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2
982-1031

  • This accident with the substance (belonging to it) is egg and bird: this is produced by that, and that by this, in succession.”
  • این عرض با جوهر آن بیضه است و طیر ** این از آن و آن از این زاید به سیر

  • The King said, “Take the meaning (to be) so: (why then) have these accidents of yours not produced any substance?”
  • گفت شاهنشه چنین گیر المراد ** این عرضهای تو یک جوهر نزاد

  • “(Divine) Wisdom,” replied the slave, “has kept it concealed, in order that this world of good and evil may be a mystery,
  • گفت مخفی داشته ست آن را خرد ** تا بود غیب این جهان نیک و بد

  • Because, if the (substantial) forms of thought were to become manifest, infidel and believer (alike) would speak naught but praise (of God). 985
  • ز انکه گر پیدا شدی اشکال فکر ** کافر و مومن نگفتی جز که ذکر

  • Then, were this clearly seen, O King, not hidden, and were the mark of religion or infidelity (visible) on the forehead,
  • پس عیان بودی نه غیب ای شاه این ** نقش دین و کفر بودی بر جبین‏

  • How would there be idol and idolater in this world? How would any one have the stomach to mock (at holy things)?
  • کی درین عالم بت و بتگر بدی ** چون کسی را زهره‏ی تسخر بدی‏

  • Then this world of ours would be (like) the Resurrection: who commits sin and wrong at the Resurrection?”
  • پس قیامت بودی این دنیای ما ** در قیامت کی کند جرم و خطا

  • The King said, “God has veiled the retribution of evil, but (only) from the vulgar, not from His own elect.
  • گفت شه پوشید حق پاداش بد ** لیک از عامه نه از خاصان خود

  • If I entrap one Amír, I keep it hidden from the (other) Amírs, (but) not from the Vizier. 990
  • گر به دامی افکنم من یک امیر ** از امیران خفیه دارم نه از وزیر

  • God, then, has shown to me the retribution of work and myriads of the (substantial) forms of actions.
  • حق به من بنمود پس پاداش کار ** وز صورهای عملها صد هزار

  • Give a sign (outwardly), for I know all: the cloud does not veil the moon from me.”
  • تو نشانی ده که من دانم تمام ** ماه را بر من نمی‏پوشد غمام‏

  • The slave said, “Then what is the object of my speaking, since thou knowest what is (the real nature of) that which has been?”
  • گفت پس از گفت من مقصود چیست ** چون تو می‏دانی که آن چه بود چیست‏

  • The King said, “The wisdom (of God) in making the world manifest (was) that the (thing) known should come forth (to be seen) plainly.
  • گفت شه حکمت در اظهار جهان ** آن که دانسته برون آید عیان‏

  • Until He made visible that which He knew, He did not lay upon the world the pain of parturition and the throes (thereof). 995
  • آن چه می‏دانست تا پیدا نکرد ** بر جهان ننهاد رنج طلق و درد

  • You cannot sit inactive for one moment: (you cannot rest) till some badness or goodness has issued from you.
  • یک زمان بی‏کار نتوانی نشست ** تا بدی یا نیکیی از تو نجست‏

  • These demands (cravings) for action were appointed in order that your inward consciousness should come clearly into (outward) view.
  • این تقاضاهای کار از بهر آن ** شد موکل تا شود سرت عیان‏

  • How, then, should the reel, which is the body, become still, when the thread's end, which is the mind, is pulling it?
  • پس کلابه‏ی تن کجا ساکن شود ** چون سر رشته‏ی ضمیرش می‏کشد

  • The sign of that pulling is your anguish: to be inactive is to you like the death-agony.
  • تاسه‏ی تو شد نشان آن کشش ** بر تو بی‏کاری بود چون جان کنش‏

  • This world and that world are for ever giving birth: every cause is a mother, the effect is the child (born) from it. 1000
  • این جهان و آن جهان زاید ابد ** هر سبب مادر اثر از وی ولد

  • When the effect was born, that too became a cause, so that it might give birth to wondrous effects.
  • چون اثر زایید آن هم شد سبب ** تا بزاید او اثرهای عجب‏

  • These causes are generation on generation, but it needs a very well illumined eye (to see all the links in their chain).”
  • این سببها نسل بر نسل است لیک ** دیده‏ای باید منور نیک نیک‏

  • The King, in conversation with him, arrived at this point: he either saw or did not see a sign.
  • شاه با او در سخن اینجا رسید ** یا بدید از وی نشانی یا ندید

  • If that searching King saw (such a sign), ’tis not strange; but we are not permitted to mention it.
  • گر بدید آن شاه جویا دور نیست ** لیک ما را ذکر آن دستور نیست‏

  • When that (other) slave came from the warm bath, that King and lofty personage called him to his presence, 1005
  • چون ز گرمابه بیامد آن غلام ** سوی خویشش خواند آن شاه و همام‏

  • (And) said, “Health (to you)! Lasting happiness be yours! You are very fine and elegant and good-looking.
  • گفت صحا لک نعیم دایم ** بس لطیفی و ظریف و خوب رو

  • Oh, alas! If there were not in you that which so-and-so says about you,
  • ای دریغا گر نبودی در تو آن ** که همی‏گوید برای تو فلان‏

  • 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