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
He has shut for God's sake the eye that sees the stable the world); he has opened, in priority, the eye that sees the en .
چشم آخر بین ببست از بهر حق ** چشم آخر بین گشاد اندر سبق
Those envious ones were bad trees; they were ill-fortuned ones of bitter stock.
آن حسودان بد درختان بودهاند ** تلخ گوهر شور بختان بودهاند
They were boiling and foaming with envy, and were starting plots m secret,1570
از حسد جوشان و کف میریختند ** در نهانی مکر میانگیختند
That they might behead the favourite slave and tear up his root from the world;
تا غلام خاص را گردن زنند ** بیخ او را از زمانه بر کنند
(But) how should he perish, since the King was his soul, and his root was under the protection of God?
چون شود فانی چو جانش شاه بود ** بیخ او در عصمت الله بود
The King had become aware of those secret thoughts, (but) like Bú Bakr-i Rabábí he kept silence.
شاه از آن اسرار واقف آمده ** همچو بو بکر ربابی تن زده
In (viewing) the spectacle of the hearts of (those) evil-natured ones he was clapping his hands (derisively) at those potters (schemers).
در تماشای دل بد گوهران ** میزدی خنبک بر آن کوزهگران
Some cunning people devise stratagems to get the King into a beer-jug;1575
مکر میسازند قومی حیلهمند ** تا که شه را در فقاعی در کنند
(But) a King (so) exceedingly grand and illimitable—how should He be contained in a beer jug, O asses?
پادشاهی بس عظیمی بیکران ** در فقاعی کی بگنجد ای خران