عقل حیران که چه عشق است و چه حال ** تا فراق او عجب‌تر یا وصال
The intellect (was) bewildered, saying, "What is love and what is ecstasy? (I know not) whether separation from Him or union with Him is the more marvellous."
چرخ بر خوانده قیامت‌نامه را ** تا مجره بر دریده جامه را
The sky read the letter (announcement) of Resurrection (and was so distraught that) it rent its garment up to the Milky Way.
با دو عالم عشق را بیگانگی ** اندرو هفتاد و دو دیوانگی
Love bath estrangement with (is a stranger to) the two worlds: in it are two-and-seventy madnesses.
سخت پنهانست و پیدا حیرتش ** جان سلطانان جان در حسرتش4720
It is exceedingly hidden, and (only) its bewilderment is manifest the soul of the spiritual sultans is pining for it
غیر هفتاد و دو ملت کیش او ** تخت شاهان تخته‌بندی پیش او
Its religion is other than (that of) the two-and-seventy sects: beside it the throne of Kings is (but) a splint-bandage.
مطرب عشق این زند وقت سماع ** بندگی بند و خداوندی صداع
At the time of the samá’ Love’s minstrel strikes up this (strain): “Servitude is chains and lordship headache.”
پس چه باشد عشق دریای عدم ** در شکسته عقل را آنجا قدم
Then what is Love? The Sea of Not-being: there the foot of the intellect is shattered.
بندگی و سلطنت معلوم شد ** زین دو پرده عاشقی مکتوم شد
Servitude and sovereignty are known: loverhood is concealed by these two veils.
کاشکی هستی زبانی داشتی ** تا ز هستان پرده‌ها برداشتی4725
Would that Being had a tongue; that it might remove the veils from existent beings!
هر چه گویی ای دم هستی از آن ** پرده‌ی دیگر برو بستی بدان
O breath of (phenomenal) existence, whatsoever words thou mayest utter, know that thereby thou hast bound another veil upon it (the mystery).
آفت ادراک آن قالست و حال ** خون بخون شستن محالست و محال
That utterance and (that) state (of existence) are the bane of (spiritual) perception: to wash away blood with blood is absurd, absurd.
من چو با سوداییانش محرمم ** روز و شب اندر قفص در می‌دمم
Since I am familiar with His frenzied ones, day and night I am breathing forth (the secrets of Love) in the cage (of phenomenal existence).
سخت مست و بی‌خود و آشفته‌ای ** دوش ای جان بر چه پهلو خفته‌ای
Thou art mightily drunken and senseless and distraught: yesternight on which side hast thou slept, O (my) soul?
هان و هان هش دار بر ناری دمی ** اولا بر جه طلب کن محرمی4730
Beware, beware! Take heed lest thou utter a breath! First spring up and seek a trusted friend.
عاشق و مستی و بگشاده زبان ** الله الله اشتری بر ناودان
Thou art a lover and intoxicated, and thy tongue (is) loosed! —God! God! thou art (like) the camel on the water-spout!
چون ز راز و ناز او گوید زبان ** یا جمیل الستر خواند آسمان
When the tongue tells of His mystery and coquetry, Heaven chants (the prayer), “O Thou that art goodly in covering!”
ستر چه در پشم و پنبه آذرست ** تا همی‌پوشیش او پیداترست
What covering (can there be)? The fire is in the wool cotton whilst thou art covering it up, it is (all the) more manifest.
چون بکوشم تا سرش پنهان کنم ** سر بر آرد چون علم کاینک منم
When I endeavour to hide His (Love’s) secret, He lifts up His head, like a banner, saying, “Look, here am I!”
رغم انفم گیردم او هر دو گوش ** کای مدمغ چونش می‌پوشی بپوش4735
In despite of me He seizes both my ears, saying, “O scatter-brain, how wilt thou cover it Cover it (if thou canst)!”
گویمش رو گرچه بر جوشیده‌ای ** همچو جان پیدایی و پوشیده‌ای
I say to Him, “Begone! Though thou hast bubbled up (hast become fervid), (yet) thou art (both) manifest and concealed, like the soul.”
گوید او محبوس خنبست این تنم ** چون می اندر بزم خنبک می‌زنم
He says, “This body of mine is imprisoned in the jar, (but) like wine I am clapping hands (making a merry noise) at the banquet.”
گویمش زان پیش که گردی گرو ** تا نیاید آفت مستی برو
I say to Him, “Go ere thou art put in pawn (confinement) lest the bane of intoxication befall (thee).”
گوید از جام لطیف‌آشام من ** یار روزم تا نماز شام من
He says, “I befriend the day with (my) delicious cup until the evening-prayer.
چون بیاید شام و دزدد جام من ** گویمش وا ده که نامد شام من4740
When evening comes and steals my cup, I will say to it, ‘Give (it) back, for my evening hath not come.’”
زان عرب بنهاد نام می مدام ** زانک سیری نیست می‌خور را مدام
Hence the Arabs applied the name mudám to wine, because the wine-drinker is never sated.
عشق جوشد باده‌ی تحقیق را ** او بود ساقی نهان صدیق را
Love makes the wine of realisation to bubble: He is the cup-bearer to the siddíq (true lover) in secret.
چون بجویی تو بتوفیق حسن ** باده آب جان بود ابریق تن
When you seek (the reality) with good help (from God), the water (essence) of the spirit is the wine, and the body is the flagon.
چون بیفزاید می توفیق را ** قوت می بشکند ابریق را
When He increases the wine of His help, the potency of the wine bursts the flagon.
آب گردد ساقی و هم مست آب ** چون مگو والله اعلم بالصواب4745
The water (the spirit) becomes the Cup-bearer, and the water (is) also the drunken man. Tell not how! And Go best knoweth the right.
پرتو ساقیست کاندر شیره رفت ** شیره بر جوشید و رقصان گشت و زفت
‘Tis the radiance of the Cup-bearer that entered into the must: the must bubbled up and began to dance and waxed strong.
اندرین معنی بپرس آن خیره را ** که چنین کی دیده بودی شیره را
On this matter, ask the heedless (sceptic), “When did you (ever) see must like this?”
بی تفکر پیش هر داننده هست ** آنک با شوریده شوراننده هست
To every one who hath knowledge it is (self-evident) without reflection, that together with the person disturbed there is a Disturber.
حکایت عاشقی دراز هجرانی بسیار امتحانی
Story of the lover who had been long separated (from his beloved) and had suffered much tribulation.
یک جوانی بر زنی مجنون بدست ** می‌ندادش روزگار وصل دست
A certain youth was madly enamoured of a woman: the fortune of union was not granted to him.
بس شکنجه کرد عشقش بر زمین ** خود چرا دارد ز اول عشق کین4750
Love tortured him exceedingly on the earth: why, in sooth, does Love bear hatred (to the lover) from the first?
عشق از اول چرا خونی بود ** تا گریزد آنک بیرونی بود
Why is Love murderous from the first, so that he who is an outsider runs away?
چون فرستادی رسولی پیش زن ** آن رسول از رشک گشتی راه‌زن
Whenever he sent a messenger to the woman, the messenger because of jealousy would become a highwayman (barring the way against him);
ور بسوی زن نبشتی کاتبش ** نامه را تصحیف خواندی نایبش
And if his secretary wrote (a letter to be sent) to the woman, his delegate (messenger) would read the letter (to her) with tashíf;
ور صبا را پیک کردی در وفا ** از غباری تیره گشتی آن صبا
And if in good faith he made the zephyr his envoy, that zephyr would be darkened by a (cloud of) dust.
رقعه گر بر پر مرغی دوختی ** پر مرغ از تف رقعه سوختی4755
If he sewed the letter on the wing of a bird, the bird's wing would be burnt by the ardour of the letter.
راههای چاره را غیرت ببست ** لشکر اندیشه را رایت شکست
The (Divine) jealousy barred (all) the ways of device and broke the banner of the army of cogitation.
بود اول مونس غم انتظار ** آخرش بشکست کی هم انتظار
At first, expectation was the comforting friend of (his) sorrow; at last, there broke him—who? Even (the same) expectation.
گاه گفتی کین بلای بی‌دواست ** گاه گفتی نه حیات جان ماست
Sometimes he would say, “This is an irremediable affliction”; sometimes he would say, “No, it is the life of my spirit.”
گاه هستی زو بر آوردی سری ** گاه او از نیستی خوردی بری
Sometimes (self-) existence would lift up a head from him (appear in him); sometimes he would eat of the fruit of non-existence.
چونک بر وی سرد گشتی این نهاد ** جوش کردی گرم چشمه‌ی اتحاد4760
When this (bodily) nature became cold (irksome and useless) to him, the fountain of union (with the beloved) would boil hotly.
چونک با بی‌برگی غربت بساخت ** برگ بی‌برگی به سوی او بتاخت
When he put up with (contented himself with) the unprovidedness of exile, the provision of unprovidedness hastened towards him.
خوشه‌های فکرتش بی‌کاه شد ** شب‌روان را رهنما چون ماه شد
The wheat-ears of his thought were purged of chaff: he became, like the moon, a guide to the night-travellers.
ای بسا طوطی گویای خمش ** ای بسا شیرین‌روان رو ترش
Oh, there is many a parrot that speaks though it is mute; oh, there is many a sweet-spirited one whose face is sour.
رو به گورستان دمی خامش نشین ** آن خموشان سخن‌گو را ببین
Go to the graveyard, sit awhile in silence, and behold those eloquent silent ones;
لیک اگر یکرنگ بینی خاکشان ** نیست یکسان حالت چالاکشان4765
But, if you see that their dust is of one colour, (yet) their active (spiritual) state is not uniform.
شحم و لحم زندگان یکسان بود ** آن یکی غمگین دگر شادان بود
The fat and flesh of living persons is uniform, (yet) one is sad, another glad.