- Whoever beheld your face would become glad; the sight of you would be worth the empire of the world.”
- شاد گشتی هر که رویت دیدهیی ** دیدنت ملک جهان ارزیدیی
- He said, “O King, utter some hint of what that miscreant said about me.”
- گفت رمزی ز آن بگو ای پادشاه ** کز برای من بگفت آن دین تباه
- The King said, “In the first place he described you as double-faced, saying that you are ostensibly a remedy (but) secretly a disease.” 1010
- گفت اول وصف دو روییت کرد ** کاشکارا تو دوایی خفیه درد
- When he heard from the King the malice of his companion, at once the sea of his anger surged up.
- خبث یارش را چو از شه گوش کرد ** در زمان دریای خشمش جوش کرد
- That slave foamed and reddened, so that the billows of his vituperation exceeded (all) bounds.
- کف بر آورد آن غلام و سرخ گشت ** تا که موج هجو او از حد گذشت
- He said, “From the first moment that he was associated with me, he was a great eater of dung, like a dog in (time of) famine.”
- کاو ز اول دم که با من یار بود ** همچو سگ در قحط بس گه خوار بود
- As he satirised him in succession (without intermission), like a bell, the King put his hand on his (the slave's) lips, saying, “Enough!”
- چون دمادم کرد هجوش چون جرس ** دست بر لب زد شهنشاهش که بس
- He said, “I know you from him by that (which you have spoken): in you the spirit is foul, and in your companion (only) the mouth. 1015
- گفت دانستم ترا از وی بدان ** از تو جان گنده ست و از یارت دهان
- Therefore do you sit far off, O foul-spirited one, that he may be the commander and you under his command.”
- پس نشین ای گنده جان از دور تو ** تا امیر او باشد و مأمور تو
- It is (said) in the Hadíth (Traditions of the Prophet): “Know, sire, that glorification (of God) from hypocrisy is like the verdure on a midden.”
- در حدیث آمد که تسبیح از ریا ** همچو سبزهی گولخن دان ای کیا
- Know, then, that a fair and goodly form with bad qualities (within) is not worth a farthing;
- پس بدان که صورت خوب و نکو ** با خصال بد نیرزد یک تسو
- And though the form be despicable and unpleasing, (yet) when his (that person's) disposition is good, die at his feet!
- ور بود صورت حقیر و ناپذیر ** چون بود خلقش نکو در پاش میر
- Know that the outward form passes away, (but) the world of reality remains for ever. 1020
- صورت ظاهر فنا گردد بدان ** عالم معنی بماند جاودان
- How long will you play at loving the shape of the jug? Leave the shape of the jug; go, seek the water.
- چند بازی عشق با نقش سبو ** بگذر از نقش سبو رو آب جو
- You have seen its (outward) form, you are unaware of the reality; pick out from the shell a pearl, if you are wise.
- صورتش دیدی ز معنی غافلی ** از صدف دری گزین گر عاقلی
- These shells of bodies in the world, though they all are living by (grace of) the Sea of Soul—
- این صدفهای قوالب در جهان ** گر چه جمله زندهاند از بحر جان
- Yet there is not a pearl in every shell: open your eyes and look into the heart of each one,
- لیک اندر هر صدف نبود گهر ** چشم بگشا در دل هر یک نگر
- And pick out what that one has and what this, because that costly pearl is seldom found. 1025
- کان چه دارد وین چه دارد میگزین ** ز انکه کمیاب است آن در ثمین
- If you go (turn your attention) to the form, by external appearance a mountain is a hundred times as much as a ruby in bigness;
- گر به صورت میروی کوهی به شکل ** در بزرگی هست صد چندان که لعل
- Also, in respect of form, your hands and feet and hair are a hundred times as much as the contour of the eye;
- هم به صورت دست و پا و پشم تو ** هست صد چندان که نقش چشم تو
- But this (fact) is not hidden from you, that the two eyes are the choicest of all (your) members.
- لیک پوشیده نباشد بر تو این ** کز همه اعضا دو چشم آمد گزین
- By one thought that comes into the mind a hundred worlds are overturned in a single moment.
- از یک اندیشه که آید در درون ** صد جهان گردد به یک دم سر نگون
- If the body of the Sultan is, in form (appearance), one (only), (yet) hundreds of thousands of soldiers run behind (it). 1030
- جسم سلطان گر به صورت یک بود ** صد هزاران لشکرش در پی دود
- Again, the figure and form of the excellent King are ruled by one invisible thought.
- باز شکل و صورت شاه صفی ** هست محکوم یکی فکر خفی
- Behold people without end who, moved by one thought, have gone over the earth like a flood;
- خلق بیپایان ز یک اندیشه بین ** گشته چون سیلی روانه بر زمین
- Small is that thought in the people's eyes, but like a flood it swallowed and swept away the world.
- هست آن اندیشه پیش خلق خرد ** لیک چون سیلی جهان را خورد و برد
- So, when you see that from a thought every craft in the world (arises and) subsists—
- پس چو میبینی که از اندیشهای ** قایم است اندر جهان هر پیشهای
- (That) houses and palaces and cities, mountains and plains and rivers, 1035
- خانهها و قصرها و شهرها ** کوهها و دشتها و نهرها
- Earth and ocean as well as sun and sky, are living (derive their life) from it as fishes from the sea—
- هم زمین و بحر و هم مهر و فلک ** زنده از وی همچو کز دریا سمک
- Then why in your foolishness, O blind one, does the body seem to you a Solomon, and thought (only) as an ant?
- پس چرا از ابلهی پیش تو کور ** تن سلیمان است و اندیشه چو مور
- To your eye the mountain appears great: (to you) thought is like a mouse, and the mountain (like) a wolf.
- مینماید پیش چشمت که بزرگ ** هست اندیشه چو موش و کوه گرگ
- The (material) world in your eyes is awful and sublime: you tremble and are frightened at the clouds and the thunder and the sky,
- عالم اندر چشم تو هول و عظیم ** ز ابر و رعد و چرخ داری لرز و بیم
- While in regard to the world of thought, O less (lower) than the ass, you are secure and indifferent as a witless stone, 1040
- وز جهان فکرتی ای کم ز خر ** ایمن و غافل چو سنگ بیخبر
- Because you are a (mere) shape and have no portion of intelligence; you are not of human nature, you are an ass's colt.
- ز انکه نقشی وز خرد بیبهرهای ** آدمی خو نیستی خر کرهای
- From ignorance you deem the shadow to be the substance: hence to you the substance has become a plaything and of slight account.
- سایه را تو شخص میبینی ز جهل ** شخص از آن شد نزد تو بازی و سهل
- Wait till the Day when that thought and phantasy unfolds its wings and pinions without any veil (encumbrance).
- باش تا روزی که آن فکر و خیال ** بر گشاید بیحجابی پر و بال
- You will see that the mountains have become soft as wool, (and that) this Earth of hot and cold has become naught;
- کوهها بینی شده چون پشم نرم ** نیست گشته این زمین سرد و گرم
- You will see neither the sky nor the stars nor (any) existence but God, the One, the Living, the Loving. 1045
- نه سما بینی نه اختر نه وجود ** جز خدای واحد حی ودود
- Here is a tale, (be it) true or false, to illustrate (these) truths.
- یک فسانه راست آمد یا دروغ ** تا دهد مر راستیها را فروغ
- How the (King's) retainers envied the favourite slave.
- حسد کردن حشم بر غلام خاص
- A King had, of his grace, preferred a certain slave above all his retinue.
- پادشاهی بندهای را از کرم ** بر گزیده بود بر جمله حشم
- His allowance was the stipend of forty Amírs; a hundred Viziers would not see (receive) a tenth of its amount.
- جامگی او وظیفهی چل امیر ** ده یک قدرش ندیدی صد وزیر
- Through the perfection of (his) natal star and prosperity and fortune he was an Ayáz, while the King was the Mahmúd of the time.
- از کمال طالع و اقبال و بخت ** او ایازی بود و شه محمود وقت
- His spirit in its origin, before (the creation of) this body, was near-related and akin to the King's spirit. 1050
- روح او با روح شه در اصل خویش ** پیش از این تن بوده هم پیوند و خویش
- (Only) that matters which has existed before the body; leave (behind you) these things which have newly sprung into being.
- کار آن دارد که پیش از تن بده ست ** بگذر از اینها که نو حادث شده ست
- That which matters belongs to the knower (of God), for he is not squinting: his eye is (fixed) upon the things first sown.
- کار عارف راست کاو نه احول است ** چشم او بر کشتهای اول است
- That which was sown as wheat (good) or as barley (relatively evil)—day and night his eye is fastened on that place (where it was sown).
- آن چه گندم کاشتندش و آن چه جو ** چشم او آن جاست روز و شب گرو
- Night gave birth to nothing but what she was pregnant withal: designs and plots are wind, (empty) wind.
- آنچ آبست است شب جز آن نزاد ** حیلهها و مکرها باد است باد
- How should he please his heart with fair designs who sees the design of God (prevailing) over them? 1055
- کی کند دل خوش به حیلتهای گش ** آن که بیند حیلهی حق بر سرش
- He is within the snare (of God) and is laying a snare: by your life, neither that (snare) will escape (destruction) nor will this (man).
- او درون دام دامی مینهد ** جان تو نه این جهد نه آن جهد
- Though (in the meanwhile) a hundred herbs grow and fade, there will grow up at last that which God has sown.
- گر بروید ور بریزد صد گیاه ** عاقبت بر روید آن کشتهی اله