Knowledge is conventional and acquired (not real), when he (its owner) laments because the hearer is averse to (hearing) it.
علم تقلیدی و تعلیمی است آن ** کز نفورش مستمع دارد فغان
Since it is (learned) as a bait (for popularity), not for the sake of (spiritual) enlightenment, he (the seeker of religious knowledge) is just as (bad) as the seeker of vile worldly knowledge;2430
چون پی دانه نه بهر روشنی است ** همچو طالب علم دنیای دنی است
(For) he is seeking knowledge on account of the vulgar and the noble, not in order that he may win release from this world.
طالب علم است بهر عام و خاص ** نی که تا یابد از این عالم خلاص
Like a mouse, he has burrowed in every direction, since the light drove him (back) from the door (the entrance to the hole) and said, ‘Away!’
همچو موشی هر طرف سوراخ کرد ** چون که نورش راند از در گشت سرد
Inasmuch as he had no way (of getting out) to the open country and the light, he continued to make (such) an exertion even in that darkness.
چون که سوی دشت و نورش ره نبود ** هم در آن ظلمات جهدی مینمود
If God give him wings, the wings of Wisdom, he will escape from mousiness and will fly like the birds;
گر خدایش پر دهد پر خرد ** برهد از موشی و چون مرغان پرد
But if he seek not wings, he will remain underground with no hope of traversing the path to Simák.2435
ور نجوید پر بماند زیر خاک ** ناامید از رفتن راه سماک
Dialectic knowledge, which is soulless, is in love with (eager for) the countenance of customers;
علم گفتاری که آن بیجان بود ** عاشق روی خریداران بود
(But) though it is robust at the time of disputation, it is dead and gone when it has no customer.
گر چه باشد وقت بحث علم زفت ** چون خریدارش نباشد مرد و رفت
My purchaser is God: He is drawing me aloft, for God hath purchased.
مشتری من خدای است او مرا ** میکشد بالا که الله اشتری
My bloodwit (the reward of my self-sacrifice) is the beauty of the Glorious One: I enjoy my bloodwit (as) lawful earnings.
خونبهای من جمال ذو الجلال ** خونبهای خود خورم کسب حلال
Abandon these insolvent customers: what purchase can be made by a handful of (worthless) clay?2440
این خریداران مفلس را بهل ** چه خریداری کند یک مشت گل
Do not eat clay, do not buy clay, do not seek clay, because the eater of clay is always pale-faced.
گل مخور گل را مخر گل را مجو ** ز انکه گل خوار است دایم زرد رو
Eat your heart (in love of God), that you may be young always, (and that) your visage (may be rosy) with Divine illumination, like the arghawán.”
دل بخور تا دایما باشی جوان ** از تجلی چهرهات چون ارغوان
O Lord, this gift is not (within) the compass of our work (achievement): verily, (the gift of) Thy grace is (not according to our work, but) according to Thy mysterious grace.
یا رب این بخشش نه حد کار ماست ** لطف تو لطف خفی را خود سزاست
Take our hands (help us); buy (redeem) us from our hands (self-existence); lift the veil (between Thee and us), and do not tear our veil (do not expose us to shame).
دست گیر از دست ما ما را بخر ** پرده را بردار و پردهی ما مدر
Redeem us from this filthy self (nafs): its knife has reached our bones.2445
باز خر ما را از این نفس پلید ** کاردش تا استخوان ما رسید
Who will loose these strong chains from helpless ones like us, O king uncrowned and unthroned?
از چو ما بیچارگان این بند سخت ** کی گشاید ای شه بیتاج و تخت
Who except (Thee in) Thy bounty, O Loving One, can loose such a heavy lock?
این چنین قفل گران را ای ودود ** کی تواند جز که فضل تو گشود
Let us turn our heads from ourselves towards Thee, inasmuch as Thou art nigher unto us than we (unto ourselves).
ما ز خود سوی که گردانیم سر ** چون تویی از ما به ما نزدیکتر
Even this prayer is Thy gift and lesson (to us); else, wherefore has a rose-bed grown in an ash-pit?
این دعا هم بخشش و تعلیم تست ** گر نه در گلخن گلستان از چه رست
Save through Thy munificence, ’tis impossible to convey understanding and reason into the midst of blood and entrails.2450
در میان خون و روده فهم و عقل ** جز ز اکرام تو نتوان کرد نقل
This flowing light (proceeds) from two pieces of fat (the two eyeballs): their waves of light reach up to the sky.
از دو پارهی پیه این نور روان ** موج نورش میزند بر آسمان
The piece of flesh which is the tongue—from it the flood of Wisdom is flowing, like a stream,
گوشت پاره که زبان آمد از او ** میرود سیلاب حکمت همچو جو
Towards a cavity, whereof the name is “ears,” up to the orchard of the (rational) soul, whereof the fruit is intellections.
سوی سوراخی که نامش گوشهاست ** تا بباغ جان که میوهاش هوشهاست