O sun, thou takest leave of this rose-garden (the earth) in order to illumine (the region) below the earth;
آفتابا ترک این گلشن کنی ** تا که تحت الارض را روشن کنی
(But) the Sun of Divine knowledge has no motion: its place of rising is naught but the spirit and the intellect;
آفتاب معرفت را نقل نیست ** مشرق او غیر جان و عقل نیست
Especially the perfect Sun which is of yonder (world of Reality): day and night its action is (giving) illumination.
خاصه خورشید کمالی کان سری ست ** روز و شب کردار او روشنگری ست
If thou art an Alexander, come to the Sun's rising-place: after that, wheresoever thou goest, thou art possessed of goodly splendour.45
مطلع شمس آی گر اسکندری ** بعد از آن هر جا روی نیکوفری
After that, wheresoever thou goest, ’twill become the place of sunrise: (all) the places of sunrise will be in love with thy place of sunset.
بعد از آن هر جا روی مشرق شود ** شرقها بر مغربت عاشق شود
Thy bat-like senses are running towards the sunset; thy pearl-scattering senses are faring towards the sunrise.
حس خفاشت سوی مغرب دوان ** حس در پاشت سوی مشرق روان
The way of (physical) sense-perception is the way of asses, O rider: have shame, O thou that art jostling (vying) with asses!
راه حس راه خران است ای سوار ** ای خران را تو مزاحم شرم دار
Besides these five (physical) senses there are five (spiritual) senses: those (latter) are like red gold, while these (physical) senses are like copper.
پنج حسی هست جز این پنج حس ** آن چو زر سرخ و این حسها چو مس
In the bazaar where the people of the Last Congregation (on the Day of Judgment) are (purchasers), how should they buy the copper sense like (as though it were) the sense of gold?50
اندر آن بازار کایشان ماهرند ** حس مس را چون حس زر کی خرند
The bodily sense is eating the food of darkness; the spiritual sense is feeding from a Sun.
حس ابدان قوت ظلمت میخورد ** حس جان از آفتابی میچرد
O thou that hast borne the baggage of thy senses to the Unseen, put forth thy hand, like Moses, from thy bosom.
ای ببرده رخت حسها سوی غیب ** دست چون موسی برون آور ز جیب
O thou whose attributes are (those of) the Sun of Divine knowledge, while the sun in heaven is confined to a single attribute,
ای صفاتت آفتاب معرفت ** و آفتاب چرخ بند یک صفت
Now thou becomest the Sun, and now the Sea; now the mountain of Qáf, and now the ‘Anqá.
گاه خورشید و گهی دریا شوی ** گاه کوه قاف و گه عنقا شوی
In thine essence thou art neither this nor that, O thou that art greater than (all) imaginations and more than (all) more!55
تو نه این باشی نه آن در ذات خویش ** ای فزون از وهمها و ز بیش بیش
The Spirit is associated (endued) with knowledge and reason: what has the Spirit to do with Arabic and Turkish?
روح با علم است و با عقل است یار ** روح را با تازی و ترکی چه کار
Both the muwahhid (who asserts the transcendence of God) and the mushabbih (who asserts His immanence) are bewildered by thee, O thou who, being without image (external appearance), art (appearing) in so many forms.
از تو ای بینقش با چندین صور ** هم مشبه هم موحد خیرهسر
Sometimes He (God) makes the mushabbih (who regards Him as immanent in phenomena) a muwahhid (an asserter of His transcendence); sometimes (these) forms are waylaying the muwahhid (so that he cannot gain access to God who transcends all forms).
گه مشبه را موحد میکند ** گه موحد را صور ره میزند
Sometimes Abu ’l-Hasan in drunkenness (ecstasy) says to thee, “O thou whose teeth are small (whose years are few), O thou whose body is tender!”
گه ترا گوید ز مستی بو الحسن ** یا صغیر السن یا رطب البدن
Sometimes he is laying waste (ruining and defacing) his own image: he is doing that in order to assert the transcendence of the Beloved (God).60
گاه نقش خویش ویران میکند ** از پی تنزیه جانان میکند
The doctrine held by the eye of sense is Mu‘tazilism, whereas the eye of Reason is Sunnite (orthodox) in respect of (its) union (vision of God).
چشم حس را هست مذهب اعتزال ** دیدهی عقل است سنی در وصال
Those in thrall to sense-perception are Mu‘tazilites, (though) from misguidedness they represent themselves as Sunnites.
سخرهی حساند اهل اعتزال ** خویش را سنی نمایند از ضلال