If any one has an allowance of four loaves and eats two or three, that is the mean;
هر که را باشد وظیفه چار نان ** دو خورد یا سه خورد هست اوسط آن
But if he eat all the four, it is far from the mean: he is in bondage to greed, like a duck.
ور خورد هر چار دور از اوسط است ** او اسیر حرص مانند بط است
If one has appetite for ten loaves and eats six, know that that is the mean.3535
هر که او را اشتها ده نان بود ** شش خورد میدان که اوسط آن بود
When I have appetite for fifty loaves, and you for (no more than) six scones, we are not equivalent.
چون مرا پنجاه نان هست اشتهی ** مر ترا شش گرده هم دستیم نی
You may be tired by ten rak‘as (of prayer), I may not be worn thin by five hundred.
تو به ده رکعت نماز آیی ملول ** من به پانصد در نیایم در نحول
One goes bare-foot (all the way) to the Ka‘ba, and one becomes beside himself (with exhaustion in going) as far as the mosque.
آن یکی تا کعبه حافی میرود ** و آن یکی تا مسجد از خود میشود
One in utter self-devotion gives his life, one is agonised at giving a single loaf.
آن یکی در پاکبازی جان بداد ** وین یکی جان کند تا یک نان بداد
This mean belongs to (the realm of) the finite, for that (finite) has a beginning and end.3540
این وسط در با نهایت میرود ** که مرا آن را اول و آخر بود
A beginning and end are necessary in order that the mean or middle (point) between them may be conceived in imagination.
اول و آخر بباید تا در آن ** در تصور گنجد اوسط یا میان
Inasmuch as the infinite has not (these) two limits, how should the mean be applicable to it?
بینهایت چون ندارد دو طرف ** کی بود او را میانه منصرف
No one has shown it to have beginning or end. He (God) said, ‘If the sea were to become ink for it (the Word of God)…’
اول و آخر نشانش کس نداد ** گفت لو کان له البحر مداد
If the Seven Seas should become entirely ink, (still) there is no hope of coming to an end.
هفت دریا گر شود کلی مداد ** نیست مر پایان شدن را هیچ امید
If orchards and forests should become pens altogether, there would never be any decrease in this Word.3545
باغ و بیشه گر بود یک سر قلم ** زین سخن هرگز نگردد هیچ کم
All that ink and (all those) pens pass away, and this numberless Word is everlasting.
آن همه حبر و قلم فانی شود ** وین حدیث بیعدد باقی بود
At times my state resembles sleep: a misguided person may think it is sleep.
حالت من خواب را ماند گهی ** خواب پندارد مر آن را گمرهی
Know that my eyes are asleep, (but) my heart is awake: know that my (seemingly) inactive form is (really) in action.
چشم من خفته دلم بیدار دان ** شکل بیکار مرا بر کار دان
The Prophet said, ‘My eyes sleep, (but) my heart is not asleep to the Lord of created beings.’
گفت پیغمبر که عینای تنام ** لا ینام قلبی عن رب الأنام
Your eyes are awake, and your heart is sunk in slumber; my eyes are asleep, (but) my heart is in (contemplation of) the opening of the door (of Divine grace).3550
چشم تو بیدار و دل خفته به خواب ** چشم من خفته دلم در فتح باب
My heart hath five senses other (than the physical): both the worlds (external and spiritual) are the stage (theatre) for the senses of the heart.
مر دلم را پنج حس دیگر است ** حس دل را هر دو عالم منظر است
Do not regard me from (the standpoint of) your infirmity: to you ’tis night, to me that same night is morningtide.
تو ز ضعف خود مکن در من نگاه ** بر تو شب بر من همان شب چاشتگاه
To you ’tis prison, to me that prison is like a garden: to me the most absolute state of occupation (with the world) has become (a state of spiritual) freedom.
بر تو زندان بر من آن زندان چو باغ ** عین مشغولی مرا گشته فراغ
Your feet are in the mud; to me the mud has become roses. You have mourning; I have feasting and drums.
پای تو در گل مرا گل گشته گل ** مر ترا ماتم مرا سور و دهل
(Whilst) I am dwelling with you in some place on the earth, I am coursing over the seventh sphere (of Heaven), like Saturn.3555
در زمینم با تو ساکن در محل ** میدوم بر چرخ هفتم چون زحل
’Tis not I that am seated beside you, ’tis my shadow: my rank is higher than (the reach of) thoughts,
همنشینت من نیم سایهی من است ** برتر از اندیشهها پایهی من است
Because I have passed beyond (all) thoughts, and have become a swift traveler outside (the region of) thought.
ز انکه من ز اندیشهها بگذشتهام ** خارج اندیشه پویان گشتهام
I am the ruler of thought, not ruled (by it), because the builder is ruler over the building.
حاکم اندیشهام محکوم نی ** ز انکه بنا حاکم آمد بر بنا
All creatures are subjugated to thought; for that reason they are sore in heart and practised in sorrow.
جمله خلقان سخرهی اندیشهاند ** ز آن سبب خسته دل و غم پیشهاند
I yield myself to thought purposely, (but) when I will I spring up from the midst of them (that are under its sway).3560
قاصدا خود را به اندیشه دهم ** چون بخواهم از میانشان بر جهم
I am as a bird of the zenith, thought is a gnat: how should a gnat have power over me?
من چو مرغ اوجم اندیشه مگس ** کی بود بر من مگس را دسترس
Purposely I come down from the lofty zenith, that those of base degree may attain to me.
قاصدا زیر آیم از اوج بلند ** تا شکسته پایگان بر من تنند
When disgust at the qualities of the low (world) seizes me, I soar up like the birds which spread their pinions.
چون ملالم گیرد از سفلی صفات ** بر پرم همچون طیور الصافات
My wings have grown out of my very essence: I do not stick two wings on with glue.
پر من رسته ست هم از ذات خویش ** بر نچسبانم دو پر من با سریش
The wings of Ja‘far-i Tayyár are permanent; the wings of Ja‘far-i Tarrár are borrowed (unreal and transitory).3565
جعفر طیار را پر جاریه ست ** جعفر عیار را پر عاریه ست
In the view of him that has not experienced (it), this is (mere) pretension; in the view of the inhabitants of the (spiritual) horizon, this is the reality.
نزد آن که لم یذق دعوی است این ** نزد سکان افق معنی است این
This is brag and pretension in the eyes of the crow: an empty or full pot is all one to the fly.
لاف و دعوی باشد این پیش غراب ** دیگ تی و پر یکی پیش ذباب
When morsels of food become (changed to) pearls within you, do not forbear: eat as much as you can.”
چون که در تو میشود لقمه گهر ** تن مزن چندان که بتوانی بخور
One day the Shaykh, in order to rebut (these) ill thoughts, vomited in a basin, and the basin became full of pearls.
شیخ روزی بهر دفع سوء ظن ** در لگن قی کرد پر در شد لگن
On account of the (abusive) man's little understanding, the clairvoyant Pír made the intelligible pearls objects of sense-perception.3570
گوهر معقول را محسوس کرد ** پیر بینا بهر کم عقلی مرد
When pure (lawful food) turns to impurity in your stomach, put a lock upon your gullet and hide the key;
چون که در معده شود پاکت پلید ** قفل نه بر حلق و پنهان کن کلید
(But) any one in whom morsels of food become the light of (spiritual) glory, let him eat whatever he will, it is lawful to him.
هر که در وی لقمه شد نور جلال ** هر چه خواهد تا خورد او را حلال
Explaining (that there are) some assertions the truth of which is attested by their very nature.
بیان دعویی که عین آن دعوی گواه صدق خویش است
If you are my soul's familiar friend, my words full of (real) meaning are not (mere) assertion.
گر تو هستی آشنای جان من ** نیست دعوی گفت معنی لان من
If at midnight I say, “I am near you: come now, be not afraid of the night, for I am your kinsman,”
گر بگویم نیم شب پیش توام ** هین مترس از شب که من خویش توام
These two assertions are to you reality, since you recognise the voice of your own relative.3575
این دو دعوی پیش تو معنی بود ** چون شناسی بانگ خویشاوند خود
Nearness and kinship were (only) two assertions, but both (of them) were reality to the good understanding.
پیشی و خویشی دو دعوی بود لیک ** هر دو معنی بود پیش فهم نیک
The proximity of the voice gives him (the hearer) testimony that these words spring from a near friend;
قرب آوازش گواهی میدهد ** کاین دم از نزدیک یاری میجهد
Moreover, (his) delight at (hearing) the voice of his kinsman has borne witness to the truthfulness of that dear relative.
لذت آواز خویشاوند نیز ** شد گوا بر صدق آن خویش عزیز
Again, the uninspired fool who in his ignorance does not know a stranger's voice from a kinsman's—