For seventy years I have been committing sin, (yet) not for one day hast Thou withheld Thy bounty from me.
معصیت ورزیدهام هفتاد سال ** باز نگرفتی ز من روزی نوال
I (can) earn nothing: to-day I am Thy guest, I will play the harp for Thee, I am Thine.”2085
نیست کسب امروز مهمان توام ** چنگ بهر تو زنم آن توام
He took up his harp and went in search of God to the graveyard of Medina, crying “Alas!”
چنگ را برداشت و شد الله جو ** سوی گورستان یثرب آه گو
He said, “I crave of God the price of silk (for harpstrings), for He in His kindness accepts adulterated coin.”
گفت خواهم از حق ابریشم بها ** کاو به نیکویی پذیرد قلبها
When he had played a long while and (then), weeping, laid his head down: he made the harp his pillow and dropped on a tomb.
چون که زد بسیار و گریان سر نهاد ** چنگ بالین کرد و بر گوری فتاد
Sleep overtook him: the bird, his soul, escaped from captivity, it let harp and harper go and darted away.
خواب بردش مرغ جانش از حبس رست ** چنگ و چنگی را رها کرد و بجست
It became freed from the body and the pain of this world in the simple (purely spiritual) world and the vast region of the soul.2090
گشت آزاد از تن و رنج جهان ** در جهان ساده و صحرای جان
There his soul was singing what had befallen (it), saying, “If they would but let me stay here,
جان او آن جا سرایان ماجرا ** کاندر اینجا گر بماندندی مرا
Happy would be my soul in this garden and springtide, drunken with this (far stretching) plain and mystic anemone-field.
خوش بدی جانم در این باغ و بهار ** مست این صحرا و غیبی لالهزار
Without wing or foot I would be journeying, without lip or tooth I would be eating sugar.
بیپر و بیپا سفر میکردمی ** بیلب و دندان شکر میخوردمی
With a memory and thought free from brain-sickness, I would frolic with the dwellers in Heaven.
ذکر و فکری فارغ از رنج دماغ ** کردمی با ساکنان چرخ لاغ
With eye shut I would be seeing a (whole) world, without a hand I would be gathering roses and basil.”2095
چشم بسته عالمی میدیدمی ** ورد و ریحان بیکفی میچیدمی
The water-bird (his soul) was plunged in a sea of honey— the fountain of Job, to drink and wash in,
مرغ آبی غرق دریای عسل ** عین ایوبی شراب و مغتسل
Whereby Job, from his feet to the crown of his head, was purged of afflictions (and made pure) like the light of the sunrise.
که بدو ایوب از پا تا به فرق ** پاک شد از رنجها چون نور شرق
If the Mathnawí were as the sky in magnitude, not half the portion of this (mystery) would find room in it,
مثنوی در حجم گر بودی چو چرخ ** درنگنجیدی در او زین نیم برخ
For the exceeding broad earth and sky (of the material world) caused my heart, from (their) narrowness (in comparison with the spiritual universe), to be rent in pieces;
کان زمین و آسمان بس فراخ ** کرد از تنگی دلم را شاخ شاخ
And this world that was revealed to me in this dream (of the minstrel) has spread wide my wings and pinions because of (its vast) expansion.2100
وین جهانی کاندر این خوابم نمود ** از گشایش پر و بالم را گشود
If this world and the way to it were manifest, no one would remain there (in the material world) for a single moment.
این جهان و راهش ار پیدا بدی ** کم کسی یک لحظهای آن جا بدی
The (Divine) command was coming (to the minstrel)—“Nay, be not covetous: inasmuch as the thorn is out of thy foot, depart”—
امر میآمد که نی طامع مشو ** چون ز پایت خار بیرون شد برو
(Whilst) his soul was lingering there in the spacious demesne of His (God's) mercy and beneficence.
مول مولی میزد آن جا جان او ** در فضای رحمت و احسان او
How the heavenly voice spoke to ‘Umar, may God be well-pleased with him, while he was asleep, saying, “Give a certain sum of gold from the public treasury to the man who is sleeping in the graveyard.”
در خواب گفتن هاتف مر عمر را رضی الله عنه که چندین زر از بیت المال به آن مرد ده که در گورستان خفته است
Then God sent such a drowsiness upon ‘Umar that he was unable to keep himself from slumber.
آن زمان حق بر عمر خوابی گماشت ** تا که خویش از خواب نتوانست داشت
He fell into amazement saying, “This is (a thing) unknown. This has fallen from the Unseen, ’tis not without purpose.”2105
در عجب افتاد کاین معهود نیست ** این ز غیب افتاد بیمقصود نیست
He laid his head down, and slumber overtook him. He dreamed that a voice came to him from God: his spirit heard
سر نهاد و خواب بردش خواب دید ** کامدش از حق ندا جانش شنید
That voice which is the origin of every cry and sound: that indeed is the (only) voice, and the rest are echoes.
آن ندایی کاصل هر بانگ و نواست ** خود ندا آن است و این باقی صداست
Turcoman and Kurd and Persian-speaking man and Arab have understood that voice without (help of) ear or lip.
ترک و کرد و پارسی گو و عرب ** فهم کرده آن ندا بیگوش و لب