How long wilt thou speak new words to (those) two old things and breathe the ancient secret into a substance devoid of life?
چند گویی با دو کهنه نو سخن ** در جمادی میدمی سر کهن
Like (the poets among) the Arabs, O Ayáz, thou art drawing out long and lovingly thy converse with the (deserted) abodes and the traces of former habitation.3255
چون عرب با ربع و اطلال ای ایاز ** میکشی از عشق گفت خود دراز
Of what Ásaf are thy shoon the abode? One would say that thy sheepskin jacket is the shirt of Joseph.”
چارقت ربع کدامین آصفست ** پوستین گویی که کرتهی یوسفست
(This is) like (the case of) the Christian who recounts to his priest a year’s sins––fornication and malice and hypocrisy––
همچو ترسا که شمارد با کشش ** جرم یکساله زنا و غل و غش
In order that the priest may pardon his sins, for he regards his (the priest’s) forgiveness as forgiveness from God.
تا بیامرزد کشش زو آن گناه ** عفو او را عفو داند از اله
The priest has no (real) knowledge of sin and pardon; but love and firm belief are mightily bewitching.
نیست آگه آن کشش از جرم و داد ** لیک بس جادوست عشق و اعتقاد
Love and imagination weave (create) a hundred (forms beautiful as) Joseph: in sooth they are greater sorcerers than Hárút and Márút.3260
دوستی و وهم صد یوسف تند ** اسحر از هاروت و ماروتست خود
They cause a form (of phantasy) to appear in memory of him (your Beloved): the attraction of the form leads you into (conversation with it).
صورتی پیدا کند بر یاد او ** جذب صورت آردت در گفت و گو
You tell a hundred thousand secrets in the form’s presence, just as a friend speaks (intimately) in the presence of a friend.
رازگویی پیش صورت صد هزار ** آن چنان که یار گوید پیش یار
No (material) form or shape is there; (yet) from it proceed a hundred (utterances of the words) “Am not I (thy Beloved)?” and (from you) a hundred “Yeas.”
نه بدانجا صورتی نه هیکلی ** زاده از وی صد الست و صد بلی