- Those who wear clothes look to the launderer, (but) the soul of the naked hath (Divine) illumination as its adornment.
- جامه پوشان را نظر بر گازر است ** جان عریان را تجلی زیور است
- Either withdraw (and turn) aside from the naked, or like them become free from body-garments.
- یا ز عریانان به یک سو باز رو ** یا چو ایشان فارغ از تن جامه شو
- And if you cannot become wholly naked, make your garments less, so that you may tread the middle path. 3525
- ور نمیتانی که کل عریان شوی ** جامه کم کن تا ره اوسط روی
- How the dervish excused himself to the Shaykh.
- عذر گفتن فقیر به شیخ
- Then the dervish told the Shaykh how the case stood, and coupled excuses with the discharge of that obligation.
- پس فقیر آن شیخ را احوال گفت ** عذر را با آن غرامت کرد جفت
- To the Shaykh's questions he gave answer good and right, like the answers of Khadir—
- مر سؤال شیخ را داد او جواب ** چون جوابات خضر خوب و صواب
- (Namely) those answers to the questions of Moses which Khadir, (inspired) by the all-knowing Lord, set forth to him,
- آن جوابات سؤالات کلیم ** کش خضر بنمود از رب علیم
- (So that) his difficulties became solved, and he (Khadir) gave to him (Moses) the key to every question (in a way) beyond telling.
- گشت مشکلهاش حل و افزون زیاد ** از پی هر مشکلش مفتاح داد
- The dervish also had (a spiritual) inheritance from Khadir; (hence) he bent his will to answering the Shaykh. 3530
- از خضر درویش هم میراث داشت ** در جواب شیخ همت بر گماشت
- He said, “Although the middle path is (the way of) wisdom, yet the middle path too is relative.
- گفت راه اوسط ار چه حکمت است ** لیک اوسط نیز هم با نسبت است
- Relatively to a camel, the water in the stream is little, but to a mouse it is like the ocean.
- آب جو نسبت به اشتر هست کم ** لیک باشد موش را آن همچو یم
- If any one has an allowance of four loaves and eats two or three, that is the mean;
- هر که را باشد وظیفه چار نان ** دو خورد یا سه خورد هست اوسط آن
- But if he eat all the four, it is far from the mean: he is in bondage to greed, like a duck.
- ور خورد هر چار دور از اوسط است ** او اسیر حرص مانند بط است
- If one has appetite for ten loaves and eats six, know that that is the mean. 3535
- هر که او را اشتها ده نان بود ** شش خورد میدان که اوسط آن بود
- When I have appetite for fifty loaves, and you for (no more than) six scones, we are not equivalent.
- چون مرا پنجاه نان هست اشتهی ** مر ترا شش گرده هم دستیم نی
- You may be tired by ten rak‘as (of prayer), I may not be worn thin by five hundred.
- تو به ده رکعت نماز آیی ملول ** من به پانصد در نیایم در نحول
- One goes bare-foot (all the way) to the Ka‘ba, and one becomes beside himself (with exhaustion in going) as far as the mosque.
- آن یکی تا کعبه حافی میرود ** و آن یکی تا مسجد از خود میشود
- One in utter self-devotion gives his life, one is agonised at giving a single loaf.
- آن یکی در پاکبازی جان بداد ** وین یکی جان کند تا یک نان بداد
- This mean belongs to (the realm of) the finite, for that (finite) has a beginning and end. 3540
- این وسط در با نهایت میرود ** که مرا آن را اول و آخر بود
- A beginning and end are necessary in order that the mean or middle (point) between them may be conceived in imagination.
- اول و آخر بباید تا در آن ** در تصور گنجد اوسط یا میان
- Inasmuch as the infinite has not (these) two limits, how should the mean be applicable to it?
- بینهایت چون ندارد دو طرف ** کی بود او را میانه منصرف
- No one has shown it to have beginning or end. He (God) said, ‘If the sea were to become ink for it (the Word of God)…’
- اول و آخر نشانش کس نداد ** گفت لو کان له البحر مداد
- If the Seven Seas should become entirely ink, (still) there is no hope of coming to an end.
- هفت دریا گر شود کلی مداد ** نیست مر پایان شدن را هیچ امید
- If orchards and forests should become pens altogether, there would never be any decrease in this Word. 3545
- باغ و بیشه گر بود یک سر قلم ** زین سخن هرگز نگردد هیچ کم
- All that ink and (all those) pens pass away, and this numberless Word is everlasting.
- آن همه حبر و قلم فانی شود ** وین حدیث بیعدد باقی بود
- At times my state resembles sleep: a misguided person may think it is sleep.
- حالت من خواب را ماند گهی ** خواب پندارد مر آن را گمرهی