چون بود مسی که بر اکسیر زد ** مفلسی بر گنج پر توفیر زد
How is it with a piece of copper that has touched the elixir? How with an insolvent who has hit upon an ample treasure?
ماهی پژمرده در بحر اوفتاد ** کاروان گم شده زد بر رشاد 1065
(’Twas as though) a fish parched (for want of water) fell into the sea, (or) a caravan that had lost its way struck the right road.
آن خطاباتی که گفت آن دم نبی ** گر زند بر شب بر آید از شبی
If the words which the Prophet addressed (to him) at that moment should fall upon (the ears of) Night, it (Night) would cease from being night;
روز روشن گردد آن شب چون صباح ** من نتوانم باز گفت آن اصطلاح
Night would become day radiant as dawn: I cannot express (the real meaning of) that mystic allocution.
خود تو دانی که آفتابی در حمل ** تا چه گوید با نبات و با دقل
You yourself know what (words) a sun, in (the sign of) Aries, speaks to the plants and the date-palms;
خود تو دانی هم که آن آب زلال ** می چه گوید با ریاحین و نهال
You yourself, too, know what the limpid water is saying to the sweet herbs and the sapling.
صنع حق با جمله اجزای جهان ** چون دم و حرفست از افسون‌گران 1070
The doing of God towards all the particles of the world is like the words (spells) breathed by enchanters.
جذب یزدان با اثرها و سبب ** صد سخن گوید نهان بی‌حرف و لب
The Divine attraction holds a hundred discourses with the effects and secondary causes, without (uttering) a word or (moving) a lip.
نه که تاثیر از قدر معمول نیست ** لیک تاثیرش ازو معقول نیست
Not that the production of effects by the Divine decree is not actual; but His production of effects thereby is inconceivable to reason.
چون مقلد بود عقل اندر اصول ** دان مقلد در فروعش ای فضول
Since reason has learned by rote (from the prophets) in regard to the fundamentals, know O trifler, that it (also) learns by rote in regard to the derivatives.
گر بپرسد عقل چون باشد مرام ** گو چنانک تو ندانی والسلام
If reason should ask how the aim may be (attained), say, “In a manner that thou knowest not, and (so) farewell!”
معاتبه‌ی مصطفی علیه‌السلام با صدیق رضی الله عنه کی ترا وصیت کردم کی به شرکت من بخر تو چرا بهر خود تنها خریدی و عذر او
How Mustafá (Mohammed), on whom be peace, reproached the Siddíq, may God be pleased with him, saying, “I enjoined thee to buy in partnership with me: why hast thou bought for thyself alone?” and his (the Siddíq's) excuse.
گفت ای صدیق آخر گفتمت ** که مرا انباز کن در مکرمت 1075
He (the Prophet) said, “Why, O Siddíq, I told thee to make me the partner in (thy) generosity.”
گفت ما دو بندگان کوی تو ** کردمش آزاد من بر روی تو
He replied, “We are two slaves in thy street: I set him free for thy sake.
تو مرا می‌دار بنده و یار غار ** هیچ آزادی نخواهم زینهار
Keep me as thy slave and loyal friend: I want no freedom, beware (of thinking so)!
که مرا از بندگیت آزادیست ** بی‌تو بر من محنت و بیدادیست
For my freedom consists in being thy slave: without thee, tribulation and injustice are (inflicted) on me.
ای جهان را زنده کرده ز اصطفا ** خاص کرده عام را خاصه مرا
O thou who through being the chosen (Prophet) hast brought the (whole) world to life and hast made the common folk to be the elect, especially me,
خوابها می‌دید جانم در شباب ** که سلامم کرد قرص آفتاب 1080
In my youth my spirit used to dream that the orb of the sun salaamed to me,
از زمینم بر کشید او بر سما ** همره او گشته بودم ز ارتقا
And lifted me up from earth to heaven: by mounting (so) high I had become its fellow-traveller.
گفتم این ماخولیا بود و محال ** هیچ گردد مستحیلی وصف حال
I said (to myself), ‘This is an hallucination and absurd: how should absurdity ever become actuality?’
چون ترا دیدم بدیدم خویش را ** آفرین آن آینه‌ی خوش کیش را
When I beheld thee I beheld myself: blessings on that mirror goodly in its ways!
چون ترا دیدم محالم حال شد ** جان من مستغرق اجلال شد
When I beheld thee, the absurd became actual for me: my spirit was submerged in the Glory.
چون ترا دیدم خود ای روح البلاد ** مهر این خورشید از چشمم فتاد 1085
When I beheld thee, O Spirit of the world, verily love for this (earthly) sun fell from mine eye.
گشت عالی‌همت از نو چشم من ** جز به خواری نگردد اندر چمن
By thee mine eye was endowed with lofty aspiration: it looks not on the (earthly) garden save with contempt.
نور جستم خود بدیدم نور نور ** حور جستم خود بدیدم رشک حور
I sought light: verily I beheld the Light of light. I sought the houri: verily (in thee) I beheld an object of envy to the houri.
یوسفی جستم لطیف و سیم تن ** یوسفستانی بدیدم در تو من
I sought a Joseph comely and with limbs (white as) silver: in thee I beheld an assembly of Josephs.
در پی جنت بدم در جست و جو ** جنتی بنمود از هر جزو تو
I was (engaged) in searching after Paradise: from every part of thee a Paradise appeared (to me).
هست این نسبت به من مدح و ثنا ** هست این نسبت به تو قدح و هجا 1090
In relation to me this is praise and eulogy; in relation to thee this is vituperation and satire,
هم‌چو مدح مرد چوپان سلیم ** مر خدا را پیش موسی کلیم
Like the praise given to God by the simple shepherd in the presence of Moses the Kalím—
که بجویم اشپشت شیرت دهم ** چارقت دوم من و پیشت نهم
‘I will seek out Thy lice, I will give Thee milk, I will stitch Thy shoon and lay them before Thee.’
قدح او را حق به مدحی برگرفت ** گر تو هم رحمت کنی نبود شگفت
God accepted his vituperation as an expression of praise: if thou also have mercy, ’twill be no marvel.
رحم فرما بر قصور فهمها ** ای ورای عقلها و وهمها
Have mercy upon the failure of (our) minds (to comprehend thee), O thou who art beyond (all) understandings and conceptions.”
ایها العشاق اقبالی جدید ** از جهان کهنه‌ی نوگر رسید 1095
O lovers, new fortune has arrived from the old World that makes (all things) new,
زان جهان کو چاره‌ی بیچاره‌جوست ** صد هزاران نادره دنیا دروست
From the World that is seeking a remedy for them that have no remedy: hundreds of thousands of wonders of the (present) world are (contained) in it.
ابشروا یا قوم اذ جاء الفرج ** افرحوا یا قوم قد زال الحرج
Rejoice, O people, since the relief has come; be glad, O people: the distress is removed.
آفتابی رفت در کازه‌ی هلال ** در تقاضا که ارحنا یا بلال
A Sun went into the hut of the new-moon, making urgent demands and saying, “Refresh us, O Bilál!
زیر لب می‌گفتی از بیم عدو ** کوری او بر مناره رو بگو
From fear of the foe thou wert wont to speak under thy breath: (now), to his confusion, go up into the minaret and speak (aloud).”
می‌دمد در گوش هر غمگین بشیر ** خیز ای مدبر ره اقبال گیر 1100
The announcer of glad news is shouting in the ear of every sorrowful one, “Arise, O unlucky man, and take the road to fortune.
ای درین حبس و درین گند و شپش ** هین که تا کس نشنود رستی خمش
O thou that art in this prison and amidst this stench and these lice, beware lest any one hear! Thou hast escaped (from prison): be silent!”
چون کنی خامش کنون ای یار من ** کز بن هر مو بر آمد طبل‌زن
How shouldst thou keep silence now, O my beloved, when a drummer has appeared from the root of every hair (in thy body)?
آن‌چنان کر شد عدو رشک‌خو ** گوید این چندین دهل را بانگ کو
The jealous foe has become so deaf (that) he says, “Where is the sound of all these drums?”
می‌زند بر روش ریحان که طریست ** او ز کوری گوید این آسیب چیست
The fresh sweet basil is touching his face, (but) in his blindness he says, “What is this annoyance?”
می‌شکنجد حور دستش می‌کشد ** کور حیران کز چه دردم می‌کند 1105
The houri is nipping his hand and drawing (him towards her): the blind man is distraught and says, “Wherefore is he (some one) hurting me?
این کشاکش چیست بر دست و تنم ** خفته‌ام بگذار تا خوابی کنم
What is this (painful sense of) having my hand and body pulled hither and thither? I am asleep, let me sleep awhile.”
He whom thou seekest in thy slumbers, this is He! Open thine eye, (thou wilt see) ’tis that auspicious Moon.
زان بلاها بر عزیزان بیش بود ** کان تجمش یار با خوبان فزود
Tribulations were (laid) more (heavily) upon (His) dear ones because the Beloved showed more coquettishness towards the beauteous (lovers).
لاغ با خوبان کند بر هر رهی ** نیز کوران را بشوراند گهی
He sports with the beauteous ones in every path; sometimes, too, he throws the blind into frenzy.
خویش را یک‌دم برین کوران دهد ** تا غریو از کوی کوران بر جهد 1110
For a moment He gives Himself to the blind, so that a great uproar arises from the street of the blind.
قصه‌ی هلال کی بنده‌ی مخلص بود خدای را صاحب بصیرت بی‌تقلید پنهان شده در بندگی مخلوقان جهت مصلحت نه از عجز چنانک لقمان و یوسف از روی ظاهر و غیر ایشان بنده‌ی سایس بود امیری را و آن امیر مسلمان بود اما چشم بسته داند اعمی که مادری دارد لیک چونی بوهم در نارد اگر با این دانش تعظیم این مادر کند ممکن بود کی از عمی خلاص یابد کی اذا اراد الله به عبد خیرا فتح عینی قلبه لیبصره بهما الغیب این راه ز زندگی دل حاصل کن کین زندگی تن صفت حیوانست
Story of Hilal, who was a devoted servant to God. (He was) possessed of spiritual insight and (in his religion) was not a mere imitator (of others). He had concealed himself in (the disguise of) being a slave to (God's) creatures, not from helplessness but for good reason, as Luqmán and Joseph and others (did, who were slaves) in appearance. He was a groom in the service of a certain Amír, and that Amír was a Moslem, but (spiritually) blind. “The blind man knows that he has a mother, but he cannot conceive what she is like.” If, having this knowledge, he show reverence towards his mother, it is possible that he may gain deliverance from blindness, for (the Prophet has said that) when God wills good unto a servant (of His) He opens the eyes of his heart, that He may let him see the Invisible (World) with them.
چون شنیدی بعضی اوصاف بلال ** بشنو اکنون قصه‌ی ضعف هلال
Since you have heard some of the (excellent) qualities of Bilál, now hear the story of the emaciation of Hilál.
از بلال او بیش بود اندر روش ** خوی بد را بیش کرده بد کشش
He was more advanced than Bilál in the Way (to God): he had mortified his evil nature more.
نه چو تو پس‌رو که هر دم پس‌تری ** سوی سنگی می‌روی از گوهری
(He was) not a backslider like you, for at every moment you are farther back: you are moving away from the state of the (precious) pearl towards the state of the (worthless) stone.