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6
131-155

  • 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 

  • When, by happy fortune, they attached themselves to that Spirit, they became subservient to that Spirit, as the body (is subservient to the spirit dwelling in it).
  • از سعادت چون بر آن جان بر زدند  ** هم‌چو تن آن روح را خادم شدند 

  • Hence Iblís (Satan) had turned his head away from the Spirit: he did not become one with it because he was a dead limb. 155
  • آن بلیس از جان از آن سر برده بود  ** یک نشد با جان که عضو مرده بود