- Had Solomon possessed a bird like this, how indeed should he have become occupied with those (other) birds?
- گر سلیمان را چنین مرغی بدی ** کی خود او مشغول آن مرغان شدی
- Oh, alas for the bird which I gained cheaply, and (so) soon turned my face away from her countenance!
- ای دریغا مرغ کارزان یافتم ** زود روی از روی او بر تافتم
- O tongue, thou art a great damage (very injurious) to mankind, (but) since thou art speaking, what should I say to thee?
- ای زبان تو بس زیانی بر وری ** چون تویی گویا چه گویم من ترا
- O tongue, thou art both the fire and the stack: how long wilt thou dart this fire upon this stack? 1700
- ای زبان هم آتش و هم خرمنی ** چند این آتش در این خرمن زنی
- Secretly my soul is groaning because of thee, although it is doing whatsoever thou biddest it.
- در نهان جان از تو افغان میکند ** گر چه هر چه گوییاش آن میکند
- O tongue, thou art a treasure without end. O tongue, thou art also a disease without remedy.
- ای زبان هم گنج بیپایان تویی ** ای زبان هم رنج بیدرمان تویی
- Thou art at once a whistle and decoy for birds, and a comforter in the desolation of absence (from the Beloved).
- هم صفیر و خدعهی مرغان تویی ** هم انیس وحشت هجران تویی
- How long wilt thou grant me mercy, O merciless one, O thou who hast drawn the bow to take vengeance on me?
- چند امانم میدهی ای بیامان ** ای تو زه کرده به کین من کمان
- Lo, thou hast made my bird fly away. Do not browse (any more) in the pasture of injustice! 1705
- نک بپرانیده ای مرغ مرا ** در چراگاه ستم کم کن چرا
- Either answer me or give redress or mention to me (what will be) the means of (producing) joy.
- یا جواب من بگو یا داد ده ** یا مرا ز اسباب شادی یاد ده
- Oh, alas for my darkness-consuming light! Oh, alas for my day-enkindling dawn!
- ای دریغا نور ظلمت سوز من ** ای دریغا صبح روز افروز من
- Oh, alas for my bird of goodly flight, that has flown from my end (my last state) to my beginning (my first state).
- ای دریغا مرغ خوش پرواز من ** ز انتها پریده تا آغاز من
- The ignorant man is in love with pain unto everlasting. Arise and read (in the Qur’án) I swear as far as (the words) in trouble.
- عاشق رنج است نادان تا ابد ** خیز لا أقسم بخوان تا فی کبد
- With thy face I was free from trouble, and in thy river I was unsoiled by froth. 1710
- از کبد فارغ بدم با روی تو ** وز زبد صافی بدم در جوی تو
- These cries of ‘Alas’ are (caused by) the phantasy (idea) of seeing (the Beloved) and (by) separation from my present existence.
- این دریغاها خیال دیدن است ** وز وجود نقد خود ببریدن است
- ’Twas the jealousy of God, and there is no device against God: where is a heart that is not (shattered) in a hundred pieces by God's love?
- غیرت حق بود و با حق چاره نیست ** کو دلی کز حکم حق صد پاره نیست
- The jealousy (of God) is this, that He is other than all things, that He is beyond explanation and the noise of words.
- غیرت آن باشد که او غیر همه ست ** آن که افزون از بیان و دمدمه ست
- Oh, alas! Would that my tears were an ocean, that they might be strewn as an offering to the fair charmer!
- ای دریغا اشک من دریا بدی ** تا نثار دل بر زیبا بدی
- My parrot, my clever-headed bird, the interpreter of my thought and inmost consciousness, 1715
- طوطی من مرغ زیرکسار من ** ترجمان فکرت و اسرار من
- She has told me from the first, that I might remember it, whatsoever should come to me as my allotted portion of right and wrong.”
- هر چه روزی داد و ناداد آیدم ** او ز اول گفته تا یاد آیدم
- The parrot whose voice comes from (Divine) inspiration and whose beginning was before the beginning of existence—
- طوطیی کاید ز وحی آواز او ** پیش از آغاز وجود آغاز او
- That parrot is hidden within thee: thou hast seen the reflexion of her upon this and that (the things of the phenomenal world).
- اندرون تست آن طوطی نهان ** عکس او را دیده تو بر این و آن
- She takes away thy joy, and because of her thou art rejoicing: thou receivest injury from her as though it were justice.
- میبرد شادیت را تو شاد از او ** میپذیری ظلم را چون داد از او
- O thou who wert burning the soul for the body's sake, thou hast burned (destroyed) the soul and illumined (delighted) the body. 1720
- ای که جان را بهر تن میسوختی ** سوختی جان را و تن افروختی
- I am burning (with love of God): does any one want tinder, let him set his rubbish ablaze with fire from me.
- سوختم من سوخته خواهد کسی ** تا ز من آتش زند اندر خسی
- Inasmuch as tinder is combustible, take tinder that catches fire (readily).
- سوخته چون قابل آتش بود ** سوخته بستان که آتش کش بود
- O alas, O alas, O alas that such a moon became hidden under the clouds!
- ای دریغا ای دریغا ای دریغ ** کانچنان ماهی نهان شد زیر میغ
- How should I utter a word?—for the fire in my heart is grown fierce, the lion of separation (from the Beloved) has become raging and blood-shedding.
- چون زنم دم کاتش دل تیز شد ** شیر هجر آشفته و خون ریز شد
- One that even when sober is violent and furious, how will it be when he takes the wine-cup in his hand? 1725
- آن که او هوشیار خود تند است و مست ** چون بود چون او قدح گیرد به دست
- The furious Lion who is beyond description is too great for (cannot be contained in) the wide expanse of the meadow.
- شیر مستی کز صفت بیرون بود ** از بسیط مرغزار افزون بود
- I am thinking of rhymes, and my Sweetheart says to me, “Do not think of aught except vision of Me.
- قافیه اندیشم و دل دار من ** گویدم مندیش جز دیدار من
- Sit at thy ease, My rhyme-meditating (friend): in My presence thou art rhymed with (attached to) felicity.
- خوش نشین ای قافیه اندیش من ** قافیهی دولت تویی در پیش من
- What are words that thou shouldst think of them? What are words? Thorns in the hedge of the vineyard.
- حرف چه بود تا تو اندیشی از آن ** حرف چه بود خار دیوار رزان
- I will throw word and sound and speech into confusion, that without these three I may converse with thee. 1730
- حرف و صوت و گفت را بر هم زنم ** تا که بیاین هر سه با تو دم زنم
- That word which I kept hidden from Adam I will speak to thee, O (thou who art the) consciousness of the world.
- آن دمی کز آدمش کردم نهان ** با تو گویم ای تو اسرار جهان
- (I will tell to thee) that word which I did not communicate to Abraham, and that pain (love) which Gabriel does not know.”
- آن دمی را که نگفتم با خلیل ** و آن غمی را که نداند جبرئیل
- That word of which the Messiah (Jesus) breathed not a word God, from jealousy, did not utter even without má.
- آن دمی کز وی مسیحا دم نزد ** حق ز غیرت نیز بیما هم نزد
- What is má in language? Positive and negative. I am not positive, I am selfless and negated.
- ما چه باشد در لغت اثبات و نفی ** من نه اثباتم منم بیذات و نفی
- I found (true) individuality in non-individuality: therefore I wove (my) individuality into non-individuality. 1735
- من کسی در ناکسی دریافتم ** پس کسی در ناکسی دربافتم
- All kings are enslaved to their slaves, all people are dead (ready to die) for one who dies for them.
- جمله شاهان بندهی بندهی خودند ** جمله خلقان مردهی مردهی خودند
- All kings are prostrate before one who is prostrate before them, all people are intoxicated with (love for) one who is intoxicated with them.
- جمله شاهان پست، پست خویش را ** جمله خلقان مست، مست خویش را
- The fowler becomes a prey to the birds in order that of a sudden he may make them his prey.
- میشود صیاد، مرغان را شکار ** تا کند ناگاه ایشان را شکار
- Heart-ravishers (loved ones) seek with (all their) soul those who have lost their hearts (to them): all loved ones are the prey of (their) lovers.
- بیدلان را دلبران جسته به جان ** جمله معشوقان شکار عاشقان
- Whomsoever thou didst deem to be a lover, regard (him) as the loved one, for relatively he is both this and that. 1740
- هر که عاشق دیدیاش معشوق دان ** کو به نسبت هست هم این و هم آن
- If they that are thirsty seek water from the world, (yet) water too seeks in the world them that are thirsty.
- تشنگان گر آب جویند از جهان ** آب جوید هم به عالم تشنگان
- Inasmuch as He is (thy) lover, do thou be silent: as He is pulling thine ear, be thou (all) ear.
- چون که عاشق اوست تو خاموش باش ** او چو گوشت میکشد تو گوش باش
- Dam the torrent (of ecstasy) when it runs in flood; else it will work shame and ruin.
- بند کن چون سیل سیلانی کند ** ور نه رسوایی و ویرانی کند
- What care I though ruin be (wrought)? Under the ruin there is a royal treasure.
- من چه غم دارم که ویرانی بود ** زیر ویران گنج سلطانی بود
- He that is drowned in God wishes to be more drowned, (while) his spirit (is tossed) up and down like the waves of the sea, 1745
- غرق حق خواهد که باشد غرقتر ** همچو موج بحر جان زیر و زبر
- (Asking), “Is the bottom of the sea more delightful, or the top? Is His (the Beloved's) arrow more fascinating, or the shield?”
- زیر دریا خوشتر آید یا زبر ** تیر او دل کش تر آید یا سپر