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—
To him his (the speaker's) words are (mere) assertion: his ignorance has become the source of his disbelief;3580
پیش او دعوی بود گفتار او ** جهل او شد مایهی انکار او
(But) to him of keen insight, within whom are the (spiritual) lights, the very nature of this voice was just the (immediate evidence of its) reality.
پیش زیرک کاندرونش نورهاست ** عین این آواز معنی بود راست
Or (for example) one whose mother-tongue is Arabic says in Arabic, “I know the language of the Arabs.”
یا به تازی گفت یک تازی زبان ** که همیدانم زبان تازیان
The very fact of his speaking in Arabic is (evidence of) the reality (of his assertion), although his saying (that he knows) Arabic is (only) an assertion.
عین تازی گفتنش معنی بود ** گر چه تازی گفتنش دعوی بود
Or a writer may write on a piece of paper, “I am a writer and a reader, and I am a most accomplished person.”
یا نویسد کاتبی بر کاغذی ** کاتب و خط خوانم و من ابجدی
Although this written (statement) itself is a (mere) assertion, still the script is evidence of the reality (of the assertion).3585
این نوشته گر چه خود دعوی بود ** هم نوشته شاهد معنی بود
Or a Súfí may say, “Last night, while asleep, you saw some one with a prayer carpet on his shoulder.
یا بگوید صوفیی دیدی تو دوش ** در میان خواب سجاده به دوش
That was I; and what I said to you in the dream, whilst you slumbered, in explanation of clairvoyance—
من بدم آن و آن چه گفتم خواب در ** با تو اندر خواب در شرح نظر
Give ear (to it), put it in your ear like an ear-ring: make those words (of mine) your mind's guide.”
گوش کن چون حلقه اندر گوش کن ** آن سخن را پیشوای هوش کن
When you recollect the dream, these words (of his) are (as real to you as) a new miracle or old gold.
چون ترا یاد آید آن خواب این سخن ** معجز نو باشد و زر کهن
Although this seems to be (mere) assertion (on his part), yet the soul of the dreamer says, “Yes, (it is true).”3590
گر چه دعوی مینماید این ولی ** جان صاحب واقعه گوید بلی
Therefore, since Wisdom is the faithful believer's stray camel, he knows it with certainty, from whomsoever he has heard it;
پس چو حکمت ضالهی مومن بود ** آن ز هر که بشنود موقن بود
And when he finds himself absolutely in front of it, how should there be doubt? How should he mistake it?
چون که خود را پیش او یابد فقط ** چون بود شک چون کند او را غلط
When you say to a thirsty man, “Make haste! there is water in the cup: take the water at once,”
تشنهای را چون بگویی تو شتاب ** در قدح آب است بستان زود آب
Will the thirsty man say in any event?—“This is (mere) assertion: go from my side, O pretender! Get thee far away!
هیچ گوید تشنه کاین دعوی است رو ** از برم ای مدعی مهجور شو
Or (else) produce some testimony and proof that this is of aqueous kind and consists of the water that runs from a spring.3595
یا گواه و حجتی بنما که این ** جنس آب است و از آن ماء معین
Or (suppose that) a mother cries to her suckling babe, “Come, I am mother: hark, my child!”—
یا به طفل شیر مادر بانگ زد ** که بیا من مادرم هان ای ولد
Will the babe say?—“O mother, bring the proof (of it), so that I may take comfort in thy milk.”
طفل گوید مادرا حجت بیار ** تا که با شیرت بگیرم من قرار
When in the heart of any community there is savour (spiritual perception) from God, the face and voice of the prophet are (as) an evidentiary miracle.
در دل هر امتی کز حق مزه ست ** روی و آواز پیمبر معجزه ست
When the prophet utters a cry from without, the soul of the community falls to worship within,
چون پیمبر از برون بانگی زند ** جان امت در درون سجده کند
Because never in the world will the soul's ear have heard from any one a cry of the same kind as his.3600
ز انکه جنس بانگ او اندر جهان ** از کسی نشنیده باشد گوش جان
That stranger (the soul), by immediate perception of the strange (wondrous) voice, has heard from God's tongue (the words), “Verily I am near.”
آن غریب از ذوق آواز غریب ** از زبان حق شنود انی قریب
How Yahyá, on whom be peace, in his mother's womb bowed in worship to the Messiah (Jesus), on whom be peace.
سجده کردن یحیی علیه السلام در شکم مادر مسیح را علیه السلام
The mother of Yahyá, before disburdening herself (of him), said in secret to Mary,
مادر یحیی به مریم در نهفت ** پیشتر از وضع حمل خویش گفت
“I see (it) with certainty, within thee is a King who is possessed of firm purpose and is an Apostle endowed with knowledge (of God).
که یقین دیدم درون تو شهی است ** کاو اولو العزم و رسول آگهی است
When I happened to meet thee, my burden (the unborn child) bowed in worship, O intelligent one.
چون برابر اوفتادم با تو من ** کرد سجده حمل من اندر زمن
This embryo bowed in worship to that embryo, so that pain arose in my body from its bowing.”3605
این جنین مر آن جنین را سجده کرد ** کز سجودش در تنم افتاد درد
Mary said, “I also felt within me a bowing performed by this babe in the womb.”
گفت مریم من درون خویش هم ** سجدهای دیدم از این طفل شکم
On raising a difficulty as to this story.
اشکال آوردن بر این قصه
The foolish say, “Cancel this tale, because it is false and erroneous.
ابلهان گویند کاین افسانه را ** خط بکش زیرا دروغ است و خطا
Because Mary at the time of her delivery was far away both from strangers and kinfolk.
ز انکه مریم وقت وضع حمل خویش ** بود از بیگانه دور و هم ز خویش
Until that woman of sweet address was delivered outside of the town, she indeed came not into it.
از برون شهر آن شیرین فسون ** تا نشد فارغ نیامد خود درون
When she had given birth to him, she then took him up in her lap and carried him to her kinsfolk.3610
چون بزادش آن گهانش بر کنار ** بر گرفت و برد تا پیش تبار