The wild beast dare not devour the flesh of the lover: Love is known both to the good and the evil;
لحم عاشق را نیارد خورد دد ** عشق معروفست پیش نیک و بد
And if the wild beast devour him even parabolically, the lover's flesh will become poison and kill him.2725
ور خورد خود فیالمثل دام و ددش ** گوشت عاشق زهر گردد بکشدش
Everything except love is devoured by Love: to the beak of Love the two worlds are (but) a single grain.
هر چه جز عشقست شد ماکول عشق ** دو جهان یک دانه پیش نول عشق
Does a grain ever devour the bird? Does the manger ever feed on the horse?
دانهای مر مرغ را هرگز خورد ** کاهدان مر اسپ را هرگز چرد
Do service (to God), that perchance thou mayst become a lover: (devotional) service is a means of gaining (Love): it comes into action (produces an effect).
بندگی کن تا شوی عاشق لعل ** بندگی کسبیست آید در عمل
The servant (of God) desires to be freed from Fortune; the lover (of God) nevermore desires to be free.
بنده آزادی طمع دارد ز جد ** عاشق آزادی نخواهد تا ابد
The servant is always seeking a robe of honour and a stipend; all the lover's robe of honour is his vision of the Beloved.2730
بنده دایم خلعت و ادرارجوست ** خلعت عاشق همه دیدار دوست
Love is not contained in speech and hearing: Love is an ocean whereof the depth is invisible.
در نگنجد عشق در گفت و شنید ** عشق دریاییست قعرش ناپدید
The drops of the sea cannot be numbered: the Seven Seas are petty in comparison with that Ocean.
قطرههای بحر را نتوان شمرد ** هفت دریا پیش آن بحرست خرد
This discourse hath no end. Return, O reader, to the story of the Shaykh of the time.
این سخن پایان ندارد ای فلان ** باز رو در قصهی شیخ زمان
On the meaning of “But for thee, I would not have created the heavens.”