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2
3621-3670

  • This Kalíla and Dimna is entirely fiction, or else how has the stork a quarrel with the crow?”
  • O brother, the story is like a measure: the real meaning in it resembles grain (in the measure).
  • The man of intelligence will take the grain of meaning: he will not pay any regard to the measure, (even) if it is removed (altogether).
  • Listen to what passes between the rose and the nightingale, though in that case there is no overt speech.
  • On mute eloquence and the understanding of it.
  • Listen to what passes between the moth and the candle, and pick out the meaning from the tale. 3625
  • Albeit there is no speech, there is the inmost soul of speech. Come, fly aloft, do not fly low, like the owl.
  • He (the player) at chess said, “This is the house of the rook.” “By what way,” said he (the literalist), “did the house come into its hands?
  • Did it buy the house, or inherit it?”—Happy is he that sped towards the (real) meaning!
  • A grammarian said, “Zayd has struck ‘Amr.” Said (the fool), “How did he chastise him without any offence (on his part)?
  • What was ‘Amr's offence, that that rude Zayd struck him, innocent (though he was), as (if he were) a slave?” 3630
  • He (the grammarian) replied, “This (form of words) is (only) the measure (container) of the meaning signified: take some wheat, for the measure is (to be) rejected.
  • Zayd and ‘Amr are for the purpose of (showing) the declension and (grammatical) construction: if that (statement that Zayd struck ‘Amr) is untrue, make up with the declension.”
  • “Nay,” said he, “I don't know about that. How did Zayd strike ‘Amr without (his committing any) crime or fault?”
  • He (the grammarian) in desperation started a joke and said, “‘Amr had stolen a superfluous wáw.
  • Zayd became aware, and struck the stealer of it: since he (‘Amr) carried it beyond bounds (transgressed the law), the punishment serves him right.” 3635
  • How worthless sayings find acceptance in the minds of worthless folk.
  • He (the fool) said, “Here you are, this is the truth! I accept (it) with (all) my soul.” Wrong seems right to the wrong-minded.
  • If you say to a squinting man, “The moon is one,” he will say to you, “These are two (moons); and there is a (great) doubt as to (the moon's) being one”;
  • And if somebody laughs at him and says, “There are two,” he deems it the truth. This (mockery) is what the ill-natured (ignorant and contumacious) fellow deserves.
  • Lies muster round (those who are living) lies: (the text) the wicked men for the wicked women has thrown light (upon this point).
  • They whose hearts are (opened) wide (to receive spiritual truths) have wide (far-reaching) hands; they whose (spiritual) eyes are blind have to stumble on stony ground. 3640
  • On seeking the tree whereof none that eats  the fruit shall die.
  • A learned man (once) said, for the sake of (telling) a story, “In India there is a certain tree:
  • Whoso takes and eats of its fruit, he grows not old nor ever dies.”
  • A king heard this (tale) from a veracious person: he became a lover of the tree and its fruit.
  • From the Divan of culture he sent an intelligent envoy to India in search (of it).
  • For (many) years his envoy wandered about India in quest (of the tree). 3645
  • He roamed from town to town for this object: neither island nor mountain nor plain was left (unvisited).
  • Every one whom he asked made a mock of him, saying, “Who would search after this, unless perhaps a madman in confinement?”
  • Many slapped him jocosely; many said, “O fortunate man,
  • How should the enquiry of a clever and clear-minded person like you be devoid (of result)? How should it be vain?”
  • And this (ironical) respect was to him another slap, and it was harder (to bear) than the visible slap. 3650
  • They extolled him sarcastically, saying, “O great sir, in such and such a very tremendous and huge country,
  • In such and such a forest there is a green tree, very tall and broad, and every branch of it is big.”
  • The king's envoy, who had braced his belt for the quest, was hearing a different kind of report from every one;
  • There for years he travelled much, (whilst) the king kept sending money to him.
  • After he had suffered much fatigue in that foreign land, at last he became too exhausted to seek (any longer). 3655
  • No trace of the object of pursuit was discovered: of what he wanted nothing appeared but the report.
  • The thread of his hope snapped, the thing he had sought became unsought in the end.
  • He resolved to return to the king, (and set out) shedding tears and traversing the way.
  • How the Shaykh explained the hidden meaning of the tree to the seeker who was in the bondage of formalism.
  • There was a wise Shaykh, a noble Qutb, at the halting-place where the king's intimate fell into despair.
  • He (the envoy) said, “Being without hope, I will go to him, and set out on the road (again) from his threshold, 3660
  • In order that his prayer (blessing) may accompany me, since I have no hope of (winning) my heart's desire.”
  • With tearful eyes he went to the Shaykh: he was raining tears, like a cloud.
  • “O Shaykh,” he cried, “it is the time for mercy and pity; I am in despair: now is the time for kindness.”
  • He (the Shaykh) said, “Say plainly what is the cause of thy despair: what is thy object? what hast thou in view?”
  • He answered, “The Emperor chose me out to seek a certain branching tree, 3665
  • For there is a tree, unique in (all) the quarters (of the world): its fruit is (of) the substance of the Water of Life.
  • I have sought (it) for years and seen no sign (of it) except the gibes and ridicule of these merry men.”
  • The Shaykh laughed and said to him, “O simpleton, this is the tree of knowledge in the sage—
  • Very high and very grand and very far-spreading: (it is) a Water of Life from the all-encompassing Sea (of God).
  • Thou hast gone after the form, O ignorant man: hence thou art without fruit and produce from the bough of reality. 3670