He closes his lips tight against (uttering) good or evil (words) lest the pearl should fall from his mouth (and be lost),
لب ببندد سخت او از خیر و شر ** تا نباید کز دهان افتد گهر
Even as the Companion of the Prophet said, “Whenever the Prophet recited sections (of the Qur’án) to us,
همچنانک گفت آن یار رسول ** چون نبی بر خواندی بر ما فصول
At the moment of munificence that chosen Messenger would demand of us attentiveness and a hundred reverences.”3245
آن رسول مجتبی وقت نثار ** خواستی از ما حضور و صد وقار
’Tis as when a bird is (perched) on your head, and your soul trembles for fear of its flitting,
آنچنان که بر سرت مرغی بود ** کز فواتش جان تو لرزان شود
So you dare not stir from your place, lest your beautiful bird should take to the air;
پس نیاری هیچ جنبیدن ز جا ** تا نگیرد مرغ خوب تو هوا
You dare not breathe, you suppress a cough, lest that humá should fly away;
دم نیاری زد ببندی سرفه را ** تا نباید که بپرد آن هما
And if any one speak sweet or sour (words) to you, you lay a finger on your lip, meaning, “Hush!”
ور کست شیرین بگوید یا ترش ** بر لب انگشتی نهی یعنی خمش
Bewilderment is (like) that bird: it makes you silent: it puts the lid on the kettle and fills you with the boiling (of love).3250
حیرت آن مرغست خاموشت کند ** بر نهد سردیگ و پر جوشت کند
How the King (Mahmúd) purposely asked Ayáz, “(Why) art thou telling all this sorrow and joy to a rustic shoe and a sheepskin jacket, which are inanimate?” (His purpose was) that he might induce Ayáz to speak.
پرسیدن پادشاه قاصدا ایاز را کی چندین غم و شادی با چارق و پوستین کی جمادست میگویی تا ایاز را در سخن آورد
(The King said), “O Ayáz, pray, why are these marks of affection, like (those of) a lover to his adored one, (shown by thee) to a rustic shoe?
ای ایاز این مهرها بر چارقی ** چیست آخر همچو بر بت عاشقی
Thou hast made a rustic shoe (the object of) thy devotion and religion, as Majnún (made) of his Laylá’s face (an object of the same kind).
همچو مجنون از رخ لیلی خویش ** کردهای تو چارقی را دین و کیش
Thou hast mingled thy soul’s love with two old articles (of dress) and hung them both in a chamber.
با دو کهنه مهر جان آمیخته ** هر دو را در حجرهای آویخته
How long wilt thou speak new words to (those) two old things and breathe the ancient secret into a substance devoid of life?
چند گویی با دو کهنه نو سخن ** در جمادی میدمی سر کهن
Like (the poets among) the Arabs, O Ayáz, thou art drawing out long and lovingly thy converse with the (deserted) abodes and the traces of former habitation.3255
چون عرب با ربع و اطلال ای ایاز ** میکشی از عشق گفت خود دراز
Of what Ásaf are thy shoon the abode? One would say that thy sheepskin jacket is the shirt of Joseph.”
چارقت ربع کدامین آصفست ** پوستین گویی که کرتهی یوسفست
(This is) like (the case of) the Christian who recounts to his priest a year’s sins––fornication and malice and hypocrisy––
همچو ترسا که شمارد با کشش ** جرم یکساله زنا و غل و غش
In order that the priest may pardon his sins, for he regards his (the priest’s) forgiveness as forgiveness from God.
تا بیامرزد کشش زو آن گناه ** عفو او را عفو داند از اله
The priest has no (real) knowledge of sin and pardon; but love and firm belief are mightily bewitching.
نیست آگه آن کشش از جرم و داد ** لیک بس جادوست عشق و اعتقاد
Love and imagination weave (create) a hundred (forms beautiful as) Joseph: in sooth they are greater sorcerers than Hárút and Márút.3260
دوستی و وهم صد یوسف تند ** اسحر از هاروت و ماروتست خود
They cause a form (of phantasy) to appear in memory of him (your Beloved): the attraction of the form leads you into (conversation with it).
صورتی پیدا کند بر یاد او ** جذب صورت آردت در گفت و گو
You tell a hundred thousand secrets in the form’s presence, just as a friend speaks (intimately) in the presence of a friend.
رازگویی پیش صورت صد هزار ** آن چنان که یار گوید پیش یار
No (material) form or shape is there; (yet) from it proceed a hundred (utterances of the words) “Am not I (thy Beloved)?” and (from you) a hundred “Yeas.”
نه بدانجا صورتی نه هیکلی ** زاده از وی صد الست و صد بلی
(‘Tis) as when a mother, distraught (with grief) beside the grave of a child newly dead,
آن چنان که مادری دلبردهای ** پیش گور بچهی نومردهای
Utters heart-felt words earnestly and intensely: the inanimate (corpse) seems to her to be alive.3265
رازها گوید به جد و اجتهاد ** مینماید زنده او را آن جماد
She regards that dust as living and erect, she regards that rubbish as (having) an eye and an ear.
حی و قایم داند او آن خاک را ** چشم و گوشی داند او خاشاک را
To her, at the moment when she is crazed (with grief), every atom of the earth in the grave seems to have hearing and intelligence.
پیش او هر ذرهی آن خاک گور ** گوش دارد هوش دارد وقت شور