- 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
- They knitted a net for the King; (yet) after all, they (had) learnt this contrivance from Him.
- از برای شاه دامی دوختند ** آخر این تدبیر از او آموختند
- Ill-starred is the pupil that begins rivalry with his master and comes forward (to contend with him).
- نحس شاگردی که با استاد خویش ** همسری آغازد و آید به پیش
- With what master? The master of the world, to whom the manifest and the occult are alike;
- با کدام استاد استاد جهان ** پیش او یکسان و هویدا و نهان
- Whose eyes have become seeing by the light of God and have rent the veils of ignorance. 1580
- چشم او ینظر بنور الله شده ** پردههای جهل را خارق بده