If thou gain access to that King, thou wilt become a king: how long wilt thou go after every (kind of) misfortune?”
گر بپیوندی بدان شه شه شوی ** سوی هر ادبار تا کی می‌‌روی
Companionship with kings is like the Elixir: indeed, how is an Elixir like (to be compared with) their looks (of favour)?
همنشینی مقبلان چون کیمیاست ** چون نظرشان کیمیایی خود کجاست
The eye of Ahmad (Mohammed) was cast upon an Abú Bakr: he by a single act of faith became a Siddíq.
چشم احمد بر ابو بکری زده ** او ز یک تصدیق صدیق آمده
Said the husband, “How should I go to meet the King? How should I go to him without a pretext?
گفت من شه را پذیرا چون شوم ** بی‌‌بهانه سوی او من چون روم
I must have some reference or device: is any handicraft right (possible) without tools?2690
نسبتی باید مرا یا حیلتی ** هیچ پیشه راست شد بی‌‌آلتی
As (to mention a similar case) the famous Majnún, when he heard from some one that Laylá was a little unwell,
همچو آن مجنون که بشنید از یکی ** که مرض آمد به لیلی اندکی
Cried, ‘Ah, how shall I go (to her) without a pretext? And if I fail to visit her when she is ill, how (wretched) shall I be!
گفت آوه بی‌‌بهانه چون روم ** ور بمانم از عیادت چون شوم
Would that I were a skilled physician! I would have gone on foot to Laylá first of all (before any one else).’
لیتنی کنت طبیبا حاذقا ** کنت أمشی نحو لیلی سابقا
God said to us, ‘Say, Come ye,’ in order to signify to us the (means of) vanquishing our feeling of shame.
قل تعالوا گفت حق ما را بدان ** تا بود شرم اشکنی ما را نشان
If bats had sight and means (ability to bear the sunshine), they would fly about and enjoy themselves by day.”2695
شب پران را گر نظر و آلت بدی ** روزشان جولان و خوش حالت بدی
The wife said, “When the gracious King goes into the field (maydán), the essence of every lack of means (inability) becomes a means (ability),
گفت چون شاه کرم میدان رود ** عین هر بی‌‌آلتی آلت شود
Because the means (ability) is (involves) pretension and self-existence: the (pith of the) matter lies in lack of means (inability) and non-existence.”
ز آن که آلت دعوی است و هستی است ** کار در بی‌‌آلتی و پستی است
“How,” said he, “should I do business without means, unless I make it manifest that I (really) have no means?
گفت کی بی‌‌آلتی سودا کنم ** تا نه من بی‌‌آلتی پیدا کنم
Therefore I must needs have attestation of my want of means, that the King who wants naught may take pity on me.
پس گواهی بایدم بر مفلسی ** تا شهم رحمی کند یا مونسی
Do thou produce some attestation besides talk and show, so that the beauteous King may take pity,2700
تو گواهی غیر گفت‌‌وگو و رنگ ** وانما تا رحم آرد شاه شنگ
For the testimony that consisted of talk and show was (ever) invalidated before that Supreme Judge.
کاین گواهی که ز گفت و رنگ بد ** نزد آن قاضی القضاة آن جرح شد
He requires truth (veracity) as witness to his (the indigent man's) state, so that his (inner) light shall shine forth (and proclaim his indigence) without any words of his.”
صدق می‌‌خواهد گواه حال او ** تا بتابد نور او بی‌‌قال او
How the Arab carried a jug of rain-water from the midst of the desert as a gift to the Commander of the Faithful at Baghdád, in the belief that in that town also there was a scarcity of water.
هدیه بردن عرب سبوی آب باران از میان بادیه سوی بغداد به نزد خلیفه بر پنداشت آن که آن جا هم قحط آب است
The wife said, “When with all thy might thou dost (endeavour to) rise up entirely purged of self-existence—that is veracity.
گفت زن صدق آن بود کز بود خویش ** پاک برخیزی تو از مجهود خویش
We have the rain-water in the jug: ’tis thy property and capital and means.
آب باران است ما را در سبو ** ملکت و سرمایه و اسباب تو
Take this jug of water and depart, make it a gift and go into the presence of the King of kings.2705
این سبوی آب را بردار و رو ** هدیه ساز و پیش شاهنشاه شو
Say, ‘We have no means except this: in the desert there is nothing better than this water.’
گو که ما را غیر این اسباب نیست ** در مفازه هیچ به زین آب نیست
If his treasury is full of splendid merchandise, (yet) he will have no water like this: ’tis rare.”
گر خزینه‌‌ش پر متاع فاخر است ** این چنین آبش نباشد نادر است
What is that jug? Our confined body: within it is the briny water of our senses.
چیست آن کوزه تن محصور ما ** اندر او آب حواس شور ما
O Lord, accept this jar and jug of mine by the grace of “God hath purchased (from the believers their lives and wealth in return for Paradise).”
ای خداوند این خم و کوزه‌‌ی مرا ** در پذیر از فضل الله اشتری
(’Tis) a jug with five spouts, the five senses: keep this water pure (and safe) from every filth,2710
کوزه‌‌ای با پنج لوله‌‌ی پنج حس ** پاک دار این آب را از هر نجس
That there may be from this jug a passage to the sea, and that my jug may assume the nature of the sea,
تا شود زین کوزه منفذ سوی بحر ** تا بگیرد کوزه‌‌ی من خوی بحر
So that when you carry it as a gift to the King, the King may find it pure and be its purchaser;
تا چو هدیه پیش سلطانش بری ** پاک بیند باشدش شه مشتری
(And) after that, its water will become without end: a hundred worlds will be filled from my jug.
بی‌‌نهایت گردد آبش بعد از آن ** پر شود از کوزه‌‌ی من صد جهان
Stop up its spouts and keep it filled (with water) from the jar (of Reality): God said, “Close your eyes to vain desire.”
لوله‌‌ها بر بند و پر دارش ز خم ** گفت غضوا عن هوا ابصارکم
His (the husband's) beard was full of wind (he was puffed up with pride): “Who (thought he) has such a gift as this? This, truly, is worthy of a King like him.”2715
ریش او پر باد کاین هدیه کراست ** لایق چون او شهی این است راست
The wife did not know that in that place (Baghdád) on the thoroughfare there is running the Tigris (whose water is) sweet as sugar,
زن نمی‌‌دانست کانجا بر گذر ** هست جاری دجله‌‌ی همچون شکر
Flowing like a sea through the city, full of boats and fishing-nets.
در میان شهر چون دریا روان ** پر ز کشتیها و شست ماهیان
Go to the Sultan and behold this pomp and state! Behold the senses of (those for whom God hath prepared gardens) beneath which the rivers flow!
رو بر سلطان و کار و بار بین ** حس تجری تحتها الأنهار بین
Our senses and perceptions, such as they are, are (but) a single drop in that pure river.
این چنین حسها و ادراکات ما ** قطره‌‌ای باشد در آن نهر صفا
How the Arab's wife sewed the jug of rain-water in a felt cloth and put a seal on it because of the Arab's utter conviction (that it was a precious gift for the King).
در نمد دوختن زن عرب سبوی آب باران را و مهر نهادن بر وی از غایت اعتقاد عرب
“Yes,” said the husband, “stop up the mouth of the jug. Take care, for this is a gift that will bring us profit.2720
مرد گفت آری سبو را سر ببند ** هین که این هدیه ست ما را سودمند
Sew this jug in felt, that the King may break his fast with our gift,
در نمد در دوز تو این کوزه را ** تا گشاید شه به هدیه روزه را
For there is no (water) like this in all the world: it is naught but pure wine and the source of pleasures (to the taste).”
کاین چنین اندر همه آفاق نیست ** جز رحیق و مایه‌‌ی اذواق نیست
(This he said) because they (people like him) are always full of infirmity and half-blind from (drinking) bitter and briny waters.
ز آن که ایشان ز آبهای تلخ و شور ** دایما پر علت‌‌اند و نیم کور
The bird whose dwelling-place is the briny water, how should it know where to find in it the clear (and sweet) water?
مرغ کآب شور باشد مسکنش ** او چه داند جای آب روشنش
O thou whose abode is in the briny spring, how shouldst thou know the Shatt and the Jayhún and the Euphrates?2725
ای که اندر چشمه‌ی شورست جان ** تو چه دانی شط و جیحون و فرات
O thou who hast not escaped from this fleeting caravanseray (the material world), how shouldst thou know (the meaning of) “self-extinction” and (mystical) “intoxication” and “expansion”?
ای تو نارسته از این فانی رباط ** تو چه دانی محو و سکر و انبساط
And if thou knowest, ’tis (by rote, like the knowledge) handed down to thee from father and grandfather: to thee these names are like abjad.
ور بدانی نقلت از اب وز جد است ** پیش تو این نامها چون ابجد است
How plain and evident to all children are abjad and hawwaz, and (yet) the real meaning is far away (hard to reach).
ابجد و هوز چه فاش است و پدید ** بر همه طفلان و معنی بس بعید
Then the Arab man took up the jug and set out to journey, carrying it along (with him) day and night.
پس سبو برداشت آن مرد عرب ** در سفر شد می‌‌کشیدش روز و شب
He was trembling for the jug, in fear of Fortune's mischiefs: all the same, he conveyed it from the desert to the city (Baghdád).2730
بر سبو لرزان بد از آفات دهر ** هم کشیدش از بیابان تا به شهر
His wife unrolled the prayer-rug in supplication; she made (the words) Rabbi sallim (Save, O Lord) her litany in prayer,
زن مصلا باز کرده از نیاز ** رب سلم ورد کرده در نماز
Crying, “Keep our water safe from scoundrels! O Lord, let that pearl arrive at that sea!
که نگه دار آب ما را از خسان ** یا رب آن گوهر بدان دریا رسان
Although my husband is shrewd and artful, yet the pearl has thousands of enemies.
گر چه شویم آگه است و پر فن است ** لیک گوهر را هزاران دشمن است
Pearl indeed! ’Tis the water of Kawthar: ’tis a drop of this that is the origin of the pearl.”
خود چه باشد گوهر آب کوثر است ** قطره‌‌ای زین است کاصل گوهر است
Through the prayers and lamentation of the wife, and through the husband's anxiety and his patience under the heavy burden,2735