مرکب چوبین به خشکی ابترست ** خاص آن دریاییان را رهبرست
The wooden horse is no good on the dry land: it carries exclusively those who voyage on the sea.
این خموشی مرکب چوبین بود ** بحریان را خامشی تلقین بود
The wooden horse is this (mystical) silence: (this) silence gives instruction to the sea-folk.
هر خموشی که ملولت می‌کند ** نعره‌های عشق آن سو می‌زند 4625
Every (such) silent one who wearies you is (really) uttering shrieks of love Yonder.
تو همی‌گویی عجب خامش چراست ** او همی‌گوید عجب گوشش کجاست
You say, “I wonder why he is silent”; he says (to himself), “How strange! Where is his ear?
من ز نعره کر شدم او بی‌خبر ** تیزگوشان زین سمر هستند کر
I am deafened by the shrieks, (yet) he is unaware (of them).” The (apparently) sharp-eared are (in fact) deaf to this (mystical) converse.
آن یکی در خواب نعره می‌زند ** صد هزاران بحث و تلقین می‌کند
(For example), some one cries aloud in his dream and gives a hundred thousand discussions and communications,
این نشسته پهلوی او بی‌خبر ** خفته خود آنست و کر زان شور و شر
(While) this (other), sitting beside him, is unaware (of it): ’tis really he who is asleep and deaf to (all) that turmoil and tumult.
وان کسی کش مرکب چوبین شکست ** غرقه شد در آب او خود ماهیست 4630
And he whose wooden horse is shattered and sunk in the water (of the sea), he in sooth is the fish.
نه خموشست و نه گویا نادریست ** حال او را در عبارت نام نیست
He is neither silent nor speaking: he is a marvel: there is no name to describe his state.
نیست زین دو هر دو هست آن بوالعجب ** شرح این گفتن برونست از ادب
He does not belong to these two (categories), (and yet) that prodigy is (really) both: to explain this would transgress the limits of due reverence.
این مثال آمد رکیک و بی‌ورود ** لیک در محسوس ازین بهتر نبود
This comparison is poor and unsuccessful, but in the sensible (world) there was none better than this (to be found).
متوفی شدن بزرگین از شه‌زادگان و آمدن برادر میانین به جنازه‌ی برادر کی آن کوچکین صاحب‌فراش بود از رنجوری و نواختن پادشاه میانین را تا او هم لنگ احسان شد ماند پیش پادشاه صد هزار از غنایم غیبی و غنی بدو رسید از دولت و نظر آن شاه مع تقریر بعضه
The death of the eldest prince, and how the middle brother came to his funeral—for the youngest was confined to his bed by illness; and how the King treated the middle brother with great affection, so that he too was crippled (captivated) by his kindness; (and how) he remained with the King, and a hundred thousand spoils (precious gifts), from the unseen and visible worlds, were conferred upon him by the fortune and favour of the King; with an exposition of some part thereof.
کوچکین رنجور بود و آن وسط ** بر جنازه‌ی آن بزرگ آمد فقط
The youngest (brother) was ill, and (so) the middle one came alone to the funeral of the eldest.
شاه دیدش گفت قاصد کین کیست ** که از آن بحرست و این هم ماهیست 4635
(When) the King espied him, he said with a purpose, “Who is this?—for he is of that sea, and he too is a fish.”
پس معرف گفت پور آن پدر ** این برادر زان برادر خردتر
Then the announcer said, “He is a son of the same father: this brother is younger than that (deceased) brother.”
شه نوازیدش که هستی یادگار ** کرد او را هم بدان پرسش شکار
The King greeted him affectionately, saying, “Thou art a keepsake (from thy brother to me)”; and by this enquiry (gracious attention) made him too his prey.
از نواز شاه آن زار حنیذ ** در تن خود غیر جان جانی بدیذ
In consequence of the kindness shown (to him) by the King, that wretched man, (who was) roasted (in the fire of love), found in his body a soul other than the (animal) soul.
در دل خود دید عالی غلغله ** که نیابد صوفی آن در صد چله
He felt within his heart a sublime emotion which the Súfí does not experience during a hundred chilas.
عرصه و دیوار و کوه سنگ‌بافت ** پیش او چون نار خندان می‌شکافت 4640
Court-yard and wall and mountain woven of stone seemed to split open before him like a laughing (bursting) pomegranate.
ذره ذره پیش او هم‌چون قباب ** دم به دم می‌کرد صدگون فتح باب
One by one, the atoms (of the universe) were momently opening their doors to him, like tents, in a hundred diverse ways.
باب گه روزن شدی گاه شعاع ** خاک گه گندم شدی و گاه صاع
The door would become now the window, now the sunbeams; the earth would become now the wheat, now the bushel.
در نظرها چرخ بس کهنه و قدید ** پیش چشمش هر دمی خلق جدید
In (men's) eyes the heavens are very old and threadbare; in his eye ’twasa new creation at every moment.
روح زیبا چونک وا رست از جسد ** از قضا بی شک چنین چشمش رسد
When the beauteous spirit is delivered from the body, no doubt an eye like this will be conferred upon it by (Divine) destiny.
صد هزاران غیب پیشش شد پدید ** آنچ چشم محرمان بیند بدید 4645
A hundred thousand mysteries were revealed to him: he beheld that which the eyes of the initiated behold.
آنچ او اندر کتب بر خوانده بود ** چشم را در صورت آن بر گشود
He opened (the inward) eye (and gazed) on the (ideal) form of that which he had (only) read in books.
از غبار مرکب آن شاه نر ** یافت او کحل عزیزی در بصر
From the dust of the mighty King's horse he obtained a precious collyrium for his eyesight.
برچنین گلزار دامن می‌کشید ** جزو جزوش نعره زن هل من مزید
In such a garden of flowers he was trailing his skirt, while every part of him was crying, “Is there any more?”
The flowers that bloom from earth become faded; the flowers that bloom from the heart—oh, what a joy!
علم‌های با مزه‌ی دانسته‌مان ** زان گلستان یک دو سه گل‌دسته دان
Know that (all) the delightful sciences known to us are (only) two or three bunches of flowers from that Garden.
زان زبون این دو سه گل دسته‌ایم ** که در گلزار بر خود بسته‌ایم
We are devoted to these two or three bunches of flowers because we have shut the Garden-door on ourselves.
آن‌چنان مفتاح‌ها هر دم بنان ** می‌فتد ای جان دریغا از بنان
Alas, O (dear) soul, (that) on account of (thy greed for) bread such (admirable) keys are always dropping from thy fingers!
ور دمی هم فارغ آرندت ز نان ** گرد چادر گردی و عشق زنان
And if for a moment thou art relieved from preoccupation with bread, thou danglest about the chádar and (givest thyself up to) thy passion for women;
باز استسقات چون شد موج‌زن ** ملک شهری بایدت پر نان و زن 4655
And then, when (the sea of) thy dropsy (lust) breaks into billows, thou must needs have under thy sway a (whole) city full of bread and women.
مار بودی اژدها گشتی مگر ** یک سرت بود این زمانی هفت‌سر
(At first) thou wert (only) a snake: (now) indeed thou hast become a dragon. Thou hadst (only) one head: now thou hast seven heads.
اژدهای هفت‌سر دوزخ بود ** حرص تو دانه‌ست و دوزخ فخ بود
Hell is a seven-headed dragon: thy greed is the bait and Hell the snare.
دام را بدران بسوزان دانه را ** باز کن درهای نو این خانه را
Pull the snare to pieces, burn the bait, open new doors in this (bodily) tenement!
چون تو عاشق نیستی ای نرگدا ** هم‌چو کوهی بی‌خبر داری صدا
O sturdy beggar, unless thou art a lover (of God), thou hast (only) an echo, like the unconscious mountain.
کوه را گفتار کی باشد ز خود ** عکس غیرست آن صدا ای معتمد 4660
How should the mountain possess a voice of its own? The echo is reflected from another, O trusty man.
گفت تو زان سان که عکس دیگریست ** جمله احوالت به جز هم عکس نیست
In the same fashion as thy speech is the reflexion of another, so all thy feelings are nothing but a reflexion.
خشم و ذوقت هر دو عکس دیگران ** شادی قواده و خشم عوان
Both thy anger and thy pleasure are (only) reflected from others, (like) the joy of the procuress and the rage of the night-patrol.
آن عوان را آن ضعیف آخر چه کرد ** که دهد او را به کینه زجر و درد
Pray, what (harm) did that poor fellow do to the night-patrol that he should punish and torment him in revenge?
تا بکی عکس خیال لامعه ** جهد کن تا گرددت این واقعه
How long (wilt thou follow) the glittering phantom reflected (from another)?Strive to make this (experience) actual for thyself,
تا که گفتارت ز حال تو بود ** سیر تو با پر و بال تو بود 4665
So that thy words will be (prompted) by thy immediate feelings, and thy flight will be made with thine own wings and pinions.
صید گیرد تیر هم با پر غیر ** لاجرم بی‌بهره است از لحم طیر
’Tis with alien feathers that the arrow captures its prey; consequently it gets no share of the bird's flesh;
باز صید آرد به خود از کوهسار ** لاجرم شاهش خوراند کبک و سار
(But) the falcon brings its quarry from the mountains itself; consequently the king lets it eat partridge and starling.
منطقی کز وحی نبود از هواست ** هم‌چو خاکی در هوا و در هباست
The speech that is not (derived) from (Divine) inspiration springs from self-will: it is like dust (floating) in the air and among the motes (in the sunbeams).
گر نماید خواجه را این دم غلط ** ز اول والنجم بر خوان چند خط
If this saying appear to the Khwája to be erroneous, recite a few lines at the beginning of (the Súra) Wa’l-Najm.
تا که ما ینطق محمد عن هوی ** ان هو الا بوحی احتوی 4670
Down to (the words), Mohammed does not speak from self-will: ’tis only (a speech) gained by inspiration.
احمدا چون نیستت از وحی یاس ** جسمیان را ده تحری و قیاس
O Ahmad (Mohammed), since thou despairest not of (receiving) inspiration, leave investigation and conjecture to the corporealists;
کز ضرورت هست مرداری حلال ** که تحری نیست در کعبه‌ی وصال
For in case of necessity a carcase is lawful (food), but there is no need to investigate (when one is) in the Ka‘ba of union.