- 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
- Behold people without end who, moved by one thought, have gone over the earth like a flood;
- خلق بیپایان ز یک اندیشه بین ** گشته چون سیلی روانه بر زمین
- Small is that thought in the people's eyes, but like a flood it swallowed and swept away the world.
- هست آن اندیشه پیش خلق خرد ** لیک چون سیلی جهان را خورد و برد
- So, when you see that from a thought every craft in the world (arises and) subsists—
- پس چو میبینی که از اندیشهای ** قایم است اندر جهان هر پیشهای
- (That) houses and palaces and cities, mountains and plains and rivers, 1035
- خانهها و قصرها و شهرها ** کوهها و دشتها و نهرها
- Earth and ocean as well as sun and sky, are living (derive their life) from it as fishes from the sea—
- هم زمین و بحر و هم مهر و فلک ** زنده از وی همچو کز دریا سمک
- Then why in your foolishness, O blind one, does the body seem to you a Solomon, and thought (only) as an ant?
- پس چرا از ابلهی پیش تو کور ** تن سلیمان است و اندیشه چو مور
- To your eye the mountain appears great: (to you) thought is like a mouse, and the mountain (like) a wolf.
- مینماید پیش چشمت که بزرگ ** هست اندیشه چو موش و کوه گرگ
- The (material) world in your eyes is awful and sublime: you tremble and are frightened at the clouds and the thunder and the sky,
- عالم اندر چشم تو هول و عظیم ** ز ابر و رعد و چرخ داری لرز و بیم