The lightning laughs: say, at whom is it laughing? At him that sets his heart upon its light.
برق خندد بر که میخندد بگو ** بر کسی که دل نهد بر نور او
The lights of the sky are hamstrung (feeble and imperfect): how are they like (that Light which is) neither of the east nor of the west?
نورهای چرخ ببریده پی است ** آن چو لا شرقی و لا غربی کی است
Know that the nature of lightning is that it taketh away the sight; regard the everlasting Light as entirely Helpers (to the attainment of vision).1545
برق را چون یخطف الأبصار دان ** نور باقی را همه انصار دان
To ride (your) horse upon the foam of the sea, to read a letter in a flash of lightning,
بر کف دریا فرس را راندن ** نامهای در نور برقی خواندن
Is, to fail, because of covetousness, to see the end; it is, to laugh at your own mind and intellect.
از حریصی عاقبت نادیدن است ** بر دل و بر عقل خود خندیدن است
Intellect, by its proper nature, is a seer of the end (consequence); ’tis the fleshly soul that does not see the end.
عاقبت بین است عقل از خاصیت ** نفس باشد کاو نبیند عاقبت
The intellect that is vanquished by the flesh becomes the flesh: Jupiter is checkmated by Saturn and becomes inauspicious.
عقل کاو مغلوب نفس او نفس شد ** مشتری مات زحل شد نحس شد
Still, turn this gaze (of yours) upon this inauspiciousness, look on that One who made you ill-starred.1550
هم درین نحسی بگردان این نظر ** در کسی که کرد نحست درنگر
The gaze (of him) that surveys this ebb and flow pierces from the inauspicious influence to the auspicious.
آن نظر که بنگرد این جر و مد ** او ز نحسی سوی سعدی نقب زد
He (God) continually turns you from one state (of feeling) to another, manifesting opposite by means of opposite in the change,
ز آن همیگرداندت حالی به حال ** ضد به ضد پیدا کنان در انتقال
For the purpose that fear of the left hand side may bring to birth in you the delight of “He causes the (blessed) men to hope for the right hand side,”
تا که خوفت زاید از ذات الشمال ** لذت ذات الیمین یرجی الرجال
So that you may have two wings (fear and hope); for the bird that has (only) one wing is unable to fly, O excellent (reader).
تا دو پر باشی که مرغ یک پره ** عاجز آید از پریدن ای سره
(O God), either let me not come to speech (at all), or give me leave to tell (the whole) to the end.1555
یا رها کن تا نیایم در کلام ** یا بده دستور تا گویم تمام
But if Thou willest neither this nor that, ’tis Thine to command: how should any one know what Thou intendest?
ور نه این خواهی نه آن فرمان تراست ** کس چه داند مر ترا مقصد کجاست
One must needs have the spirit of Abraham to see in the fire Paradise and its palaces by the light (of mystic knowledge);
جان ابراهیم باید تا به نور ** بیند اندر نار فردوس و قصور
And mount step by step above the moon and the sun, lest he remain like the door-ring fastened on the door;
پایه پایه بر رود بر ماه و خور ** تا نماند همچو حلقه بند در
And, like the Friend, pass beyond the Seventh Heaven, saying, “I love not them that set.”
چون خلیل از آسمان هفتمین ** بگذرد که لا أحب الآفلین
This bodily world is deceptive, save to him that has escaped from lust.1560
این جهان تن غلط انداز شد ** جز مر آن را کاو ز شهوت باز شد
Conclusion of (the story) how the (other) retainers envied the favourite slave.
تتمهی حسد آن حشم بر آن غلام خاص
The story of the King and the amirs and their envy of the favourite slave and lord of wisdom
قصهی شاه و امیران و حسد ** بر غلام خاص و سلطان خرد
Has been left far (behind) on account of the powerful attraction of the discourse.(Now) we must turn back and conclude it.
دور ماند از جر جرار کلام ** باز باید گشت و کرد آن را تمام
The happy and fortunate gardener of the (Divine) kingdom — how should not he know one tree from another?
باغبان ملک با اقبال و بخت ** چون درختی را نداند از درخت
The tree that is bitter and reprobate, and the tree whose one is (as) seven hundred (of the other)—
آن درختی را که تلخ و رد بود ** و آن درختی که یکش هفصد بود
How, in rearing (them), should he deem (them) equal, when he beholds them with the eye (that is conscious) of the end,1565
کی برابر دارد اندر تربیت ** چون ببیندشان به چشم عاقبت
(And knows) what (different) fruit those trees will ultimately bear, though at this moment they are alike in appearance'?
کان درختان را نهایت چیست بر ** گر چه یکسانند این دم در نظر
The Shaykh who has become seeing by the light of God has become acquainted with the end and the beginning.
شیخ کاو ینظر بنور الله شد ** از نهایت وز نخست آگاه شد