The word is like the nest, and the meaning is the bird: the body is the riverbed, and the spirit is the rolling water.
لفظ چون وکرست و معنی طایر است ** جسم جوی و روح آب سایر است
It is moving, and you say it is standing: it is running, and you say it is keeping still.
او روان است و تو گویی واقف است ** او دوان است و تو گویی عاکف است
If you see not the movement of the water through the fissures (channels) of earth—(yet it is moving): what are the sticks and straws (ever appearing) anew on it?
گر نبینی سیر آب از خاکها ** چیست بر وی نو به نو خاشاکها
Your sticks and straws are the forms (ideas) of thought: (these) virgin forms are always coming on anew.3295
هست خاشاک تو صورتهای فکر ** نو به نو در میرسد اشکال بکر
The surface of the water and stream of thought, as it rolls, is not without sticks and straws, (some) pleasing and (some) unsightly.
روی آب جوی فکر اندر روش ** نیست بیخاشاک محبوب و وحش
The husks on the surface of this rolling water have sped along from the fruits of the Invisible Garden.
قشرها بر روی این آب روان ** از ثمار باغ غیبی شد دوان
Seek the kernels of the husks (not on the water, but) in the Garden, because the water comes from the Garden into the river-bed.
قشرها را مغز اندر باغ جو ** ز انکه آب از باغ میآید به جو
If you see not the flow of the Water of Life, look at the stream and at this movement of the weeds (in it).
گر نبینی رفتن آب حیات ** بنگر اندر جوی و این سیر نبات
When the water begins to pass by in fuller volume, the husks, (which are) the ideas, pass along it more quickly.3300
آب چون انبهتر آید در گذر ** زو کند قشر صور زوتر گذر
When this stream has become extremely rapid in its flow, no care lingers in the minds of the gnostics.
چون به غایت تیز شد این جو روان ** غم نپاید در ضمیر عارفان