Alas, O (dear) soul, (that) on account of (thy greed for) bread such (admirable) keys are always dropping from thy fingers!
آنچنان مفتاحها هر دم بنان ** میفتد ای جان دریغا از بنان
And if for a moment thou art relieved from preoccupation with bread, thou danglest about the chádar and (givest thyself up to) thy passion for women;
ور دمی هم فارغ آرندت ز نان ** گرد چادر گردی و عشق زنان
And then, when (the sea of) thy dropsy (lust) breaks into billows, thou must needs have under thy sway a (whole) city full of bread and women.4655
باز استسقات چون شد موجزن ** ملک شهری بایدت پر نان و زن
(At first) thou wert (only) a snake: (now) indeed thou hast become a dragon. Thou hadst (only) one head: now thou hast seven heads.
مار بودی اژدها گشتی مگر ** یک سرت بود این زمانی هفتسر
Hell is a seven-headed dragon: thy greed is the bait and Hell the snare.
اژدهای هفتسر دوزخ بود ** حرص تو دانهست و دوزخ فخ بود
Pull the snare to pieces, burn the bait, open new doors in this (bodily) tenement!
دام را بدران بسوزان دانه را ** باز کن درهای نو این خانه را
O sturdy beggar, unless thou art a lover (of God), thou hast (only) an echo, like the unconscious mountain.
چون تو عاشق نیستی ای نرگدا ** همچو کوهی بیخبر داری صدا
How should the mountain possess a voice of its own? The echo is reflected from another, O trusty man.4660
کوه را گفتار کی باشد ز خود ** عکس غیرست آن صدا ای معتمد
In the same fashion as thy speech is the reflexion of another, so all thy feelings are nothing but a reflexion.
گفت تو زان سان که عکس دیگریست ** جمله احوالت به جز هم عکس نیست
Both thy anger and thy pleasure are (only) reflected from others, (like) the joy of the procuress and the rage of the night-patrol.
خشم و ذوقت هر دو عکس دیگران ** شادی قواده و خشم عوان
Pray, what (harm) did that poor fellow do to the night-patrol that he should punish and torment him in revenge?
آن عوان را آن ضعیف آخر چه کرد ** که دهد او را به کینه زجر و درد
How long (wilt thou follow) the glittering phantom reflected (from another)?Strive to make this (experience) actual for thyself,
تا بکی عکس خیال لامعه ** جهد کن تا گرددت این واقعه
So that thy words will be (prompted) by thy immediate feelings, and thy flight will be made with thine own wings and pinions.4665
تا که گفتارت ز حال تو بود ** سیر تو با پر و بال تو بود
’Tis with alien feathers that the arrow captures its prey; consequently it gets no share of the bird's flesh;
صید گیرد تیر هم با پر غیر ** لاجرم بیبهره است از لحم طیر
(But) the falcon brings its quarry from the mountains itself; consequently the king lets it eat partridge and starling.
باز صید آرد به خود از کوهسار ** لاجرم شاهش خوراند کبک و سار
The speech that is not (derived) from (Divine) inspiration springs from self-will: it is like dust (floating) in the air and among the motes (in the sunbeams).
منطقی کز وحی نبود از هواست ** همچو خاکی در هوا و در هباست
If this saying appear to the Khwája to be erroneous, recite a few lines at the beginning of (the Súra) Wa’l-Najm.
گر نماید خواجه را این دم غلط ** ز اول والنجم بر خوان چند خط
Down to (the words), Mohammed does not speak from self-will: ’tis only (a speech) gained by inspiration.4670
تا که ما ینطق محمد عن هوی ** ان هو الا بوحی احتوی
O Ahmad (Mohammed), since thou despairest not of (receiving) inspiration, leave investigation and conjecture to the corporealists;
احمدا چون نیستت از وحی یاس ** جسمیان را ده تحری و قیاس
For in case of necessity a carcase is lawful (food), but there is no need to investigate (when one is) in the Ka‘ba of union.
کز ضرورت هست مرداری حلال ** که تحری نیست در کعبهی وصال
Whosoever wilfully adopts a heresy without investigation and the utmost efforts to discover the right way,
بیتحری و اجتهادات هدی ** هر که بدعت پیشه گیرد از هوی
The wind (of self-will) will lift him up and kill him, like (the people of) ‘Ád: he is no Solomon that it should waft his throne along.
همچو عادش بر برد باد و کشد ** نه سلیمانست تا تختش کشد
For ‘Ád (and those like them) the wind is a treacherous carrier: (they are) as a lamb in the hands of a glutton,4675
عاد را با دست حمال خذول ** همچو بره در کف مردی اکول
Which he lays in his lap as though it were his own child and carries away to slaughter like a butcher.
همچو فرزندش نهاده بر کنار ** میبرد تا بکشدش قصابوار
That wind was (the punishment) for ‘Ád because of their pride: they indeed deemed it a friend, (but) it was (really) a stranger (foe).
عاد را آن باد ز استکبار بود ** یار خود پنداشتند اغیار بود