Distinguish the hard from the easy: consider (what is) the goodliness of this and that in the end.
تو معسر از میسر باز دان ** عاقبت بنگر جمال این و آن
In one he said: “Seek a master (teacher): you will not find foresight as to the end among the qualities derived from ancestors.”490
در یکی گفته که استادی طلب ** عاقبت بینی نیابی در حسب
Every sort of religious sect foresaw the end (according to their own surmise): of necessity they fell captive to error.
عاقبت دیدند هر گون ملتی ** لاجرم گشتند اسیر زلتی
To foresee the end is not (as simple as) a hand-loom; otherwise, how would there have been difference in religions?
عاقبت دیدن نباشد دستباف ** ور نه کی بودی ز دینها اختلاف
In one he said: “You are the master, because you know the master.
در یکی گفته که استا هم تویی ** ز انکه استا را شناسا هم تویی
Be a man and be not subject to men. Go, take your own head (choose your own way), and be not one whose head is turning (bewildered in search of a guide).”
مرد باش و سخرهی مردان مشو ** رو سر خود گیر و سر گردان مشو
In one he said: “All this (multiplicity) is one: whoever sees two is a squint-eyed manikin.”495
در یکی گفته که این جمله یکی است ** هر که او دو بیند احول مردکی است
In one he said: “How should a hundred be one? He who thinks this is surely mad.”
در یکی گفته که صد یک چون بود ** این کی اندیشد مگر مجنون بود
The doctrines, every one, are contrary to each other: how should they be one? Are poison and sugar one?
هر یکی قولی است ضد همدگر ** چون یکی باشد یکی زهر و شکر
Until you pass beyond (the difference of) poison and sugar, how will you catch a scent from the garden of Unity?
تا ز زهر و از شکر در نگذری ** کی تو از گلزار وحدت بر بری
Twelve scrolls of this style and fashion were drawn up in writing by that enemy to the religion of Jesus.
این نمط وین نوع ده طومار و دو ** بر نوشت آن دین عیسی را عدو
Showing how this difference lies in the form of the doctrine, not in the real nature of the Way.
بیان آن که این اختلافات در صورت روش است نه در حقیقت راه
He had no scent (perception) of the unicolority of Jesus, nor had he a disposition from (imbued with) the tincture of the dyeing-vat of Jesus.500
او ز یک رنگی عیسی بو نداشت ** وز مزاج خم عیسی خو نداشت
From that pure vat a garment of a hundred colours would become as simple and one-coloured as the zephyr.
جامهی صد رنگ از آن خم صفا ** ساده و یک رنگ گشتی چون صبا
(This) is not the unicolority from which weariness ensues; nay, it is (a case) like (that of) fishes and clear water:
نیست یک رنگی کز او خیزد ملال ** بل مثال ماهی و آب زلال
Although there are thousands of colours on dry land, (yet) fishes are at war with dryness.
گر چه در خشکی هزاران رنگهاست ** ماهیان را با یبوست جنگهاست
Who is the fish and what is the sea in (my) simile, that the King Almighty and Glorious should resemble them?
کیست ماهی چیست دریا در مثل ** تا بدان ماند ملک عز و جل
In (the world of) existence myriads of seas and fishes prostrate themselves in adoration before that Munificence and Bounty.505
صد هزاران بحر و ماهی در وجود ** سجده آرد پیش آن اکرام و جود
How many a rain of largesse hath rained, so that the sea was made thereby to scatter pearls!
چند باران عطا باران شده ** تا بدان آن بحر در افشان شده
How many a sun of generosity hath shone, so that cloud and sea learned to be bountiful!
چند خورشید کرم افروخته ** تا که ابر و بحر جود آموخته
The sunbeams of Wisdom struck on soil and clay, so that the earth became receptive of the seed.
پرتو دانش زده بر آب و طین ** تا شده دانه پذیرندهی زمین
The soil is faithful to its trust, and whatever you have sown in it, you carry away the (equivalent in) kind thereof without fraud (on the part of the soil).
خاک امین و هر چه در وی کاشتی ** بیخیانت جنس آن برداشتی
It has derived this faithfulness from that (Divine) faithfulness, inasmuch as the sun of Justice has shone upon it.510
این امانت ز آن امانت یافته ست ** کافتاب عدل بر وی تافته ست
Until springtide brings the token of God, the soil does not reveal its secrets.
تا نشان حق نیارد نو بهار ** خاک سرها را نکرده آشکار
The Bounteous One who gave to an inanimate thing these informations and this faithfulness and this righteousness,
آن جوادی که جمادی را بداد ** این خبرها وین امانت وین سداد
His grace makes an inanimate thing informed, (while) His wrath makes blind the men of understanding.
مر جمادی را کند فضلش خبیر ** عاقلان را کرده قهر او ضریر