You are like Pharaoh, blind and blind-hearted: complaisant to your enemy and treating the guiltless with ignominy.1920
هم‌چو فرعونی تو کور و کوردل ** با عدو خوش بی‌گناهان را مذل
How long, O (imitator of) Pharaoh, will you slay the innocent and pamper your noxious body?
چند فرعونا کشی بی‌جرم را ** می‌نوازی مر تن پر غرم را
His understanding was superior to that of (other) kings: God's ordainment had made him without understanding and blind.
عقل او بر عقل شاهان می‌فزود ** حکم حق بی‌عقل و کورش کرده بود
God's seal upon the eye and ear of the intelligence makes him (the intelligent man) an animal, (even) if he is a Plato.
مهر حق بر چشم و بر گوش خرد ** گر فلاطونست حیوانش کند
God's ordainment comes into view on the tablet (of the heart) in such wise as Báyazíd's prediction of the hidden (future event).
حکم حق بر لوح می‌آید پدید ** آنچنان که حکم غیب بایزید
How Shaykh Abu ’l-Hasan, may God be well-pleased with him, heard Báyazíd's announcement of his coming into existence and of what should happen to him.
شنیدن شیخ ابوالحسن رضی الله عنه خبر دادن ابویزید را و بود او و احوال او
It came to pass just as he (Báyazíd) had said. Bu ’l-Hasan heard from the people that (prediction),1925
هم‌چنان آمد که او فرموده بود ** بوالحسن از مردمان آن را شنود
(Namely), “Hasan will be my disciple and my true follower (umma), and will receive lessons from my tomb at every dawn.”
که حسن باشد مرید و امتم ** درس گیرد هر صباح از تربتم
He (Abu ’l-Hasan) said, “I have also seen him in a dream and have heard this from the spirit of the Shaykh.”
گفت من هم نیز خوابش دیده‌ام ** وز روان شیخ این بشنیده‌ام
Every dawn he would set his face towards the grave and stand (there) in attention till the forenoon,
هر صباحی رو نهادی سوی گور ** ایستادی تا ضحی اندر حضور
And either the apparition of the Shaykh would come to him, or without anything spoken his difficulty would be solved,
یا مثال شیخ پیشش آمدی ** یا که بی‌گفتی شکالش حل شدی
Till one day he came auspiciously (to visit the grave): the graves were covered with new-fallen snow.1930
تا یکی روزی بیامد با سعود ** گورها را برف نو پوشیده بود
He saw the snows, wreath on wreath like flags, mound (piled) on mound; and his soul was grieved.
توی بر تو برفها هم‌چون علم ** قبه قبه دیده و شد جانش به غم
From the shrine of the (spiritually) living Shaykh came to him a cry, “Hark, I call thee that thou mayst run to me.
بانگش آمد از حظیره‌ی شیخ حی ** ها انا ادعوک کی تسعی الی
Hey, come quickly in this direction, towards my voice: if the world is (full of) snow, (yet) do not turn thy face away from me.”
هین بیا این سو بر آوازم شتاب ** عالم ار برفست روی از من متاب
From that day his (spiritual) state became excellent, and he saw (experienced) those wondrous things which at first he was (only) hearing (knowing by hearsay).
حال او زان روز شد خوب و بدید ** آن عجایب را که اول می‌شنید
How the slave wrote another letter to the king when he received no reply to the first letter.
رقعه‌ی دیگر نوشتن آن غلام پیش شاه چون جواب آن رقعه‌ی اول نیافت
That evil-thinking one wrote another letter, full of vituperation and clamour and loud complaint.1935
نامه‌ی دیگر نوشت آن بدگمان ** پر ز تشنیع و نفیر و پر فغان
He said, “I wrote a letter to the king; oh, I wonder if it arrived there and found its way (to him).”
که یکی رقعه نبشتم پیش شه ** ای عجب آنجا رسید و یافت ره
The fair-cheeked (king) read that second one also, and as before he gave him no reply and kept silence.
آن دگر را خواند هم آن خوب‌خد ** هم نداد او را جواب و تن بزد
The king was withholding all favour from him: he (the slave) repeated the letter five times.
خشک می‌آورد او را شهریار ** او مکرر کرد رقعه پنج بار
“After all,” said the chamberlain, “he is your (Majesty’s) slave: if you write a reply to him, tis fitting.
گفت حاجب آخر او بنده‌ی شماست ** گر جوابش بر نویسی هم رواست
What diminution of your sovereignty will occur if you cast looks (of favour) on your slave and servant?”1940
از شهی تو چه کم گردد اگر ** برغلام و بنده اندازی نظر
He (the king) said, “This is easy; but he is fool: a foolish man is foul and rejected of God.
گفت این سهلست اما احمقست ** مرد احمق زشت و مردود حقست
Though I pardon his sin and fault, his disease will infect me also.
گرچه آمرزم گناه و زلتش ** هم کند بر من سرایت علتش
From (contact with) an itchy person a whole hundred become itchy, especially (in the case of) this loathsome reprobate itch.
صد کس از گرگین همه گرگین شوند ** خاصه این گر خبیث ناپسند
May the itch, lack of intelligence, not befall (even) the infidel His (the fool’s) ill-starredness keeps the cloud rainless.
گر کم عقلی مبادا گبر را ** شوم او بی‌آب دارد ابر را