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2
1516-1565

  • On account of the pleasure with which he ate (it), he gave him a second (slice), (and went on) till the slices (given him) reached the seventeenth.
  • از خوشی که خورد داد او را دوم ** تا رسید آن گرچها تا هفدهم‏

  • One slice remained. He said, “I will eat this (myself), so that I may see what a sweet melon this is.
  • ماند گرچی گفت این را من خورم ** تا چه شیرین خربزه ست این بنگرم‏

  • He (Luqmán) eats it with such pleasure that from his delight (all) natures have become eager and craving the morsel.”
  • او چنین خوش می‏خورد کز ذوق او ** طبعها شد مشتهی و لقمه جو

  • As soon as he (the master) ate it, by its sourness there was kindled fire (which) blistered his tongue and burnt his throat.
  • چون بخورد از تلخیش آتش فروخت ** هم زبان کرد آبله هم حلق سوخت‏

  • He became beside himself for a while on account of its sourness; after that, he said to him, “O (you who are) soul and world, 1520
  • ساعتی بی‏خود شد از تلخی آن ** بعد از آن گفتش که ای جان و جهان‏

  • How did you make all this poison an antidote? How did you deem this cruelty to be kindness?
  • نوش چون کردی تو چندین زهر را ** لطف چون انگاشتی این قهر را

  • What patience is this? For what reason is this great fortitude? Or, perchance, in your opinion this life of yours is an enemy (which you would fain destroy).
  • این چه صبر است این صبوری از چه روست ** یا مگر پیش تو این جانت عدوست‏

  • Why did not you cunningly bring (forward) a plea, saying, ‘I have an excuse (for declining to eat): desist for a while’.”
  • چون نیاوردی به حیلت حجتی ** که مرا عذری است بس کن ساعتی‏

  • Luqmán said, “From thy munificent hand I have eaten so much that I am (bent) double with shame.
  • گفت من از دست نعمت بخش تو ** خورده‏ام چندان که از شرمم دو تو

  • I was ashamed not to eat one bitter thing from thy hand, O thou who art possessed of knowledge. 1525
  • شرمم آمد که یکی تلخ از کفت ** من ننوشم ای تو صاحب معرفت‏

  • Since all parts of me have grown from thy bounty and are plunged in thy bait and snare—
  • چون همه اجزام از انعام تو ** رسته‏اند و غرق دانه و دام تو

  • If I make outcry and complaint because of one bitter thing, may the dust of a hundred roads be on (all) parts of me!
  • گر ز یک تلخی کنم فریاد و داد ** خاک صد ره بر سر اجزام باد

  • It (the melon) had the enjoyment of thy sugar-bestowing hand: how could it (such enjoyment) leave any bitterness in this melon?”
  • لذت دست شکر بخشت بداشت ** اندر این بطیخ تلخی کی گذاشت‏

  • By love bitter things become sweet; by love pieces of copper become golden;
  • از محبت تلخها شیرین شود ** از محبت مسها زرین شود

  • By love dregs become clear; by love pains become healing; 1530
  • از محبت دردها صافی شود ** از محبت دردها شافی شود

  • By love the dead is made living; by love the king is made a slave.
  • از محبت مرده زنده می‏کنند ** از محبت شاه بنده می‏کنند

  • This love, moreover, is the result of knowledge: who (ever) sat in foolishness on such a throne?
  • این محبت هم نتیجه‏ی دانش است ** کی گزافه بر چنین تختی نشست‏

  • On what occasion did deficient knowledge give birth to this love? Deficient (knowledge) gives birth to love, but (only love) for that which is (really) lifeless.
  • دانش ناقص کجا این عشق زاد ** عشق زاید ناقص اما بر جماد

  • When it sees in a lifeless being the colour (appearance) of a desired one, (’tis as though) it heard the voice of a beloved in a whistle.
  • بر جمادی رنگ مطلوبی چو دید ** از صفیری بانگ محبوبی شنید

  • Deficient knowledge cannot discriminate: of necessity it deems the lightning to be the sun. 1535
  • دانش ناقص نداند فرق را ** لاجرم خورشید داند برق را

  • When the Prophet called the “deficient” (man) accursed, (his meaning) as interpreted was “deficiency of mind,”
  • چون که ملعون خواند ناقص را رسول ** بود در تاویل نقصان عقول‏

  • Because one whose body is deficient is the object of (Divine) mercy: cursing and repulse (directed) against the object of (Divine) mercy are improper.
  • ز انکه ناقص تن بود مرحوم رحم ** نیست بر مرحوم لایق لعن و زخم‏

  • ’Tis deficiency of mind that is the bad disease: it is the cause of (God's) curse and merits banishment (from His presence),
  • نقص عقل است آن که بد رنجوری است ** موجب لعنت سزای دوری است‏

  • Forasmuch as the perfecting of minds is not remote (impossible), but the perfecting of the body is not within our power.
  • ز انکه تکمیل خردها دور نیست ** لیک تکمیل بدن مقدور نیست‏

  • The miscreance and Pharaoh-like pride of every infidel who is far (from God) have all been produced by deficiency of mind. 1540
  • کفر و فرعونی هر گبر بعید ** جمله از نقصان عقل آمد پدید

  • Relief for bodily deficiency has come in the (words of the) Qur’án—it is no crime in the blind man.
  • بهر نقصان بدن آمد فرج ** در نبی که ما علی الاعمی حرج‏

  • Lightning is transient and very faithless: without clearness (of mind) you will not know the transient from the permanent.
  • برق آفل باشد و بس بی‏وفا ** آفل از باقی ندانی بی‏صفا

  • The lightning laughs: say, at whom is it laughing? At him that sets his heart upon its light.
  • برق خندد بر که می‏خندد بگو ** بر کسی که دل نهد بر نور او

  • The lights of the sky are hamstrung (feeble and imperfect): how are they like (that Light which is) neither of the east nor of the west?
  • نورهای چرخ ببریده پی است ** آن چو لا شرقی و لا غربی کی است‏

  • Know that the nature of lightning is that it taketh away the sight; regard the everlasting Light as entirely Helpers (to the attainment of vision). 1545
  • برق را چون یخطف الأبصار دان ** نور باقی را همه انصار دان‏

  • To ride (your) horse upon the foam of the sea, to read a letter in a flash of lightning,
  • بر کف دریا فرس را راندن ** نامه‏ای در نور برقی خواندن‏

  • Is, to fail, because of covetousness, to see the end; it is, to laugh at your own mind and intellect.
  • از حریصی عاقبت نادیدن است ** بر دل و بر عقل خود خندیدن است‏

  • Intellect, by its proper nature, is a seer of the end (consequence); ’tis the fleshly soul that does not see the end.
  • عاقبت بین است عقل از خاصیت ** نفس باشد کاو نبیند عاقبت‏

  • The intellect that is vanquished by the flesh becomes the flesh: Jupiter is checkmated by Saturn and becomes inauspicious.
  • عقل کاو مغلوب نفس او نفس شد ** مشتری مات زحل شد نحس شد

  • Still, turn this gaze (of yours) upon this inauspiciousness, look on that One who made you ill-starred. 1550
  • هم درین نحسی بگردان این نظر ** در کسی که کرد نحست درنگر

  • The gaze (of him) that surveys this ebb and flow pierces from the inauspicious influence to the auspicious.
  • آن نظر که بنگرد این جر و مد ** او ز نحسی سوی سعدی نقب زد

  • He (God) continually turns you from one state (of feeling) to another, manifesting opposite by means of opposite in the change,
  • ز آن همی‏گرداندت حالی به حال ** ضد به ضد پیدا کنان در انتقال‏

  • For the purpose that fear of the left hand side may bring to birth in you the delight of “He causes the (blessed) men to hope for the right hand side,”
  • تا که خوفت زاید از ذات الشمال ** لذت ذات الیمین یرجی الرجال‏

  • So that you may have two wings (fear and hope); for the bird that has (only) one wing is unable to fly, O excellent (reader).
  • تا دو پر باشی که مرغ یک پره ** عاجز آید از پریدن ای سره‏

  • (O God), either let me not come to speech (at all), or give me leave to tell (the whole) to the end. 1555
  • یا رها کن تا نیایم در کلام ** یا بده دستور تا گویم تمام‏

  • But if Thou willest neither this nor that, ’tis Thine to command: how should any one know what Thou intendest?
  • ور نه این خواهی نه آن فرمان تراست ** کس چه داند مر ترا مقصد کجاست‏

  • One must needs have the spirit of Abraham to see in the fire Paradise and its palaces by the light (of mystic knowledge);
  • جان ابراهیم باید تا به نور ** بیند اندر نار فردوس و قصور

  • And mount step by step above the moon and the sun, lest he remain like the door-ring fastened on the door;
  • پایه پایه بر رود بر ماه و خور ** تا نماند همچو حلقه بند در

  • And, like the Friend, pass beyond the Seventh Heaven, saying, “I love not them that set.”
  • چون خلیل از آسمان هفتمین ** بگذرد که لا أحب الآفلین‏

  • This bodily world is deceptive, save to him that has escaped from lust. 1560
  • این جهان تن غلط انداز شد ** جز مر آن را کاو ز شهوت باز شد

  • Conclusion of (the story) how the (other) retainers envied the favourite slave.
  • تتمه‏ی حسد آن حشم بر آن غلام خاص‏

  • The story of the King and the amirs and their envy of the favourite slave and lord of wisdom
  • قصه‏ی شاه و امیران و حسد ** بر غلام خاص و سلطان خرد

  • Has been left far (behind) on account of the powerful attraction of the discourse.(Now) we must turn back and conclude it.
  • دور ماند از جر جرار کلام ** باز باید گشت و کرد آن را تمام‏

  • The happy and fortunate gardener of the (Divine) kingdom — how should not he know one tree from another?
  • باغبان ملک با اقبال و بخت ** چون درختی را نداند از درخت‏

  • The tree that is bitter and reprobate, and the tree whose one is (as) seven hundred (of the other)—
  • آن درختی را که تلخ و رد بود ** و آن درختی که یکش هفصد بود

  • How, in rearing (them), should he deem (them) equal, when he beholds them with the eye (that is conscious) of the end, 1565
  • کی برابر دارد اندر تربیت ** چون ببیندشان به چشم عاقبت‏