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1
227-276

  • Like Ismá‘íl (Ishmael), lay your head before him; gladly and laughingly give up your soul before his dagger,
  • همچو اسماعیل پیشش سر بنه ** شاد و خندان پیش تیغش جان بده‌‌

  • In order that your soul may remain laughing unto eternity, like the pure soul of Ahmad (Mohammed) with the One (God).
  • تا بماند جانت خندان تا ابد ** همچو جان پاک احمد با احد

  • Lovers drain the cup of (spiritual) life at the moment when the fair ones slay them with their own hand.
  • عاشقان جام فرح آن گه کشند ** که به دست خویش خوبانشان کشند

  • The king did not commit that bloodshed because of lust: cease from thinking evil and disputing. 230
  • شاه آن خون از پی شهوت نکرد ** تو رها کن بد گمانی و نبرد

  • You thought that he committed a foul crime, (but) in (the state of) purity how should the sublimation leave (any) alloy (behind)?
  • تو گمان بردی که کرد آلودگی ** در صفا غش کی هلد پالودگی‌‌

  • The purpose of this (severe) discipline and this rough treatment is that the furnace may extract the dross from the silver.
  • بهر آن است این ریاضت وین جفا ** تا بر آرد کوره از نقره جفا

  • The testing of good and bad is in order that the gold may boil and bring the scum to the top.
  • بهر آن است امتحان نیک و بد ** تا بجوشد بر سر آرد زر زبد

  • If his act were not the inspiration of God, he would have been a dog that rends (its prey), not a king.
  • گر نبودی کارش الهام اله ** او سگی بودی دراننده نه شاه‌‌

  • He was unstained by lust and covetousness and passion: (what) he did (was) good, but good that wore the aspect of evil. 235
  • پاک بود از شهوت و حرص و هوا ** نیک کرد او لیک نیک بد نما

  • If Khadir stove the boat in the sea, (yet) in Khadir's staving there are a hundred rightnesses.
  • گر خضر در بحر کشتی را شکست ** صد درستی در شکست خضر هست‌‌

  • The imagination of Moses, notwithstanding his (spiritual) illumination and excellence, was screened from (the comprehension of) that (act of Khadir). Do not thou fly without wings!
  • وهم موسی با همه نور و هنر ** شد از آن محجوب، تو بی‌‌پر مپر

  • That (deed of the king) is a red rose (worthy of praise); do not call it blood (murder). He is intoxicated with Reason; do not call him a madman.
  • آن گل سرخ است تو خونش مخوان ** مست عقل است او تو مجنونش مخوان‌‌

  • Had it been his desire to shed the blood of a Moslem, I am an infidel if I would have mentioned his name (with praise).
  • گر بدی خون مسلمان کام او ** کافرم گر بردمی من نام او

  • The highest heaven trembles at praise of the wicked, and by praise of him the devout man is moved to think evil. 240
  • می‌‌بلرزد عرش از مدح شقی ** بد گمان گردد ز مدحش متقی‌‌

  • He was a king and a very heedful king; he was elect and the elect (favourite) of God.
  • شاه بود و شاه بس آگاه بود ** خاص بود و خاصه‌‌ی الله بود

  • One who is slain by a king like this, he (the king) leads him to fortune and to the best (most honourable) estate.
  • آن کسی را کش چنین شاهی کشد ** سوی بخت و بهترین جاهی کشد

  • Unless he (the king) had seen advantage to him (the goldsmith) in doing violence to him, how should that absolute Mercy have sought to do violence?
  • گر ندیدی سود او در قهر او ** کی شدی آن لطف مطلق قهر جو

  • The child trembles at the barber's scalpel (but) the fond mother is happy at that moment.
  • بچه می‌‌لرزد از آن نیش حجام ** مادر مشفق در آن غم شاد کام‌‌

  • He takes half a life and gives a hundred lives (in exchange): he gives that which enters not into your imagination. 245
  • نیم جان بستاند و صد جان دهد ** آن چه در وهمت نیاید آن دهد

  • You are judging (his actions) from (the analogy of) yourself, but you have fallen far, far (away from the truth). Consider well!
  • تو قیاس از خویش می‌‌گیری و لیک ** دور دور افتاده‌‌ای بنگر تو نیک‌‌

  • The story of the greengrocer and the parrot and the parrot's spilling the oil in the shop.
  • حکایت بقال و طوطی و روغن ریختن طوطی در دکان‌‌

  • There was a greengrocer who had a parrot, a sweet-voiced green talking parrot.
  • بود بقالی و وی را طوطیی ** خوش نوایی سبز و گویا طوطیی‌‌

  • (Perched) on the bench, it would watch over the shop (in the owner's absence) and talk finely to all the traders.
  • بر دکان بودی نگهبان دکان ** نکته گفتی با همه سوداگران‌‌

  • In addressing human beings it would speak (like them); it was (also) skilled in the song of parrots.
  • در خطاب آدمی ناطق بدی ** در نوای طوطیان حاذق بدی‌‌

  • (Once) it sprang from the bench and flew away; it spilled the bottles of rose-oil. 250
  • جست از سوی دکان سویی گریخت ** شیشه‌‌های روغن گل را بریخت‌‌

  • Its master came from the direction of his house and seated himself on the bench at his ease as a merchant does.
  • از سوی خانه بیامد خواجه‌‌اش ** بر دکان بنشست فارغ خواجه‌‌وش‌‌

  • (Then) he saw the bench was full of oil and his clothes greasy; he smote the parrot on the head: it was made bald by the blow.
  • دید پر روغن دکان و جامه چرب ** بر سرش زد گشت طوطی کل ز ضرب‌‌

  • For some few days it refrained from speech; the greengrocer, in repentance, heaved deep sighs,
  • روزکی چندی سخن کوتاه کرد ** مرد بقال از ندامت آه کرد

  • Tearing his beard and saying, “Alas! the sun of my prosperity has gone under the clouds.
  • ریش بر می‌‌کند و می‌‌گفت ای دریغ ** کافتاب نعمتم شد زیر میغ‌‌

  • Would that my hand had been broken (powerless) at the moment when I struck (such a blow) on the head of that sweet-tongued one?” 255
  • دست من بشکسته بودی آن زمان ** که زدم من بر سر آن خوش زبان‌‌

  • He was giving presents to every dervish, that he might get back the speech of his bird.
  • هدیه‌‌ها می‌‌داد هر درویش را ** تا بیابد نطق مرغ خویش را

  • After three days and three nights, he was seated on the bench, distraught and sorrowful, like a man in despair,
  • بعد سه روز و سه شب حیران و زار ** بر دکان بنشسته بد نومید وار

  • Showing the bird every sort of hidden (unfamiliar) thing (in the hope) that maybe it would begin to speak.
  • می‌‌نمود آن مرغ را هر گون شگفت ** تا که باشد کاندر آید او بگفت‌‌

  • Meanwhile a bare-headed dervish, clad in a jawlaq (coarse woollen frock), passed by, with a head hairless as the outside of bowl and basin.
  • جولقیی سر برهنه می‌‌گذشت ** با سر بی‌‌مو چو پشت طاس و طشت‌‌

  • Thereupon the parrot cried to the dervish, as rational persons (might have done). 260
  • طوطی اندر گفت آمد در زمان ** بانگ بر درویش زد که هی فلان‌‌

  • How were you mixed up with the bald, O baldpate? Did you, then, spill oil from the bottle?”
  • از چه ای کل با کلان آمیختی ** تو مگر از شیشه روغن ریختی‌‌

  • The bystanders laughed at the parrot's inference, because it deemed the wearer of the frock to be like itself.
  • از قیاسش خنده آمد خلق را ** کو چو خود پنداشت صاحب دلق را

  • Do not measure the actions of holy men by (the analogy of) yourself, though shér (lion) and shír (milk) are similar in writing.
  • کار پاکان را قیاس از خود مگیر ** گر چه ماند در نبشتن شیر و شیر

  • On this account the whole world is gone astray: scarcely any one is cognisant of God's Abdál (Substitutes).
  • جمله عالم زین سبب گمراه شد ** کم کسی ز ابدال حق آگاه شد

  • They set up (a claim of) equality with the prophets; they supposed the saints to be like themselves. 265
  • همسری با انبیا برداشتند ** اولیا را همچو خود پنداشتند

  • “Behold,” they said, “we are men, they are men; both we and they are in bondage to sleep and food.”
  • گفته اینک ما بشر ایشان بشر ** ما و ایشان بسته‌‌ی خوابیم و خور

  • In (their) blindness they did not perceive that there is an infinite difference between (them).
  • این ندانستند ایشان از عمی ** هست فرقی در میان بی‌‌منتها

  • Both species of zanbúr ate and drank from the (same) place, but from that one (the hornet) came a sting, and from this other (the bee) honey.
  • هر دو گون زنبور خوردند از محل ** لیک شد ز ان نیش و زین دیگر عسل‌‌

  • Both species of deer ate grass and drank water: from this one came dung, and from that one pure musk.
  • هر دو گون آهو گیا خوردند و آب ** زین یکی سرگین شد و ز ان مشک ناب‌‌

  • Both reeds drank from the same water-source, (but) this one is empty and that one full of sugar. 270
  • هر دو نی خوردند از یک آب خور ** این یکی خالی و آن پر از شکر

  • Consider hundreds of thousands of such likenesses and observe that the distance between the two is (as great as) a seventy years' journey.
  • صد هزاران این چنین اشباه بین ** فرقشان هفتاد ساله راه بین‌‌

  • This one eats, and filth is discharged from him; that one eats, and becomes entirely the light of God.
  • این خورد گردد پلیدی زو جدا ** آن خورد گردد همه نور خدا

  • This one eats, (and of him) is born nothing but avarice and envy; that one eats, (and of him) is born nothing but the Light of the One (God).
  • این خورد زاید همه بخل و حسد ** و آن خورد زاید همه نور احد

  • This one is good (fertile) soil and that one brackish and bad; this one is a fair angel and that one a devil and wild beast.
  • این زمین پاک و ان شوره ست و بد ** این فرشته‌‌ی پاک و ان دیو است و دد

  • If both resemble each other in aspect, it may well be (so): bitter water and sweet water have (the same) clearness. 275
  • هر دو صورت گر بهم ماند رواست ** آب تلخ و آب شیرین را صفاست‌‌

  • Who knows (the difference) except a man possessed of (spiritual) taste? Find (him): he knows the sweet water from the brine.
  • جز که صاحب ذوق کی شناسد بیاب ** او شناسد آب خوش از شوره آب‌‌