مرد را با اسپ کی خویشی بود ** عشق اسپش از پی پیشی بود
How should there be an affinity between a man and a horse? His love for the horse is (only) for the purpose of getting in front (of others).
بهر صورتها مکش چندین زحیر ** بی‌صداع صورتی معنی بگیر
Do not endure all this anguish for the sake of (mere) forms: grasp the reality without (suffering) headache on account of a form.
هست زاهد را غم پایان کار ** تا چه باشد حال او روز شمار 4065
The ascetic feels anxiety concerning his latter end: (he considers) what will be his plight on the Day of Reckoning;
عارفان ز آغاز گشته هوشمند ** از غم و احوال آخر فارغ‌اند
(But) the gnostics, having become conscious of the beginning, are free from anxiety and (care for) the ultimate conditions.
بود عارف را همین خوف و رجا ** سابقه‌دانیش خورد آن هر دو را
(Formerly) the gnostic had the same fear and hope (as the ascetic), (but) his knowledge of the past devoured both those (feelings).
دید کو سابق زراعت کرد ماش ** او همی‌داند چه خواهد بود چاش
He perceived that in the past he had sown pulse: he knows what the produce will be.
عارفست و باز رست از خوف و بیم ** های هو را کرد تیغ حق دو نیم
He is a gnostic and has been delivered from fear and dread: the sword of God has cut lamentation asunder
بود او را بیم و اومید از خدا ** خوف فانی شد عیان گشت آن رجا 4070
(Formerly) he had from God (feelings of) fear and hope: the fear has passed away and the hope has come into clear view.
چون شکست او گوهر خاص آن زمان ** زان امیران خاست صد بانگ و فغان
When he (Ayáz) broke that choice pearl, thereupon from the Amirs arose a hundred clamours and outcries—
کین چه بی‌باکیست والله کافرست ** هر که این پر نور گوهر را شکست
“What recklessness is this! By God, whoever has broken this luminous pearl is an infidel”—
وآن جماعت جمله از جهل و عما ** در شکسته در امر شاه را
And (yet) the whole company (of Amirs) in their ignorance and blindness had broken the pearl of the King’s command.
قیمتی گوهر نتیجه‌ی مهر و ود ** بر چنان خاطر چرا پوشیده شد
The precious pearl, the product of love and affection—why was it (ever) veiled from hearts like those?
تشنیع زدن امرا بر ایاز کی چرا شکستش و جواب دادن ایاز ایشان را
How the Amirs reviled Ayáz, saying, “Why did he break it?” and how Ayáz answered them.
گفت ایاز ای مهتران نامور ** امر شه بهتر به قیمت یا گهر 4075
Ayáz said, “O renowned princes, is the King’s command more precious or the pearl?
امر سلطان به بود پیش شما ** یا که این نیکو گهر بهر خدا
In your eyes is the command of the sovereign or this goodly pearl superior? For God’s sake (tell me that)!
ای نظرتان بر گهر بر شاه نه ** قبله‌تان غولست و جاده‌ی راه نه
O ye whose gaze is (fixed) upon the pearl, not upon the King, the ghoul is your object of desire, not the highway.
من ز شه بر می‌نگردانم بصر ** من چو مشرک روی نارم با حجر
I will never avert my gaze from the King, I will not turn my face towards a stone, like the polytheist.
بی‌گهر جانی که رنگین سنگ را ** برگزیند پس نهد شاه مرا
Devoid of the (spiritual) pearl is the soul that prefers a coloured stone and puts my King behind.”
پشت سوی لعبت گل‌رنگ کن ** عقل در رنگ‌آورنده دنگ کن 4080
Turn thy back towards the rose-colored doll, lose thy reason in Him who bestows the colour.
اندر آ در جو سبو بر سنگ زن ** آتش اندر بو و اندر رنگ زن
Come into the river (of reality), dash the pitcher (of phenomenal form) against the stone, set fire to (mere) scent and colour.
گر نه‌ای در راه دین از ره‌زنان ** رنگ و بو مپرست مانند زنان
If thou art not one of the brigands on the Way of the Religion, do not be addicted, like women, to colour and scent.
سر فرود انداختند آن مهتران ** عذرجویان گشه زان نسیان به جان
Those princes cast down their heads, craving with (all) their soul to be excused for that (act of) forgetfulness.
از دل هر یک دو صد آه آن زمان ** هم‌چو دودی می‌شدی تا آسمان
At that moment from the heart of each one (of them) two hundred sighs were going (up), like a (great) smoke, to heaven.
کرد اشارت شه به جلاد کهن ** که ز صدرم این خسان را دور کن 4085
The King made a sign to the ancient executioner, as though to say, "Remove these vile wretches from my seat of honour.
این خسان چه لایق صدر من‌اند ** کز پی سنگ امر ما را بشکنند
How are these vile wretches worthy of my seat of honour, when they break my command for the sake of a stone?
امر ما پیش چنین اهل فساد ** بهر رنگین سنگ شد خوار و کساد
For the sake of a coloured stone my command is held contemptible and cheap by evil-doers like these.”
قصد شاه به کشتن امرا و شفاعت کردن ایاز پیش تخت سلطان کی ای شاه عالم العفو اولی
How the King was about to kill the Amirs, and how Ayáz made intercession before the royal throne, saying, “‘Tis better to forgive.”
پس ایاز مهرافزا بر جهید ** پیش تخت آن الغ سلطان دوید
Then Ayáz, who was abounding in love, sprang up and ran to the throne of that mighty Sultan.
سجده‌ای کرد و گلوی خود گرفت ** کای قبادی کز تو چرخ آرد شگفت
He made a prostration and spoke with bated breath, saying, "O Emperor at whom the celestial sphere is astounded,
ای همایی که همایان فرخی ** از تو دارند و سخاوت هر سخی 4090
O Humá from whom (all) humá’s have (their) auspiciousness, and every man (his) generosity,
ای کریمی که کرمهای جهان ** محو گردد پیش ایثارت نهان
O Noble One before whose self-sacrifice (all) acts of nobility in the world are hidden (eclipsed) and disappear,
ای لطیفی که گل سرخت بدید ** از خجالت پیرهن را بر درید
O Lovely One whom the red rose beheld and tore its shirt in shame,
از غفوری تو غفران چشم‌سیر ** روبهان بر شیر از عفو تو چیر
Forgiveness (itself) is fully content with thy forgivingness: because of thy pardon the foxes prevail over the lion.
جز که عفو تو کرا دارد سند ** هر که با امر تو بی‌باکی کند
Whosoever treats thy command with insolence, whom should he have to support him except thy pardon?
غفلت و گستاخی این مجرمان ** از وفور عفو تست ای عفولان 4095
The heedlessness and irreverence of these sinners arise from the abundance of thy pardon (clemency), O mine of pardon."
دایما غفلت ز گستاخی دمد ** که برد تعظیم از دیده رمد
Heedlessness always grows up from irreverence, for (only) reverence will remove the inflammation from the eye .
غفلت و نسیان بد آموخته ** ز آتش تعظیم گردد سوخته
The heedlessness and wicked forgetfulness (which) he (the sinner) has learned will be consumed by the fire of reverence.
هیبتش بیداری و فطنت دهد ** سهو نسیان از دلش بیرون جهد
Awe (of God) will bestow on him wakefulness and keen wittedness: negligence and forgetfulness will leap forth from his heart.
وقت غارت خواب ناید خلق را ** تا بنرباید کسی زو دلق را
Folk do not fall asleep at the time of a raid, lest any one should carry off his (the sleeper’s) cloak.
خواب چون در می‌رمد از بیم دلق ** خواب نسیان کی بود با بیم حلق 4100
Since sleep is banished by fear for one’s cloak, how should the sleep of forgetfulness be (possible when accompanied) with fear for one’s throat?
لاتاخذ ان نسینا شد گواه ** که بود نسیان بوجهی هم گناه
(The text) do not punish (us) if we forget is evidence that forgetfulness too, in a certain way, is sinful,
زانک استکمال تعظیم او نکرد ** ورنه نسیان در نیاوردی نبرد
Because he (who was forgetful) did not attain to complete reverence, or else forgetfulness would not have assailed him
گرچه نسیان لابد و ناچار بود ** در سبب ورزیدن او مختار بود
Although (his) forgetfulness was necessary and inevitable, (yet) he was a free agent in employing the means (by which it was produced);
که تهاون کرد در تعظیمها ** تا که نسیان زاد یا سهو و خطا
For he showed remissness in his feelings of reverence, so that forgetfulness was born or negligence and trespass.
هم‌چو مستی کو جنایتها کند ** گوید او معذور بودم من ز خود 4105
(‘Tis) like (the case of) the drunken man who commits sins and says, “I was excused from (responsibility for) myself”
گویدش لیکن سبب ای زشتکار ** از تو بد در رفتن آن اختیار
“But,” says he (the other) to him, “the cause (of your sin), (consisting) in the loss of that power to choose, proceeded from you, O evil-doer.
بی‌خودی نامد بخود تش خواندی ** اختیارت خود نشد تش راندی
Your senselessness did not come of itself, you invited it; your power to choose did not go of itself, you drove it away.
گر رسیدی مستی بی‌جهد تو ** حفظ کردی ساقی جان عهد تو
If an intoxication had come (upon you) without exertion on your part, the spiritual Cup-bearer would have kept your covenant (inviolate).
پشت‌دارت بودی او و عذرخواه ** من غلام زلت مست اله
He would have been your backer and intercessor: I am devoted to the sin of him who is intoxicated by God.”
عفوهای جمله عالم ذره‌ای ** عکس عفوت ای ز تو هر بهره‌ای 4110
(Ayáz said), “The forgivenesses of the whole world are (but) a mote—the reflexion of thy forgiveness, O thou from whom comes, every fortune.
عفوها گفته ثنای عفو تو ** نیست کفوش ایها الناس اتقوا
(All) forgivenesses sing the praise of thy forgiveness: there is no peer to it. O people, beware (of comparing it)!
جانشان بخش و ز خودشان هم مران ** کام شیرین تو اند ای کامران
Grant them their lives, neither banish them from thyself: they are (the objects of) thy sweet desire, O thou who bringest (all thy) desire to fruition.