If there be any spectacle (object of regard for them) except the Beloved, ’tis not love: ’tis an idle passion.
غیر معشوق ار تماشایی بود ** عشق نبود هرزه سودایی بود
Love is that flame which, when it blazes up, consumes everything else but the Beloved.
عشق آن شعلهست کو چون بر فروخت ** هرچه جز معشوق باقی جمله سوخت
He (the lover) drives home the sword of Not in order to kill all other than God: thereupon consider what remains after Not.
تیغ لا در قتل غیر حق براند ** در نگر زان پس که بعد لا چه ماند
There remains except God: all the rest is gone. Hail, O mighty Love, destroyer of polytheism!590
ماند الا الله باقی جمله رفت ** شاد باش ای عشق شرکتسوز زفت
Verily, He is the First and the Last: do not regard polytheism as arising from aught except the eye that sees double.
خود همو بود آخرین و اولین ** شرک جز از دیدهی احول مبین
Oh, wonderful! Is there any beauty but from the reflexion of Him? The (human) body hath no movement but from the spirit.
ای عجب حسنی بود جز عکس آن ** نیست تن را جنبشی از غیر جان
The body that hath defect in its spirit will never become sweet, (even) if you smear it with honey.
آن تنی را که بود در جان خلل ** خوش نگردد گر بگیری در عسل
This he knows who one day was (spiritually) alive and received a cup from this Soul of the soul;
این کسی داند که روزی زنده بود ** از کف این جان جان جامی ربود
While to him whose eye has not beheld those (beauteous) cheeks this smoky heat is (appears to be) the spirit.595
وانک چشم او ندیدست آن رخان ** پیش او جانست این تف دخان
Inasmuch as he never saw ‘Umar (ibn) ‘Abdu ’l-‘Azíz, to him even Hajjáj seems just.
چون ندید او عمر عبدالعزیز ** پیش او عادل بود حجاج نیز
Inasmuch as he never saw the firmness (unshakable strength) of the dragon of Moses, he fancies (there is) life in the magic cords.
چون ندید او مار موسی را ثبات ** در حبال سحر پندارد حیات
The bird that has never drunk the limpid water keeps its wings and feathers in the briny water.
مرغ کو ناخورده است آب زلال ** اندر آب شور دارد پر و بال
No opposite can be known except through its opposite: (only) when he (any one) suffers blows will he know (the value of) kindness.
جز به ضد ضد را همی نتوان شناخت ** چون ببیند زخم بشناسد نواخت
Consequently the present life has come in front (first), in order that you may appreciate the realm of Alast.600
لاجرم دنیا مقدم آمدست ** تا بدانی قدر اقلیم الست
When you are delivered from this place and go to that place, you will give thanks (to God) in the sugar-shop of everlastingness.
چون ازینجا وا رهی آنجا روی ** در شکرخانهی ابد شاکر شوی
You will say, ‘There (in the world below) I was sifting dust, I was fleeing from this pure world.
گویی آنجا خاک را میبیختم ** زین جهان پاک میبگریختم
Alas, would that I had died ere now, so that my (time of) being tormented in the mud might have been less!’
ای دریغا پیش ازین بودیم اجل ** تا عذابم کم بدی اندر وجل
Commentary on the saying of the Prophet, on whom be peace, “None ever died without wishing, if he was a righteous man, that he had died before he (actually) died, in order that he might sooner attain unto felicity; and if he was a wicked man, in order that his wickedness might be less.”
در تفسیر قول رسول علیهالسلام ما مات من مات الا و تمنی ان یموت قبل ما مات ان کان برا لیکون الی وصول البر اعجل و ان کان فاجرا لیقل فجوره
Hence the wise Prophet has said that no one who dies and dismounts from (the steed of) the body
زین بفرمودست آن آگه رسول ** که هر آنک مرد و کرد از تن نزول
Feels grief on account of departure and death, but (only) grieves because of having failed (in good works) and missed his opportunities.605
نبود او را حسرت نقلان و موت ** لیک باشد حسرت تقصیر و فوت
In sooth every one that dies wishes that the departure to his destination had been earlier:
هر که میرد خود تمنی باشدش ** که بدی زین پیش نقل مقصدش
If he be wicked, in order that his wickedness might have been less; and if devout, in order that he might have come home sooner.
گر بود بد تا بدی کمتر بدی ** ور تقی تا خانه زوتر آمدی
The wicked man says, ‘I have been heedless, moment by moment I have been adding to the veil (of sin).
گوید آن بد بیخبر میبودهام ** دم به دم من پرده میافزودهام
If my passing (from the world) had taken place sooner, this screen and veil of mine would have been less.’
گر ازین زودتر مرا معبر بدی ** این حجاب و پردهام کمتر بدی
Do not in covetousness rend the face of contentment, and do not in pride rend the visage of humility.610
از حریصی کم دران روی قنوع ** وز تکبر کم دران چهرهی خشوع
Likewise do not in avarice rend the face of munificence, and in devilishness the beauteous countenance of worship.
همچنین از بخل کم در روی جود ** وز بلیسی چهرهی خوب سجود