Unless thou hadst had this vindictive ‘I’-hood, how should such fortune have bidden us welcome?
گر نبودیت این انایی کینهکش ** کی زدی بر ما چنین اقبال خوش
In thanksgiving for our deliverance from the perishable abode we are (now) admonishing thee on this gallows.
شکر آنک از دار فانی میرهیم ** بر سر این دار پندت میدهیم
The gallows (dár) on which we are killed is the Buráq on which we ride (to Heaven); the abode (dár) possessed by thee is delusion and heedlessness.
دار قتل ما براق رحلتست ** دار ملک تو غرور و غفلتست
This (gallows) is a life concealed in the form of death, while that (abode) is a death concealed in the husk of life.4135
این حیاتی خفیه در نقش ممات ** وان مماتی خفیه در قشر حیات
(Here) light seems as fire, and fire as light: else, how should this world have been the abode of delusion?”
مینماید نور نار و نار نور ** ورنه دنیا کی بدی دارالغرور
Beware, do not make (too much) haste: first become naught, and when you sink (into non-existence) rise from the radiant East!
هین مکن تعجیل اول نیست شو ** چون غروب آری بر آ از شرق ضو
The heart was dumbfounded by the eternal “I”-hood: this (unreal) “I”-hood became insipid and opprobrious (in its sight).
از انایی ازل دل دنگ شد ** این انایی سرد گشت و ننگ شد
The spirit was made glad by that “I”-hood without “I” and sprang away from the “I”-hood of the world.
زان انای بیانا خوش گشت جان ** شد جهان او از انایی جهان
Since it has been delivered from “I,” it has now become “I”: blessings on the “I” that is without affliction;4140
از انا چون رست اکنون شد انا ** آفرینها بر انای بی عنا
For it is fleeing (from its unreal “I”-hood), and (the real) “I”-hood is running after it, since it saw it (the spirit) to be selfless.
کو گریزان و انایی در پیش ** میدود چون دید وی را بی ویش
(If) you seek it (the real “I”-hood), it will not become a seeker of you: (only) when you have died (to self) will that which you seek become your seeker.
طالب اویی نگردد طالبت ** چون بمردی طالبت شد مطلبت
(If) you are living, how should the corpse-washer wash you? (If) you are seeking, how should that which you seek go in search of you?
زندهای کی مردهشو شوید ترا ** طالبی کی مطلبت جوید ترا
If the intellect could discern the (true) way in this question, Fakhr-i Rází would be an adept in religious mysteries;
But since he was (an example of the saying that) whoso has not tasted does not know, his intelligence and imaginations (only) increased his perplexity.4145
لیک چون من لمن یذق لم یدر بود ** عقل و تخییلات او حیرت فزود
How should this “I” be revealed by thinking? That “I” is revealed (only) after passing away from self (faná).
کی شود کشف از تفکر این انا ** آن انا مکشوف شد بعد از فنا
These intellects in their quest (of the real “I”) fall into the abyss of incarnation (hulúl) and ittihád.
میفتد این عقلها در افتقاد ** در مغا کی حلول و اتحاد
O Ayáz who hast passed away (from self) in union (with God) like the star in the beams of the sun—
ای ایاز گشته فانی ز اقتراب ** همچو اختر در شعاع آفتاب
Nay, (but rather) transmuted, like semen, into body—thou art not afflicted with hulúl and ittihád.
بلک چون نطفه مبدل تو به تن ** نه از حلول و اتحادی مفتتن
“Forgive, O thou in whose coffer Forgiveness is (contained) and by whom all precedents of mercy are preceded.4150
عفو کن ای عفو در صندوق تو ** سابق لطفی همه مسبوق تو
Who am I that I should say ‘Forgive,’ O thou who art the sovereign and quintessence of the command Be?
من کی باشم که بگویم عفو کن ** ای تو سلطان و خلاصهی امر کن
Who am I that I should exist beside thee, O thou whose skirt all ‘I's’ have clutched?
من کی باشم که بوم من با منت ** ای گرفته جمله منها دامنت
[How Ayáz deemed himself culpable for thus acting as intercessor and begged pardon for this offence and deemed himself culpable for begging pardon; and this self-abasement arises from knowledge of the majesty of the King; for (the Prophet hath said), ‘I know God better than you and fear Him more than you,’ and the High God hath said, ‘None fears God but those of His servants that are possessed of knowledge.’]
مجرم دانستن ایاز خود را درین شفاعتگری و عذر این جرم خواستن و در آن عذرگویی خود را مجرم دانستن و این شکستگی از شناخت و عظمت شاه خیزد کی انا اعلمکم بالله و اخشیکم لله و قال الله تعالی انما یخشی الله من عباده العلما
How should I bring (plead for) mercy to thee who art moved with anger, and point out the path of clemency to thee who art endued with knowledge?
من کی آرم رحم خلم آلود را ** ره نمایم حلم علماندود را
If thou subject me to the indignity of (receiving) cuffs, I am deserving of a hundred thousand cuffs.
صد هزاران صفع را ارزانیم ** گر زبون صفعها گردانیم
What should I say in thy presence? Should I give thee information or recall to thy mind the method of lovingkindness?4155
من چه گویم پیشت اعلامت کنم ** یا که وا یادت دهم شرط کرم
What is that which is unknown to thee? And where in the world is that which thou dost not remember?
آنچ معلوم تو نبود چیست آن ** وآنچ یادت نیست کو اندر جهان