are for ever giving birth: every cause is a mother, the effect is the child (born) from it.

  • چون اثر زایید آن هم شد سبب ** تا بزاید او اثرهای عجب‏
  • When the effect was born, that too became a cause, so that it might give birth to wondrous effects.

  • این سببها نسل بر نسل است لیک ** دیده‏ای باید منور نیک نیک‏
  • These causes are generation on generation, but it needs a very well illumined eye (to see all the links in their chain).”

  • شاه با او در سخن اینجا رسید ** یا بدید از وی نشانی یا ندید
  • The King, in conversation with him, arrived at this point: he either saw or did not see a sign.

  • گر بدید آن شاه جویا دور نیست ** لیک ما را ذکر آن دستور نیست‏
  • If that searching King saw (such a sign), ’tis not strange; but we are not permitted to mention it.

  • چون ز گرمابه بیامد آن غلام ** سوی خویشش خواند آن شاه و همام‏ 1005
  • When that (other) slave came from the warm bath, that King and lofty personage called him to his presence,

  • گفت صحا لک نعیم دایم ** بس لطیفی و ظریف و خوب رو
  • (And) said, “Health (to you)! Lasting happiness be yours! You are very fine and elegant and good-looking.

  • ای دریغا گر نبودی در تو آن ** که همی‏گوید برای تو فلان‏
  • Oh, alas! If there were not in you that which so-and-so says about you,