هر که کاملتر بود او در هنر ** او بمعنی پس بصورت پیشتر
The more perfect he is in (worldly) science, the more backward he is in reality and the more forward in appearance.
راجعون گفت و رجوع این سان بود ** که گله وا گردد و خانه رود
He (God) hath said, “(Verily, to Him we are) returning”; and the return is in the same wise as a herd turns back and goes home.
چونک واگردید گله از ورود ** پس فتد آن بز که پیش آهنگ بود
When the herd has turned back from (after) going down to water, the goat that was the leader (now) falls behind (becomes the hindmost),
پیش افتد آن بز لنگ پسین ** اضحک الرجعی وجوه العابسین1120
And the lame hindmost goat is now in front: the return caused the faces to laugh of them that were frowning (before).
از گزافه کی شدند این قوم لنگ ** فخر را دادند و بخریدند ننگ
How did this party (the prophets and saints) become lame and give up glory and purchase ignominy in vain?
پا شکسته می‌روند این قوم حج ** از حرج راهیست پنهان تا فرج
This party go on the pilgrimage (to Reality) with broken legs, (because) there is a secret way from straitness to ease.
دل ز دانشها بشستند این فریق ** زانک این دانش نداند آن طریق
This company washed their hearts (clean) of (the exoteric) kinds of knowledge, because this knowledge does not know that Way.
دانشی باید که اصلش زان سرست ** زانک هر فرعی به اصلش رهبرست
(In order to tread this Way) one needs a knowledge whereof the root is Yonder, inasmuch as every branch is a guide to its root.
هر پری بر عرض دریا کی پرد ** تا لدن علم لدنی می‌برد1125
How should every wing fly across the breadth of the Sea? (Only) the esoteric knowledge will bear (thee) to the Presence (of God).
پس چرا علمی بیاموزی به مرد ** کش بباید سینه را زان پاک کرد
Why, then, should you teach a man the knowledge of which it behoves him to purify his breast?
پس مجو پیشی ازین سر لنگ باش ** وقت وا گشتن تو پیش آهنگ باش
Therefore do not seek to be in front: be lame on this side, and be the leader at the moment of return.
آخرون السابقون باش ای ظریف ** بر شجر سابق بود میوه‌ی طریف
O clever one, be thou (according to the Prophet's saying, “We are) the hindmost and the foremost”: the fresh fruit is prior to the tree.
گرچه میوه آخر آید در وجود ** اولست او زانک او مقصود بود
Although the fruit comes last into being, it is the first, because it was the object.
چون ملایک گوی لا علم لنا ** تا بگیرد دست تو علمتنا1130
Say, like the angels, “We have no knowledge,” to the end that “Thou hast taught us” may take thy hand (come to thy aid).
گر درین مکتب ندانی تو هجا ** همچو احمد پری از نور حجی
If in this school thou dost not know the alphabet, (yet) thou art filled, like Ahmad (Mohammed), with the light of Reason.
گر نباشی نامدار اندر بلاد ** گم نه‌ای الله اعلم بالعباد
If thou art not famous in the world, (yet) thou art not lost: God knoweth best concerning His servants.
اندر آن ویران که آن معروف نیست ** از برای حفظ گنجینه‌ی زریست
A treasure of gold is (hidden), for safety's sake, in a desolate spot that is not well-known.
موضع معروف کی بنهند گنج ** زین قبل آمد فرج در زیر رنج
How should they deposit the treasure in a well-known place? On this account it is said, “Joy is (hidden) beneath sorrow.”
خاطر آرد بس شکال اینجا ولیک ** بسکلد اشکال را استور نیک1135
Here the mind may bring (suggest) many difficulties, but a good beast will break the tether.
هست عشقش آتشی اشکال‌سوز ** هر خیالی را بروبد نور روز
His (God's) love is a fire that consumes difficulties: the daylight sweeps away every phantom.
هم از آن سو جو جواب ای مرتضا ** کین سال آمد از آن سو مر ترا
O thou with whom He is pleased, seek the answer from the same quarter from which this question came to thee.
گوشه‌ی بی گوشه‌ی دل شه‌رهیست ** تاب لا شرقی و لا غرب از مهیست
The cornerless corner of the heart is a King's highway: the radiance that is neither of the east nor of the west is (derived) from a Moon.
تو ازین سو و از آن سو چون گدا ** ای که معنی چه می‌جویی صدا
Why on this side and on that, like a beggar, O mountain of Reality, art thou seeking the echo?
هم از آن سو جو که وقت درد تو ** می‌شوی در ذکر یا ربی دوتو1140
Seek (the answer) from the same quarter to which, in the hour of pain, thou bendest low, crying repeatedly, “O my Lord!”
وقت درد و مرگ آن سو می‌نمی ** چونک دردت رفت چونی اعجمی
In the hour of pain and death thou turnest in that direction: how, when thy pain is gone, art thou ignorant?
وقت محنت گشته‌ای الله گو ** چونک محنت رفت گویی راه کو
At the time of tribulation thou hast called unto God, (but) when the tribulation is gone, thou sayest, “Where is the way?”
این از آن آمد که حق را بی گمان ** هر که بشناسد بود دایم بر آن
This is because (thou dost not know God): every one that knows God without uncertainty is constantly engaged in that (commemoration of Him),
وانک در عقل و گمان هستش حجاب ** گاه پوشیدست و گه بدریده جیب
While he that is veiled in intellect and uncertainty is sometimes covered (inaccessible to spiritual emotion) and sometimes with his collar torn (in a state of rapture).
The particular (discursive) intellect is sometimes dominant, sometimes overthrown; the Universal Intellect is secure from the mischances of Time.
عقل بفروش و هنر حیرت بخر ** رو به خواری نه بخارا ای پسر
Sell intellect and talent and buy bewilderment (in God): betake thyself to lowliness, O son, not to Bukhárá!
ما چه خود را در سخن آغشته‌ایم ** کز حکایت ما حکایت گشته‌ایم
Why have I steeped myself in the discourse, so that from story-telling I have become a story?
من عدم و افسانه گردم در حنین ** تا تقلب یابم اندر ساجدین
I become naught and (unsubstantial as) a fable in making moan (to God), in order that I may gain influence over (the hearts of) them that prostrate themselves in prayer.
این حکایت نیست پیش مرد کار ** وصف حالست و حضور یار غار
This (story of Moses and Pharaoh) is not a story in the eyes of the man of experience: it is a description of an actual (spiritual) state, and it is (equivalent to) the presence of the Friend of the Cave.
آن اساطیر اولین که گفت عاق ** حرف قرآن را بد آثار نفاق1150
That (phrase) “stories of the ancients,” which the disobedient (infidels) applied to the words of the Qur’án, was a mark of (their) hypocrisy.
لامکانی که درو نور خداست ** ماضی و مستقبل و حال از کجاست
The man transcending space, in whom is the Light of God— whence (what concern of his) is the past, the future, or the present?
ماضی و مستقبلش نسبت به تست ** هر دو یک چیزند پنداری که دوست
His being past or future is (only) in relation to thee: both are one thing, and thou thinkest they are two.
یک تنی او را پدر ما را پسر ** بام زیر زید و بر عمرو آن زبر
One individual is to him father and to us son: the roof is below Zayd and above ‘Amr.
نسبت زیر و زبر شد زان دو کس ** سقف سوی خویش یک چیزست بس
The relation of “below” and “above” arises from those two persons: as regards itself, the roof is one thing only.
نیست مثل آن مثالست این سخن ** قاصر از معنی نو حرف کهن1155
These expressions are not (exactly) similar to that (doctrine of spiritual timelessness): they are a comparison: the old words fall short of the new meaning.
چون لب جو نیست مشکا لب ببند ** بی لب و ساحل بدست این بحر قند
Since there is no river-marge, close thy lips, O waterskin: this Sea of candy hath (ever) been without marge or shore.
فرستادن فرعون به مداین در طلب ساحران
How Pharaoh sent (messengers) to the cities in search of the magicians.
چونک موسی بازگشت و او بماند ** اهل رای و مشورت را پیش خواند
When Moses had returned (home) and he (Pharaoh) remained (with his own people), he called his advisers and counsellors to his presence.
آنچنان دیدند کز اطراف مصر ** جمع آردشان شه و صراف مصر
They deemed it right that the King and Ruler of Egypt should assemble them (the magicians) from all parts of Egypt.
او بسی مردم فرستاد آن زمان ** هر نواحی بهر جمع جادوان
Thereupon he sent many men in every direction to collect the sorcerers.
هر طرف که ساحری بد نامدار ** کرد پران سوی او ده پیک کار1160
In whatsoever region there was a renowned magician, he set flying towards him ten active couriers.
دو جوان بودند ساحر مشتهر ** سحر ایشان در دل مه مستمر
There were two youths, famous magicians: their magic penetrated into the heart of the moon.
شیر دوشیده ز مه فاش آشکار ** در سفرها رفته بر خمی سوار
They milked the moon publicly and openly; in their journeys they went mounted on a wine-jar.
شکل کرباسی نموده ماهتاب ** آن بپیموده فروشیده شتاب
They caused the moonshine to appear like a piece of linen: they measured and sold it speedily,
سیم برده مشتری آگه شده ** دست از حسرت به رخها بر زده
And took the silver away: the purchaser, on becoming aware (of the fraud), would smite his hand upon his cheeks in grief.
صد هزاران همچنین در جادوی ** بوده منشی و نبوده چون روی1165
They were the inventors of a hundred thousand such (tricks) in sorcery, and were not (following others) like the rhyme-letter.
چون بدیشان آمد آن پیغام شاه ** کز شما شاهست اکنون چاره‌خواه
When the King's message reached them, (to this effect): “The king is now desiring help from you,