O “Gabriel,” though you are noble and revered, you are not the moth nor the candle either.
جبرئیلا گر شریفی و عزیز ** تو نهای پروانه و نه شمع نیز
When the candle calls at the moment of illumination, the soul of the moth does not shrink from burning.
شمع چون دعوت کند وقت فروز ** جان پروانه نپرهیزد ز سوز
Bury this topsy-turvy discourse: make the lion contrariously the prey of the onager.
این حدیث منقلب را گور کن ** شیر را برعکس صید گور کن
Stop up thy word-sweating water-skin, do not open the bag of thy reckless talk.3810
بند کن مشک سخنشاشیت را ** وا مکن انبان قلماشیت را
He whose (intellectual and spiritual) parts have not passed beyond the earth— this is absurd and reckless talk in his view.
آنک بر نگذشت اجزاش از زمین ** پیش او معکوس و قلماشیست این
Do not resist them, O my beloved; deal gently with them, O stranger lodging in their home.
لا تخالفهم حبیبی دارهم ** یا غریبا نازلا فی دارهم
Give (them) what they wish and desire, and satisfy them, O emigrant dwelling in their land.
اعط ما شائوا وراموا وارضهم ** یا ظعینا ساکنا فیارضهم
Till (the hour of) coming to the king and to sweet delight, O man of Rayy be on good terms with the man of Merv.
تا رسیدن در شه و در ناز خوش ** رازیا با مرغزی میساز خویش
O “Moses,” in presence of the Pharaoh of the time you must speak softly with mild words.3815
موسیا در پیش فرعون زمن ** نرم باید گفت قولا لینا
If you put water into boiling oil, you will destroy (both) the trivet and the kettle.
آب اگر در روغن جوشان کنی ** دیگدان و دیگ را ویران کنی
Speak softly, but do not speak aught except the truth: do not offer temptation in your mildness of address.
نرم گو لیکن مگو غیر صواب ** وسوسه مفروش در لین الخطاب
The time of afternoon is come: cut short the discourse, O thou whose expression (of the hidden truth) makes (the people of) the age acquainted (with reality).
وقت عصر آمد سخن کوتاه کن ** ای که عصرت عصر را آگاه کن
Do thou tell the clay-eater that sugar is better: do not show injurious softness, do not give him clay.
گو تو مر گلخواره را که قند به ** نرمی فاسد مکن طینش مده
Speech would be a spiritual garden to the soul, if it were independent of letters and sounds.3820
نطق جان را روضهی جانیستی ** گر ز حرف و صوت مستغنیستی
Oh, there is many a one in whom this donkey's head amidst the sugar plantation has fixed a thorn!
این سر خر در میان قندزار ** ای بسا کس را که بنهادست خار
He, (seeing it) from afar, supposed that it (the sugar-plantation) is just that (donkey's head), nothing more; (so) he was retiring, like a ram vanquished in fight.
ظن ببرد از دور کان آنست و بس ** چون قج مغلوب وا میرفت پس
Know for sure that the (literal) form (of speech) is (like) that donkey's head in the vineyard and highest Paradise of the spiritual reality.
صورت حرف آن سر خر دان یقین ** در رز معنی و فردوس برین
O Ziyá’u ’l-Haqq Husámu’ddín, bring this donkey's head into that melon-field,
ای ضیاء الحق حسام الدین در آر ** این سر خر را در آن بطیخزار
In order that, when the donkey's head has died to (has passed beyond) the skinning-place, that kitchen may bestow on it another growth (a spiritual regeneration).3825
تا سر خر چون بمرد از مسلخه ** نشو دیگر بخشدش آن مطبخه
Hark, the shaping (of the poem) is from me, and the spirit (of it) from thee; nay, (I spoke) in error: truly both this and that are from thee.
هین ز ما صورتگری و جان ز تو ** نه غلط هم این خود و هم آن ز تو
Thou art glorified in Heaven, O conspicuous Sun: be thou also glorified on earth unto everlasting,
بر فلک محمودی ای خورشید فاش ** بر زمین هم تا ابد محمود باش
That the inhabitant of the earth may become one in heart and one in aim and one in nature with the sublime celestial.
تا زمینی با سمایی بلند ** یکدل و یکقبله و یکخو شوند
(Then) separation and polytheism and duality will disappear: in real existence there is (only) unity.
تفرقه برخیزد و شرک و دوی ** وحدتست اندر وجود معنوی
When my spirit (fully) recognises thy spirit, they (both) remember their being one in the past,3830
چون شناسد جان من جان ترا ** یاد آرند اتحاد ماجری
And on the earth become (as) Moses and Aaron, sweetly mingled like milk and honey.
موسی و هارون شوند اندر زمین ** مختلط خوش همچو شیر و انگبین