- One day an inquirer said to a preacher, “O thou who art the pulpit's most eminent expounder,
- واعظی را گفت روزی سایلی ** کای تو منبر را سنیتر قایلی
- I have a question to ask. Answer my question in this assembly-place, O possessor of the marrow (of wisdom). 130
- یک سالستم بگو ای ذو لباب ** اندرین مجلس سالم را جواب
- A bird has settled on the city-wall: which is better—its head or its tail?”
- بر سر بارو یکی مرغی نشست ** از سر و از دم کدامینش بهست
- He replied, “If its face is to the town and its tail to the country, know that its face is better than its tail;
- گفت اگر رویش به شهر و دم به ده ** روی او از دم او میدان که به
- But if its tail is towards the town and its face to the country, be the dust on that tail and spring away from its face.”
- ور سوی شهرست دم رویش به ده ** خاک آن دم باش و از رویش بجه
- A bird flies to its nest by means of wings: the wings of Man are aspiration, O people.
- مرغ با پر میپرد تا آشیان ** پر مردم همتست ای مردمان
- (In the case of) the lover who is soiled with good and evil, do not regard the good and evil; (only) regard the aspiration. 135
- عاشقی که آلوده شد در خیر و شر ** خیر و شر منگر تو در همت نگر
- If a falcon be white and beyond compare, (yet) it becomes despicable when it hunts a mouse;
- باز اگر باشد سپید و بینظیر ** چونک صیدش موش باشد شد حقیر
- And if there be an owl that has desire for the king, it is (noble as) the falcon's head: do not regard the hood.
- ور بود چغدی و میل او به شاه ** او سر بازست منگر در کلاه
- Man, no bigger than a kneading-trough (scooped in a log), has surpassed (in glory) the heavens and the aether (the empyrean).
- آدمی بر قد یک طشت خمیر ** بر فزود از آسمان و از اثیر
- Did this heaven ever hear (the words) We have honoured which this sorrowful Man heard (from God)?
- هیچ کرمنا شنید این آسمان ** که شنید این آدمی پر غمان
- Did any one offer to earth and sky (his) beauty and reason and eloquence and fond affection? 140
- بر زمین و چرخ عرضه کرد کس ** خوبی و عقل و عبارات و هوس
- Didst thou ever display to heaven thy beauty of countenance and thy sureness of judgement in (matters of) opinion?
- جلوه کردی هیچ تو بر آسمان ** خوبی روی و اصابت در گمان
- Didst thou ever, O son, offer thy silvery limbs to the pictured forms in the bath-house?
- پیش صورتهای حمام ای ولد ** عرضه کردی هیچ سیماندام خود
- (No); thou leavest those houri-like figures and displayest thyself to a half-blind old woman.
- بگذری زان نقشهای همچو حور ** جلوه آری با عجوز نیمکور
- What is there in the old woman that was not in them, so that she rapt thee away from those figures (and attracted thee) to herself?
- در عجوزه چیست که ایشان را نبود ** که ترا زان نقشها با خود ربود
- (If) thou wilt not say (what it is), I will tell (thee) plainly: ’tis reason and sense and perception and consideration and soul. 145
- تو نگویی من بگویم در بیان ** عقل و حس و درک و تدبیرست و جان
- In the old woman there is a soul that mingles (with the body): the pictured forms in the hot-baths have no (rational) spirit.
- در عجوزه جان آمیزشکنیست ** صورت گرمابهها را روح نیست
- If the pictured form in the hot-bath should move, it would at once separate thee from the old woman.
- صورت گرمابه گر جنبش کند ** در زمان او از عجوزه بر کند
- What is soul? (Soul is) conscious of good and evil, rejoicing on account of kindness, weeping on account of injury.
- جان چه باشد با خبر از خیر و شر ** شاد با احسان و گریان از ضرر
- Since consciousness is the inmost nature and essence of the soul, the more aware one is the more spiritual is he.
- چون سر و ماهیت جان مخبرست ** هر که او آگاهتر با جانترست
- Awareness is the effect of the spirit: any one who has this in excess is a man of God. 150
- روح را تاثیر آگاهی بود ** هر که را این بیش اللهی بود
- Since there are consciousnesses beyond this (bodily) nature, in that (spiritual) arena these (sensual) souls are (like) inanimate matter.
- چون خبرها هست بیرون زین نهاد ** باشد این جانها در آن میدان جماد
- The first soul is the theatre of the (Divine) court; the Soul of the soul is verily the theatre of God (Himself).
- جان اول مظهر درگاه شد ** جان جان خود مظهر الله شد
- The angels were entirely reason and spirit (till) there came a new Spirit of which they were the body.
- آن ملایک جمله عقل و جان بدند ** جان نو آمد که جسم آن بدند