He said, “O King, the command belongs entirely to thee: when the sun is there, the star is naughted.
گفت ای شه جملگی فرمان تراست ** با وجود آفتاب اختر فناست
Who is Venus or Mercury or a meteor that they should come forth in the presence of the sun?2135
زهره کی بود یا عطارد یا شهاب ** کو برون آید به پیش آفتاب
If I had omitted (to look at) the cloak and sheepskin, how should I have sown such seeds of blame?
گر ز دلق و پوستین بگذشتمی ** کی چنین تخم ملامت کشتمی
What was the (use of) putting a lock on the door of the chamber amidst a hundred envious persons addicted to false imagination?
قفل کردن بر در حجره چه بود ** در میان صد خیالیی حسود
Every one of them, having put his hand into the river-water, seeks (to find there) a dry sod.
دست در کرده درون آب جو ** هر یکی زیشان کلوخ خشکجو
How, then, should there be a dry sod in the river? How should a fish become disobedient to the sea?
پس کلوخ خشک در جو کی بود ** ماهیی با آب عاصی کی شود
They impute iniquity to poor me, before whom loyalty (itself) is ashamed.”2140
بر من مسکین جفا دارند ظن ** که وفا را شرم میآید ز من
Were it not for the trouble caused by a person unfamiliar (with my meaning), I would have spoken a few words concerning loyalty;
گر نبودی زحمت نامحرمی ** چند حرفی از وفا واگفتمی
(But) since a world (multitude of people) is seeking (to raise) doubt and difficulty, we will let the discourse run beyond the skin.
چون جهانی شبهت و اشکالجوست ** حرف میرانیم ما بیرون پوست
If you break your (material) self, you will become a kernel and will hear the tale of a goodly kernel.
گر تو خود را بشکنی مغزی شوی ** داستان مغز نغزی بشنوی
The voices of walnuts are in their skins (shells): where, indeed, is any voice in the kernel and the oil?
جوز را در پوستها آوازهاست ** مغز و روغن را خود آوازی کجاست
It (the kernel) has a voice, (but one that is) not suited to the (bodily) ear: its voice is hidden in the ear of ecstasy.2145
دارد آوازی نه اندر خورد گوش ** هست آوازش نهان در گوش نوش
Were it not for the sweetness of a kernel's voice, who would listen to the rattling voice of a walnut-shell?
گرنه خوشآوازی مغزی بود ** ژغژغ آواز قشری کی شنود
You endure the rattling of it (only) in order that you may silently come into touch with a kernel.
ژغژغ آن زان تحمل میکنی ** تا که خاموشانه بر مغزی زنی
Be without lip and without ear for a while, and then, like the lip, be the companion of honey.
چند گاهی بیلب و بیگوش شو ** وانگهان چون لب حریف نوش شو
How long have you been uttering poetry and prose and (proclaiming) mysteries! O master, try the experiment and, for one day, be dumb!
چند گفتی نظم و نثر و راز فاش ** خواجه یک روز امتحان کن گنگ باش
Story in confirmation of the saying, “We have tried speech and talk all this time: (now) for a while let us. try self-restraint and silence.”
حکایت در تقریر این سخن کی چندین گاه گفت ذکر را آزمودیم مدتی صبر و خاموشی را بیازماییم
How long have you been cooking (things) sour and acid and (like the fruit of) the white tamarisk? For this one time make an experiment and cook sweets.2150
چند پختی تلخ و تیز و شورگز ** این یکی بار امتحان شیرین بپز
On waking at the Resurrection, there is put into the hands of a (wicked) man the scroll of his sins: (it will be) black,
آن یکی را در قیامت ز انتباه ** در کف آید نامهی عصیان سیاه
Headed with black, as letters of mourning; the body and margin of the scroll completely filled with (his) sins—
سرسیه چون نامههای تعزیه ** پر معاصی متن نامه و حاشیه
The whole (of it) wickedness and sin from end to end, full of infidelity, like the land of war.
جمله فسق و معصیت بد یک سری ** همچو دارالحرب پر از کافری
Such a foul and noxious scroll does not come into the right hand; it comes into the left hand.
آنچنان نامهی پلید پر وبال ** در یمین ناید درآید در شمال
Here also (in this world) regard your scroll (the record of your actions), (and consider) whether it fits the left hand or the right.2155
خود همینجا نامهی خود را ببین ** دست چپ را شاید آن یا در یمین
In the (bootmaker's) shop, can you know before trying (them) on that the left boot or shoe belongs to the left (foot)?
موزهی چپ کفش چپ هم در دکان ** آن چپ دانیش پیش از امتحان
When you are not “right,” know that you are “left”; the cries of a lion and an ape are distinct (from one another).
چون نباشی راست میدان که چپی ** هست پیدا نعرهی شیر و کپی
He (God) who makes the rose lovely and sweet-scented—His bounty makes every “left” to be “right.”
آنک گل را شاهد و خوشبو کند ** هر چپی را راست فضل او کند