Whenever an answer comes to the heart through the ear, the eye says, “Hear it from me; let that (answer given through the ear) alone!”
هر جوابی کان ز گوش آید به دل ** چشم گفت از من شنو آن را بهل
The ear is a go-between, while the eye is possessed of union (immediate vision); the eye has direct experience (of reality), while the ear has (only) words (doctrine).
گوش دلاله ست و چشم اهل وصال ** چشم صاحب حال و گوش اصحاب قال
In the ear's hearing there is a transformation of qualities; in the eyes' seeing there is a transformation of essence.
در شنود گوش تبدیل صفات ** در عیان دیدها تبدیل ذات
If your knowledge of fire has been turned to certainty by words (alone), seek to be cooked (by the fire itself), and do not abide in the certainty (of knowledge derived from others).860
ز آتش ار علمت یقین شد از سخن ** پختگی جو در یقین منزل مکن
There is no intuitive (actual) certainty until you burn; (if) you desire this certainty, sit down in the fire.
تا نسوزی نیست آن عین الیقین ** این یقین خواهی در آتش در نشین
When the ear is penetrating, it becomes an eye; otherwise, the word (of God) becomes entangled in the ear (and does not reach the heart).
گوش چون نافذ بود دیده شود ** ور نه قل در گوش پیچیده شود
This discourse hath no end. Turn back, that (we may see) what the King did to those slaves of his.
این سخن پایان ندارد باز گرد ** تا که شه با آن غلامانش چه کرد
How the King sent away one of the two slaves and interrogated the other.
به راه کردن شاه یکی را از آن دو غلام و از این دیگر پرسیدن
When he saw that that laddie was possessed of keen intelligence, he made a sign to the other to come (to him).
آن غلامک را چو دید اهل ذکا ** آن دگر را کرد اشارت که بیا
(If) I have called him by (a word which has) the suffix of pity (tenderness), ’tis not to belittle him: if a grandfather say “my sonny,” it is not (in) contempt.865