The fire did not set its teeth in Abraham: how should it bite him, since he is the chosen of God?
آتش ابراهیم را دندان نزد ** چون گزیده‌‌ی حق بود چونش گزد
The religious are not burned by the fire of lust which bore all the rest down to the bottom of the earth.
ز آتش شهوت نسوزد اهل دین ** باقیان را برده تا قعر زمین
The waves of the sea, when they charged on by God's command, discriminated the people of Moses from the Egyptians.
موج دریا چون به امر حق بتاخت ** اهل موسی را ز قبطی واشناخت
The earth, when the (Divine) command came, drew Qárún (Korah) with his gold and throne into its lowest depth.
خاک قارون را چو فرمان در رسید ** با زر و تختش به قعر خود کشید
The water and clay, when it fed on the breath of Jesus, spread wings and pinions, became a bird, and flew.865
آب و گل چون از دم عیسی چرید ** بال و پر بگشاد مرغی شد پرید
Your glorification (of God) is an exhalation from the water and clay (of your body): it became a bird of Paradise through the breathing (into it) of your heart's sincerity.
هست تسبیحت بخار آب و گل ** مرغ جنت شد ز نفخ صدق دل
Mount Mount Sinai, from (seeing) the radiance of Moses, began to dance, became a perfect Súfí, and was freed from blemish.
کوه طور از نور موسی شد به رقص ** صوفی کامل شد و رست او ز نقص
What wonder if the mountain became a venerable Súfí? The body of Moses also was (formed) from a piece of clay.
چه عجب گر کوه صوفی شد عزیز ** جسم موسی از کلوخی بود نیز
How the Jewish king scoffed and denied and would not accept the counsel of his intimates.
طنز و انکار کردن پادشاه جهود و قبول نکردن نصیحت خاصان خویش
The king of the Jews beheld these marvellous things, (but) he had naught (to say) except mockery and denial.
این عجایب دید آن شاه جهود ** جز که طنز و جز که انکارش نبود
His counsellors said, “Do not let (this injustice) go beyond bounds, do not drive the steed of obstinacy so far.”870
ناصحان گفتند از حد مگذران ** مرکب استیزه را چندین مران
He handcuffed the counsellors and confined them, he committed one injustice after another.
ناصحان را دست بست و بند کرد ** ظلم را پیوند در پیوند کرد
When the matter reached this pass, a shout came—“Hold thy foot (stop), O cur! For Our vengeance is come.”
بانگ آمد کار چون اینجا رسید ** پای دار ای سگ که قهر ما رسید
After that, the fire blazed up forty ells high, became a ring, and consumed those Jews.
بعد از آن آتش چهل گز بر فروخت ** حلقه گشت و آن جهودان را بسوخت
From fire was their origin in the beginning: they went (back) to their origin in the end.
اصل ایشان بود آتش ابتدا ** سوی اصل خویش رفتند انتها
That company were born of fire: the way of particulars is towards the universal.875
هم ز آتش زاده بودند آن فریق ** جزوها را سوی کل باشد طریق
They were only a fire to consume the true believers: their fire consumed itself like rubbish.
آتشی بودند مومن سوز و بس ** سوخت خود را آتش ایشان چو خس
He whose mother is Háwiya (Hell-fire)—Háwiya shall become his cell (abode).
آن که بوده ست امه الهاویه ** هاویه آمد مر او را زاویه
The mother of the child is (always) seeking it: the fundamentals pursue the derivatives.
مادر فرزند جویان وی است ** اصلها مر فرعها را در پی است
If water is imprisoned in a tank, the wind sucks it up, for it (the wind) belongs to the original (source):
آب اندر حوض اگر زندانی است ** باد نشفش می‌‌کند کار کانی است
It sets it free, it wafts it away to its source, little by little, so that you do not see its wafting;880
می‌‌رهاند می‌‌برد تا معدنش ** اندک اندک تا نبینی بردنش
And our souls likewise this breath (of ours) steals away, little by little, from the prison of the world.
وین نفس جانهای ما را همچنان ** اندک اندک دزدد از حبس جهان
The perfumes of our (good) words ascend even unto Him, ascending from us whither God knoweth.
Our breaths soar up with the choice (words), as a gift from us, to the abode of everlastingness;
ترتقی أنفاسنا بالمنتقی ** متحفا منا إلی دار البقا
Then comes to us the recompense of our speech, a double (recompense) thereof, as a mercy from (God) the Glorious;
ثم تاتینا مکافات المقال ** ضعف ذاک رحمة من ذی الجلال
Then He causes us to repair to (makes us utter) good words like those (already uttered), that His servant may obtain (something more) of what he has obtained.885
ثم یلجینا الی امثالها ** کی ینال العبد مما نالها
Thus do they (our good words) ascend while it (the Divine mercy) descends continually: mayst thou never cease to keep up that (ascent and descent)!
هکذا تعرج و تنزل دایما ** ذا فلا زلت علیه قائما
Let us speak Persian: the meaning is that this attraction (by which God draws the soul towards Himself) comes from the same quarter whence came that savour (spiritual delight experienced in and after prayer).
پارسی گوییم یعنی این کشش ** ز آن طرف آید که آمد آن چشش
The eyes of every set of people remain (turned) in the direction where one day they satisfied a (longing for) delight.
چشم هر قومی به سویی مانده است ** کان طرف یک روز ذوقی رانده است
The delight of (every) kind is certainly in its own kind (congener): the delight of the part, observe, is in its whole;
ذوق جنس از جنس خود باشد یقین ** ذوق جزو از کل خود باشد ببین
Or else, that (part) is surely capable of (attachment to) a (different) kind and, when it has attached itself thereto, becomes homogeneous with it,890
یا مگر آن قابل جنسی بود ** چون بدو پیوست جنس او شود
As (for instance) water and bread, which were not our congeners, became homogeneous with us and increased within us (added to our bulk and strength).
همچو آب و نان که جنس ما نبود ** گشت جنس ما و اندر ما فزود
Water and bread have not the appearance of being our congeners, (but) from consideration of the end (final result) deem them to be homogeneous (with us).
نقش جنسیت ندارد آب و نان ** ز اعتبار آخر آن را جنس دان
And if our delight is (derived) from something not homogeneous, that (thing) will surely resemble the congener.
ور ز غیر جنس باشد ذوق ما ** آن مگر مانند باشد جنس را
That which (only) bears a resemblance is a loan: a loan is impermanent in the end.
آن که مانند است باشد عاریت ** عاریت باقی نماند عاقبت
Although the bird is delighted by (the fowler's) whistle, it takes fright when it (sees him and) does not find its own congener.895
مرغ را گر ذوق آید از صفیر ** چون که جنس خود نیابد شد نفیر
Although the thirsty man is delighted by the mirage, he runs away when he comes up to it, and seeks for water.
تشنه را گر ذوق آید از سراب ** چون رسد در وی گریزد جوید آب
Moreover, the insolent are pleased with base gold, yet that (gold) is put to shame in the mint.
مفلسان هم خوش شوند از زر قلب ** لیک آن رسوا شود در دار ضرب
(Take heed) lest gildedness (imposture) cast you out of the (right) way, lest false imagination cast you into the well.
تا زر اندودیت از ره نفگند ** تا خیال کژ ترا چه نفگند
Seek the story (illustrating this) from (the book of) Kalíla (and Dimna), and search out the moral (contained) in the story.
از کلیله باز جو آن قصه را ** و اندر آن قصه طلب کن حصه را
Setting forth how the beasts of chase told the lion to trust in God and cease from exerting himself.
بیان توکل و ترک جهد گفتن نخجیران به شیر
A number of beasts of chase in a pleasant valley were continually harassed by a lion.900
طایفه‌‌ی نخجیر در وادی خوش ** بودشان از شیر دایم کش مکش
Inasmuch as the lion was (springing) from ambush and carrying them away, that pasturage had become unpleasant to them all.
بس که آن شیر از کمین درمی‌‌ربود ** آن چرا بر جمله ناخوش گشته بود
They made a plot: they came to the lion, saying, “We will keep thee full-fed by means of a (fixed) allowance.
حیله کردند آمدند ایشان بشیر ** کز وظیفه ما ترا داریم سیر
Henceforth do not come in quest of any prey in order that this grass may not become bitter to us.”
بعد از این اندر پی صیدی میا ** تا نگردد تلخ بر ما این گیا
How the lion answered the beasts and explained the advantage of exertion.
جواب گفتن شیر نخجیران را و فایده‌‌ی جهد گفتن
“Yes,” said he, “if I see (find) good faith (on your part), not fraud, for often have I seen (suffered) frauds from Zayd and Bakr.
گفت آری گر وفا بینم نه مکر ** مکرها بس دیده‌‌ام از زید و بکر
I am done to death by the cunning and fraud of men, I am bitten by the sting of (human) snake and scorpion;905
من هلاک فعل و مکر مردمم ** من گزیده‌‌ی زخم مار و کژدمم
(But) worse than all men in fraud and spite is the man of the flesh (nafs) lying in wait within me.
مردم نفس از درونم در کمین ** از همه مردم بتر در مکر و کین
My ear heard ‘The believer is not bitten (twice),’ and adopted (this) saying of the Prophet with heart and soul.”
گوش من لا یلدغ المؤمن شنید ** قول پیغمبر به جان و دل گزید
How the beasts asserted the superiority of trust in God to exertion and acquisition.
ترجیح نهادن نخجیران توکل را بر جهد و اکتساب
They all said: “O knowing sage, let precaution alone: it is of no avail against the Divine decree.
جمله گفتند ای حکیم با خبر ** الحذر دع لیس یغنی عن قدر
In precaution is the embroilment of broil and woe: go, put thy trust in God: trust in God is better.
در حذر شوریدن شور و شر است ** رو توکل کن توکل بهتر است
Do not grapple with Destiny, O fierce and furious one, lest Destiny also pick a quarrel with thee.910
با قضا پنجه مزن ای تند و تیز ** تا نگیرد هم قضا با تو ستیز