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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.
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بندگی و سلطنت معلوم شد ** زین دو پرده عاشقی مکتوم شد
- Servitude and sovereignty are known: loverhood is concealed by these two veils.
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کاشکی هستی زبانی داشتی ** تا ز هستان پردهها برداشتی 4725
- Would that Being had a tongue; that it might remove the veils from existent beings!
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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).
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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.
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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).
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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?
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هان و هان هش دار بر ناری دمی ** اولا بر جه طلب کن محرمی 4730
- Beware, beware! Take heed lest thou utter a breath! First spring up and seek a trusted friend.
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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!
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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!”
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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.
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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!”
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رغم انفم گیردم او هر دو گوش ** کای مدمغ چونش میپوشی بپوش 4735
- In despite of me He seizes both my ears, saying, “O scatter-brain, how wilt thou cover it Cover it (if thou canst)!”
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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.”
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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.”
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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).”
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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.
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چون بیاید شام و دزدد جام من ** گویمش وا ده که نامد شام من 4740
- When evening comes and steals my cup, I will say to it, ‘Give (it) back, for my evening hath not come.’”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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آب گردد ساقی و هم مست آب ** چون مگو والله اعلم بالصواب 4745
- 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.
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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.
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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?”
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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.
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حکایت عاشقی دراز هجرانی بسیار امتحانی
- Story of the lover who had been long separated (from his beloved) and had suffered much tribulation.
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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.
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بس شکنجه کرد عشقش بر زمین ** خود چرا دارد ز اول عشق کین 4750
- Love tortured him exceedingly on the earth: why, in sooth, does Love bear hatred (to the lover) from the first?
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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?
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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);
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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;
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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.
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رقعه گر بر پر مرغی دوختی ** پر مرغ از تف رقعه سوختی 4755
- If he sewed the letter on the wing of a bird, the bird's wing would be burnt by the ardour of the letter.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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چونک بر وی سرد گشتی این نهاد ** جوش کردی گرم چشمهی اتحاد 4760
- When this (bodily) nature became cold (irksome and useless) to him, the fountain of union (with the beloved) would boil hotly.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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;
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لیک اگر یکرنگ بینی خاکشان ** نیست یکسان حالت چالاکشان 4765
- But, if you see that their dust is of one colour, (yet) their active (spiritual) state is not uniform.
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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.
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تو چه دانی تا ننوشی قالشان ** زانک پنهانست بر تو حالشان
- Until you hear their words, what should you know (of their feelings), inasmuch as their (inward) state is hidden from you?
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بشنوی از قال های و هوی را ** کی ببینی حالت صدتوی را
- You may hear words—(cries of) háy, húy; (but) how will you perceive the (inward) state that hath a hundred folds?
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نقش ما یکسان بضدها متصف ** خاک هم یکسان روانشان مختلف
- Our (human) figure is uniform, (yet) endued with contrary qualities: likewise their dust is uniform, (yet) their spirits are diverse.
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همچنین یکسان بود آوازها ** آن یکی پر درد و آن پر نازها 4770
- Similarly, voices are uniform (as such), (but) one is sorrowful, and another full of charms.
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بانگ اسپان بشنوی اندر مصاف ** بانگ مرغان بشنوی اندر طواف
- On the battle-field you may hear the cry of horses; in strolling round (a garden) you may hear the cry of birds.
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آن یکی از حقد و دیگر ز ارتباط ** آن یکی از رنج و دیگر از نشاط
- One (voice proceeds) from hate, and another from harmony; one from pain, and another from joy.