Who are we to (aspire to) this? Come, my friend, make my day bright with (thy) goodly disposition.
ما کییم این را بیا ای یار من ** روز من روشن کن از خلق حسن
Do not regard my ugliness and hatefulness, though I am as venomous as a mountain-snake.
منگر اندر زشتی و مکروهیم ** که ز پر زهری چو مار کوهیم
Oh, I am ugly and all my qualities are ugly: since He planted me as a thorn, how should I become a rose?2705
ای که من زشت و خصالم جمله زشت ** چون شوم گل چون مرا او خار کشت
Bestow on the thorn the springtide of the rose's beauty: bestow on this snake the loveliness of the peacock!
نوبهار حسن گل ده خار را ** زینت طاووس ده این مار را
I have reached the limit in perfection of ugliness: thy grace has reached the limit in excellence and accomplishment.
در کمال زشتیم من منتهی ** لطف تو در فضل و در فن منتهی
Do thou grant the boon sought by this consummate one from that consummate one, O thou who art the envy of the tall cypress.
حاجت این منتهی زان منتهی ** تو بر آر ای حسرت سرو سهی
When I die, thy bounty, though it is exempt from need, will weep for kindness' sake.
چون بمیرم فضل تو خواهد گریست ** از کرم گرچه ز حاجت او بریست
It will sit beside my grave a long while: tears will gush from its gracious eye.2710
بر سر گورم بسی خواهد نشست ** خواهد از چشم لطیفش اشک جست
It will mourn for my deprivation (of beauty), it will shut its eyes to my abjectness.
نوحه خواهد کرد بر محرومیم ** چشم خواهد بست از مظلومیم
Bestow a little of those favours now, put a few of those (kind) words as a ring into my ear!
اندکی زان لطفها اکنون بکن ** حلقه‌ای در گوش من کن زان سخن
That which thou wilt say (hereafter) to my dust—strew it (now) upon my sorrowful perception!”
آنک خواهی گفت تو با خاک من ** برفشان بر مدرک غمناک من
How the mouse humbly entreated the frog, saying, “Do not think of pretexts and do not defer the fulfilment of this request of mine, for ‘there are dangers in delay,’ and ‘the Súfí is the son of the moment.’” A son (child) does not withdraw his hand from the skirt of his father, and the Súfí's kind father, who is the “moment,” does not let him be reduced to the necessity of looking to the morrow (but) keeps him all the while absorbed, unlike the common folk, in (contemplation of) the garden of his (the father's) swift (immediate) reckoning. He (the Súfí) does not wait for the future. He is of the (timeless) River, not of Time, for “with God is neither morn nor eve”: there the past and the future and time without beginning and time without end do not exist: Adam is not prior nor is Dajjál (Antichrist) posterior. (All) these terms belong to the domain of the particular (discursive) reason and the animal soul: they are not (applicable) in the non-spatial and non-temporal world. Therefore he is the son of that “moment” by which is to be understood only a denial of the division of times (into several categories), just as (the statement) “God is One” is to be understood as a denial of duality, not as (expressing) the real nature of unity.
لابه کردن موش مر چغز را کی بهانه میندیش و در نسیه مینداز انجاح این حاجت مرا کی فی التاخیر آفات و الصوفی ابن الوقت و ابن دست از دامن پدر باز ندارد و اب مشفق صوفی کی وقتست او را بنگرش به فردا محتاج نگرداند چندانش مستغرق دارد در گلزار سریع الحسابی خویش نه چون عوام منتظر مستقبل نباشد نهری باشد نه دهری کی لا صباح عند الله و لا مساء ماضی و مستقبل و ازل و ابد آنجا نباشد آدم سابق و دجال مسبوق نباشد کی این رسوم در خطه‌ی عقل جز وی است و روح حیوانی در عالم لا مکان و لا زمان این رسوم نباشد پس او ابن وقتیست کی لا یفهم منه الا نفی تفرقة الا زمنة چنانک از الله واحد فهم شود نفی دوی نی حقیقت واحدی
A certain Khwája, accustomed to scatter (pieces of) silver, said to a Súfí, “O you for whose feet my soul is a carpet,
صوفیی را گفت خواجه‌ی سیم‌پاش ** ای قدمهای ترا جانم فراش
Would you like one dirhem to-day, my king, or three dirhems at breakfast-time to-morrow?”2715
یک درم خواهی تو امروز ای شهم ** یا که فردا چاشتگاهی سه درم
He replied, “I am more pleased with (the possession of) half a dirhem yesterday than with (the promise of) this (one dirhem) to-day and a hundred dirhems to-morrow.”
گفت دی نیم درم راضی‌ترم ** زانک امروز این و فردا صد درم
(The mouse said), “A slap (given) in cash (immediately) is better than a donation (paid) on credit (hereafter): lo, I put the nape of my neck before thee: give (me) the cash!
سیلی نقد از عطاء نسیه به ** نک قفا پیشت کشیدم نقد ده
Especially as the slap is from thy hand, for both the nape and the slap inflicted on it are intoxicated (enraptured) with thee.
خاصه آن سیلی که از دست توست ** که قفا و سیلیش مست توست
Hark, come, O soul of my soul and (O thou who art the soul) of a hundred worlds, gladly take the opportunity of (seizing) the cash of this (present) moment.
هین بیا ای جان جان و صد جهان ** خوش غنیمت دار نقد این زمان
Do not stealthily remove thy moon-like face from the night-travellers, do not withdraw thyself from this river-bed, O flowing water,2720
در مدزد آن روی مه از شب روان ** سرمکش زین جوی ای آب روان
(But flow) in order that the river-bank may laugh (may be made to blossom) by the running water, and that jasmines may rear their heads on each brim of the river.”
تا لب جو خندد از آب معین ** لب لب جو سر برآرد یاسمین
When you see that verdure is fresh on the river-brim, then (you may) know (even) from afar that water is there.
چون ببینی بر لب جو سبزه مست ** پس بدان از دور که آنجا آب هست
The Maker hath said, “Their mark is (on) their faces,” for the verdant orchard tells a tale of rain.
گفت سیماهم وجوه کردگار ** که بود غماز باران سبزه‌زار
If it rains during the night, no one sees (the rain), for (then) every soul and breath is asleep;
گر ببارد شب نبیند هیچ کس ** که بود در خواب هر نفس و نفس
(But) the freshness of every beauteous rose-garden is (clear) evidence of the rain (that was) hidden (from view).2725
تازگی هر گلستان جمیل ** هست بر باران پنهانی دلیل
(The mouse said), “O comrade, I am of the earth, thou art of the water; but thou art the king of mercy and munificence.
ای اخی من خاکیم تو آبیی ** لیک شاه رحمت و وهابیی
By way of (conferring) bounty and dispensing (favour) so act that I may attain to (the privilege of) serving thee early and late.
آن‌چنان کن از عطا و از قسم ** که گه و بی‌گه به خدمت می‌رسم