Rumi's Masnavi - Inasmuch as Thy gift keeps me thus (enravished), who (what) is (other) wine that it should bring me rapture?

Inasmuch as Thy gift keeps me thus (enravished), who (what) is (other) wine that it should bring me rapture? 1810

داده‌‌ی تو چون چنین دارد مرا ** باده که بود کاو طرب آرد مرا

Wine in ferment is a beggar suing for our ferment; Heaven in revolution is a beggar suing for our consciousness.

باده در جوشش گدای جوش ماست ** چرخ در گردش گدای هوش ماست‌‌

Wine became intoxicated with us, not we with it; the body came into being from us, not we from it.

باده از ما مست شد نی ما از او ** قالب از ما هست شد نی ما از او

We are as bees, and bodies are as wax (honeycomb): we have made the body, cell by cell, like wax.

ما چو زنبوریم و قالبها چو موم ** خانه خانه کرده قالب را چو موم‌‌

Reverting to the tale of the merchant who went to trade (in India).

رجوع به حکایت خواجه‌‌ی تاجر

This (discourse) is very long. Tell the story of the merchant, that we may see what happened to that good man.

بس دراز است این حدیث خواجه گو ** تا چه شد احوال آن مرد نکو

The merchant in fire (burning grief) and anguish and yearning was uttering a hundred distracted phrases like this, 1815

خواجه اندر آتش و درد و حنین ** صد پراکنده همی‌‌گفت این چنین‌‌

Now self-contradiction, now disdain, now supplication, now passion for reality, now metaphor (unreality).

گه تناقض گاه ناز و گه نیاز ** گاه سودای حقیقت گه مجاز

The drowning man suffers an agony of soul and clutches at every straw.

مرد غرقه گشته جانی می‌‌کند ** دست را در هر گیاهی می‌‌زند

For fear of (losing) his head (life), he flings about (both) hand and foot to see whether any one will take his hand (help him) in peril.

تا کدامش دست گیرد در خطر ** دست و پایی می‌‌زند از بیم سر

The Friend loves this agitation: it is better to struggle vainly than to lie still.

دوست دارد یار این آشفتگی ** کوشش بی‌‌هوده به از خفتگی‌‌