عزت مقصد بود ای ممتحن ** پیچ پیچ راه و عقبه و راه‌زن
The greatness of the (traveller's) goal, O well-tried man, is (shown by) the intricate windings of the way and the mountain-passes and the brigands (infesting them).
عزت کعبه بود و آن نادیه ** ره‌زنی اعراب و طول بادیه
The greatness of the Ka‘ba and its assembly-place is (shown by) the brigandage of the Beduins and the length of the desert (traversed by the pilgrims).
هر روش هر ره که آن محمود نیست ** عقبه‌ای و مانعی و ره‌زنیست 3225
Every (religious) doctrine, every tenet, that is not praiseworthy is (like) a mountain-pass and a barrier and a brigand.
این روش خصم و حقود آن شده ** تا مقلد در دو ره حیران شده
This doctrine has become the adversary and bitter enemy of that, so that the imitator (who adopts the beliefs of others) is in a dilemma;
صدق هر دو ضد بیند در روش ** هر فریقی در ره خود خوش منش
(For) he sees that both the opponents are firm in their doctrine: every sect is pleased with its own path.
گر جوابش نیست می‌بندد ستیز ** بر همان دم تا به روز رستخیز
If it has no reply (to the arguments brought against it), it will cling obstinately to the same formula till the Day of Resurrection,
که مهان ما بدانند این جواب ** گرچه از ما شد نهان وجه صواب
Saying, “Our great authorities know the reply to this, although the right method (of answering) is hidden from us.”
پوزبند وسوسه عشقست و بس ** ورنه کی وسواس را بستست کس 3230
The only muzzle for evil suggestions (of doubt) is Love; else, when has any one (ever) stopped (such) temptation?
Become a lover, seek a fair minion, hunt a waterfowl from river to river.
کی بری زان آب کان آبت برد ** کی کنی زان فهم فهمت را خورد
How will you get water (spirituality) from that one who takes your water away? How will you apprehend (the truth) from that one (who) consumes your (spiritual) apprehension?
غیر این معقولها معقولها ** یابی اندر عشق با فر و بها
In Love, (which is) glorious and resplendent, you will find intelligible things other than these intelligible things.
غیر این عقل تو حق را عقلهاست ** که بدان تدبیر اسباب سماست
To God belong intelligences other than this intelligence of yours, (intelligences) by which the mediate celestial things are ruled;
که بدین عقل آوری ارزاق را ** زان دگر مفرش کنی اطباق را 3235
For by this (individual) intelligence you procure the means of subsistence, (while) by that other (universal intelligence) you make the tiers of Heaven a carpet (under your feet).
چون ببازی عقل در عشق صمد ** عشر امثالت دهد یا هفت‌صد
When you gamble away (sacrifice) your intelligence in love of the Lord, He gives you ten like unto it or seven hundred.
آن زنان چون عقلها درباختند ** بر رواق عشق یوسف تاختند
Those women (of Egypt), when they gambled away (sacrificed) their intelligences, sped onward to the pavilion of Joseph's love.
عقلشان یک‌دم ستد ساقی عمر ** سیر گشتند از خرد باقی مرد
(Love which is) the cupbearer of life took away their intelligence in one moment: they drank their fill of wisdom all the rest of their lives.
اصل صد یوسف جمال ذوالجلال ** ای کم از زن شو فدای آن جمال
The beauty of the Almighty is the source of a hundred Josephs: O you who are less than a woman, devote yourself to that beauty!
عشق برد بحث را ای جان و بس ** کو ز گفت و گو شود فریاد رس 3240
O (dear) soul, Love alone cuts disputation short, for it (alone) comes to the rescue when you cry for help against arguments.
حیرتی آید ز عشق آن نطق را ** زهره نبود که کند او ماجرا
Eloquence is dumbfounded by Love: it dare not engage in altercation;
که بترسد گر جوابی وا دهد ** گوهری از لنج او بیرون فتد
For he (the lover) fears that, if he answer back, a pearl (his inner experience) may fall out of his mouth.
لب ببندد سخت او از خیر و شر ** تا نباید کز دهان افتد گهر
He closes his lips tight against (uttering) good or evil (words) lest the pearl should fall from his mouth (and be lost),
هم‌چنانک گفت آن یار رسول ** چون نبی بر خواندی بر ما فصول
Even as the Companion of the Prophet said, “Whenever the Prophet recited sections (of the Qur’án) to us,
آن رسول مجتبی وقت نثار ** خواستی از ما حضور و صد وقار 3245
At the moment of munificence that chosen Messenger would demand of us attentiveness and a hundred reverences.”
آنچنان که بر سرت مرغی بود ** کز فواتش جان تو لرزان شود
’Tis as when a bird is (perched) on your head, and your soul trembles for fear of its flitting,
پس نیاری هیچ جنبیدن ز جا ** تا نگیرد مرغ خوب تو هوا
So you dare not stir from your place, lest your beautiful bird should take to the air;
دم نیاری زد ببندی سرفه را ** تا نباید که بپرد آن هما
You dare not breathe, you suppress a cough, lest that humá should fly away;
ور کست شیرین بگوید یا ترش ** بر لب انگشتی نهی یعنی خمش
And if any one speak sweet or sour (words) to you, you lay a finger on your lip, meaning, “Hush!”
حیرت آن مرغست خاموشت کند ** بر نهد سردیگ و پر جوشت کند 3250
Bewilderment is (like) that bird: it makes you silent: it puts the lid on the kettle and fills you with the boiling (of love).
پرسیدن پادشاه قاصدا ایاز را کی چندین غم و شادی با چارق و پوستین کی جمادست می‌گویی تا ایاز را در سخن آورد
How the King (Mahmúd) purposely asked Ayáz, “(Why) art thou telling all this sorrow and joy to a rustic shoe and a sheepskin jacket, which are inanimate?” (His purpose was) that he might induce Ayáz to speak.
ای ایاز این مهرها بر چارقی ** چیست آخر هم‌چو بر بت عاشقی
(The King said), “O Ayáz, pray, why are these marks of affection, like (those of) a lover to his adored one, (shown by thee) to a rustic shoe?
هم‌چو مجنون از رخ لیلی خویش ** کرده‌ای تو چارقی را دین و کیش
Thou hast made a rustic shoe (the object of) thy devotion and religion, as Majnún (made) of his Laylá’s face (an object of the same kind).
با دو کهنه مهر جان آمیخته ** هر دو را در حجره‌ای آویخته
Thou hast mingled thy soul’s love with two old articles (of dress) and hung them both in a chamber.
چند گویی با دو کهنه نو سخن ** در جمادی می‌دمی سر کهن
How long wilt thou speak new words to (those) two old things and breathe the ancient secret into a substance devoid of life?
چون عرب با ربع و اطلال ای ایاز ** می‌کشی از عشق گفت خود دراز 3255
Like (the poets among) the Arabs, O Ayáz, thou art drawing out long and lovingly thy converse with the (deserted) abodes and the traces of former habitation.
چارقت ربع کدامین آصفست ** پوستین گویی که کرته‌ی یوسفست
Of what Ásaf are thy shoon the abode? One would say that thy sheepskin jacket is the shirt of Joseph.”
هم‌چو ترسا که شمارد با کشش ** جرم یکساله زنا و غل و غش
(This is) like (the case of) the Christian who recounts to his priest a year’s sins––fornication and malice and hypocrisy––
تا بیامرزد کشش زو آن گناه ** عفو او را عفو داند از اله
In order that the priest may pardon his sins, for he regards his (the priest’s) forgiveness as forgiveness from God.
نیست آگه آن کشش از جرم و داد ** لیک بس جادوست عشق و اعتقاد
The priest has no (real) knowledge of sin and pardon; but love and firm belief are mightily bewitching.
دوستی و وهم صد یوسف تند ** اسحر از هاروت و ماروتست خود 3260
Love and imagination weave (create) a hundred (forms beautiful as) Joseph: in sooth they are greater sorcerers than Hárút and Márút.
صورتی پیدا کند بر یاد او ** جذب صورت آردت در گفت و گو
They cause a form (of phantasy) to appear in memory of him (your Beloved): the attraction of the form leads you into (conversation with it).
رازگویی پیش صورت صد هزار ** آن چنان که یار گوید پیش یار
You tell a hundred thousand secrets in the form’s presence, just as a friend speaks (intimately) in the presence of a friend.
نه بدانجا صورتی نه هیکلی ** زاده از وی صد الست و صد بلی
No (material) form or shape is there; (yet) from it proceed a hundred (utterances of the words) “Am not I (thy Beloved)?” and (from you) a hundred “Yeas.”
آن چنان که مادری دل‌برده‌ای ** پیش گور بچه‌ی نومرده‌ای
(‘Tis) as when a mother, distraught (with grief) beside the grave of a child newly dead,
رازها گوید به جد و اجتهاد ** می‌نماید زنده او را آن جماد 3265
Utters heart-felt words earnestly and intensely: the inanimate (corpse) seems to her to be alive.
حی و قایم داند او آن خاک را ** چشم و گوشی داند او خاشاک را
She regards that dust as living and erect, she regards that rubbish as (having) an eye and an ear.
پیش او هر ذره‌ی آن خاک گور ** گوش دارد هوش دارد وقت شور
To her, at the moment when she is crazed (with grief), every atom of the earth in the grave seems to have hearing and intelligence.
مستمع داند به جد آن خاک را ** خوش نگر این عشق ساحرناک را
She believes with all her might that the earth is hearkening (to her): look well at this Love that works magic!
آنچنان بر خاک گور تازه او ** دم‌بدم خوش می‌نهد با اشک رو
Fondly and with tears she lays her face, time after time, on the fresh earth of the grave in such wise
که بوقت زندگی هرگز چنان ** روی ننهادست بر پور چو جان 3270
As during his life she never laid her face on the son who was so dear to her;
از عزا چون چند روزی بگذرد ** آتش آن عشق او ساکن شود
(But) when some days pass in mourning, the fire of her love sinks to rest.
عشق بر مرده نباشد پایدار ** عشق را بر حی جان‌افزای دار
Love for the dead is not lasting: keep your love (fixed) on the Living One who increases spiritual life.