The miserable philosopher calls fear “imagination” (wahm): he has wrongly understood this lesson.
آن حکیمک وهم خواند ترس را ** فهم کژ کردست او این درس را
How should there be any imagination without reality? How should any false coin pass (into circulation) without a genuine one?
هیچ وهمی بیحقیقت کی بود ** هیچ قلبی بیصحیحی کی رود
How should a lie fetch a price (have value) without truth? Every lie in both worlds has arisen from truth.2220
کی دروغی قیمت آرد بی ز راست ** در دو عالم هر دروغ از راست خاست
He (the liar) saw the currency and prestige enjoyed by truth: he set going (circulated) the lie in hope of (its enjoying) the same.
راست را دید او رواجی و فروغ ** بر امید آن روان کرد او دروغ
O (incarnate) lie, whose fortune is (derived) from veracity, give thanks for the bounty and do not deny the truth!
ای دروغی که ز صدقت این نواست ** شکر نعمت گو مکن انکار راست
Shall I speak of the philosopher and his mad fancy, or of His (God's) ships (arks) and seas (floods)?
از مفلسف گویم و سودای او ** یا ز کشتیها و دریاهای او
Nay, (I will speak) of His arks, which are the spiritual counsel (given by the saints); I will speak of the whole: the part is included in the whole.
بل ز کشتیهاش کان پند دلست ** گویم از کل جزو در کل داخلست
Know every saint to be a Noah and captain of the Ark; know companionship with these (worldly) people to be the Flood.2225
هر ولی را نوح و کشتیبان شناس ** صحبت این خلق را طوفان شناس
Do not flee from lions and fierce dragons, (but) beware of friends and kinsmen.
کم گریز از شیر و اژدرهای نر ** ز آشنایان و ز خویشان کن حذر
They waste your time (when you are) face to face (with them), and your recollections of them devour (the time of) your absence (from them).
در تلاقی روزگارت میبرند ** یادهاشان غایبیات میچرند
Like a thirsty ass, the image of each one (in your phantasy) is licking up the sherbet of (spiritual) thought from the flagon of the body.
چون خر تشنه خیال هر یکی ** از قف تن فکر را شربتمکی
The (mental) image of those talebearers has sucked out of you the dew that you have (derived) from the Sea of Life.
نشف کرد از تو خیال آن وشات ** شبنمی که داری از بحر الحیات
The sign, then, of the absorption (drying up) of the water (sap) in the boughs is that they are not moved to sway (to and fro).2230
پس نشان نشف آب اندر غصون ** آن بود کان مینجنبد در رکون
The limb of him who is free (detached from the world) is (like) a moist fresh bough: (if) you pull it in any direction, it is (easily) pulled.
عضو حر شاخ تر و تازه بود ** میکشی هر سو کشیده میشود
If you want a basket, you can make it (a basket); you can also make its neck a hoop;
گر سبد خواهی توانی کردنش ** هم توانی کرد چنبر گردنش
(But) when it has been sucked dry by the draining of (the sap from) its root, it does not come (readily) in the direction to which (your) command is pulling it.
چون شد آن ناشف ز نشف بیخ خود ** ناید آن سویی که امرش میکشد
Recite, then, from the Qur’án (the words) they stand up languidly, when the bough gets no medicinal (curative) treatment from its root.
پس بخوان قاموا کسالی از نبی ** چون نیابد شاخ از بیخش طبی
This symbol (allegory) is fiery, (but) I will cut it short and resume (the story of) the fakir and the treasure and the circumstances connected with it.2235
آتشین است این نشان کوته کنم ** بر فقیر و گنج و احوالش زنم
You have seen the fire that burns every (dry) sapling; (now) see the fire of the Spirit by which phantasy is burnt.
آتشی دیدی که سوزد هر نهال ** آتش جان بین کزو سوزد خیال
Neither for phantasy nor for reality is there any protection against a fire like this which flamed forth from the Spirit.
نه خیال و نه حقیقت را امان ** زین چنین آتش که شعله زد ز جان
He is the adversary of every lion and every fox: everything is perishing except His Face.
خصم هر شیر آمد و هر روبه او ** کل شیء هالک الا وجهه
Go into His aspects (attributes) and Face (Essence), become spent (emptied of self): go in, become enveloped (suppressed), like the alif in bism.
در وجوه وجه او رو خرج شو ** چون الف در بسم در رو درج شو
In bism the alif has stayed hidden: it is in bism and also it is not in bism.2240
آن الف در بسم پنهان کرد ایست ** هست او در بسم و هم در بسم نیست
Such is the case with all the letters that disappear when they are elided for the purpose of (effecting) conjunctions.
همچنین جملهی حروف گشته مات ** وقت حذف حرف از بهر صلات
It (the suppressed alif in bism) is a sila (means of conjunction) and through it the b and the s have attained to union: the union of the b and the s could not bear the (external intervention of the) alif.
از صلهست و بی و سین زو وصل یافت ** وصل بی و سین الف را بر نتافت