I twined a handful of roses and carried it to them: every rose became as a thorn, and the honey turned to poison.
دسته گل بستم و بردم به پیش ** هر گلی چون خار گشت و نوش نیش
That (pure wine) is the portion allotted to the selfless: since they are with themselves (not freed from self), how should it be shown (to them)?
آن نصیب جان بی‌خویشان بود ** چونک با خویش‌اند پیدا کی شود
With us, one must needs be a waking sleeper, that in the state of wakefulness he may dream dreams.”
خفته‌ی بیدار باید پیش ما ** تا به بیداری ببیند خوابها
Thought of created things is an enemy to this sweet (waking) sleep: until his (any one's) thought is asleep, his throat is shut.1115
دشمن این خواب خوش شد فکر خلق ** تا نخسپد فکرتش بستست حلق
A (mystical) bewilderment is needed to sweep (such) thought away: bewilderment devours (all) thought and recollection.
حیرتی باید که روبد فکر را ** خورده حیرت فکر را و ذکر را
The more perfect he is in (worldly) science, the more backward he is in reality and the more forward in appearance.
هر که کاملتر بود او در هنر ** او بمعنی پس بصورت پیشتر
He (God) hath said, “(Verily, to Him we are) returning”; and the return is in the same wise as a herd turns back and goes home.
راجعون گفت و رجوع این سان بود ** که گله وا گردد و خانه رود
When the herd has turned back from (after) going down to water, the goat that was the leader (now) falls behind (becomes the hindmost),
چونک واگردید گله از ورود ** پس فتد آن بز که پیش آهنگ بود
And the lame hindmost goat is now in front: the return caused the faces to laugh of them that were frowning (before).1120
پیش افتد آن بز لنگ پسین ** اضحک الرجعی وجوه العابسین
How did this party (the prophets and saints) become lame and give up glory and purchase ignominy in vain?
از گزافه کی شدند این قوم لنگ ** فخر را دادند و بخریدند ننگ
This party go on the pilgrimage (to Reality) with broken legs, (because) there is a secret way from straitness to ease.
پا شکسته می‌روند این قوم حج ** از حرج راهیست پنهان تا فرج
This company washed their hearts (clean) of (the exoteric) kinds of knowledge, because this knowledge does not know that Way.
دل ز دانشها بشستند این فریق ** زانک این دانش نداند آن طریق
(In order to tread this Way) one needs a knowledge whereof the root is Yonder, inasmuch as every branch is a guide to its root.
دانشی باید که اصلش زان سرست ** زانک هر فرعی به اصلش رهبرست
How should every wing fly across the breadth of the Sea? (Only) the esoteric knowledge will bear (thee) to the Presence (of God).1125
هر پری بر عرض دریا کی پرد ** تا لدن علم لدنی می‌برد
Why, then, should you teach a man the knowledge of which it behoves him to purify his breast?
پس چرا علمی بیاموزی به مرد ** کش بباید سینه را زان پاک کرد
Therefore do not seek to be in front: be lame on this side, and be the leader at the moment of return.
پس مجو پیشی ازین سر لنگ باش ** وقت وا گشتن تو پیش آهنگ باش
O clever one, be thou (according to the Prophet's saying, “We are) the hindmost and the foremost”: the fresh fruit is prior to the tree.
آخرون السابقون باش ای ظریف ** بر شجر سابق بود میوه‌ی طریف
Although the fruit comes last into being, it is the first, because it was the object.
گرچه میوه آخر آید در وجود ** اولست او زانک او مقصود بود
Say, like the angels, “We have no knowledge,” to the end that “Thou hast taught us” may take thy hand (come to thy aid).1130
چون ملایک گوی لا علم لنا ** تا بگیرد دست تو علمتنا
If in this school thou dost not know the alphabet, (yet) thou art filled, like Ahmad (Mohammed), with the light of Reason.
گر درین مکتب ندانی تو هجا ** همچو احمد پری از نور حجی
If thou art not famous in the world, (yet) thou art not lost: God knoweth best concerning His servants.
گر نباشی نامدار اندر بلاد ** گم نه‌ای الله اعلم بالعباد
A treasure of gold is (hidden), for safety's sake, in a desolate spot that is not well-known.
اندر آن ویران که آن معروف نیست ** از برای حفظ گنجینه‌ی زریست
How should they deposit the treasure in a well-known place? On this account it is said, “Joy is (hidden) beneath sorrow.”
موضع معروف کی بنهند گنج ** زین قبل آمد فرج در زیر رنج
Here the mind may bring (suggest) many difficulties, but a good beast will break the tether.1135
خاطر آرد بس شکال اینجا ولیک ** بسکلد اشکال را استور نیک
His (God's) love is a fire that consumes difficulties: the daylight sweeps away every phantom.
هست عشقش آتشی اشکال‌سوز ** هر خیالی را بروبد نور روز
O thou with whom He is pleased, seek the answer from the same quarter from which this question came to thee.
هم از آن سو جو جواب ای مرتضا ** کین سال آمد از آن سو مر ترا
The cornerless corner of the heart is a King's highway: the radiance that is neither of the east nor of the west is (derived) from a Moon.
گوشه‌ی بی گوشه‌ی دل شه‌رهیست ** تاب لا شرقی و لا غرب از مهیست
Why on this side and on that, like a beggar, O mountain of Reality, art thou seeking the echo?
تو ازین سو و از آن سو چون گدا ** ای که معنی چه می‌جویی صدا
Seek (the answer) from the same quarter to which, in the hour of pain, thou bendest low, crying repeatedly, “O my Lord!”1140
هم از آن سو جو که وقت درد تو ** می‌شوی در ذکر یا ربی دوتو
In the hour of pain and death thou turnest in that direction: how, when thy pain is gone, art thou ignorant?
وقت درد و مرگ آن سو می‌نمی ** چونک دردت رفت چونی اعجمی
At the time of tribulation thou hast called unto God, (but) when the tribulation is gone, thou sayest, “Where is the way?”
وقت محنت گشته‌ای الله گو ** چونک محنت رفت گویی راه کو
This is because (thou dost not know God): every one that knows God without uncertainty is constantly engaged in that (commemoration of Him),
این از آن آمد که حق را بی گمان ** هر که بشناسد بود دایم بر آن
While he that is veiled in intellect and uncertainty is sometimes covered (inaccessible to spiritual emotion) and sometimes with his collar torn (in a state of rapture).
وانک در عقل و گمان هستش حجاب ** گاه پوشیدست و گه بدریده جیب
The particular (discursive) intellect is sometimes dominant, sometimes overthrown; the Universal Intellect is secure from the mischances of Time.1145
Sell intellect and talent and buy bewilderment (in God): betake thyself to lowliness, O son, not to Bukhárá!
عقل بفروش و هنر حیرت بخر ** رو به خواری نه بخارا ای پسر
Why have I steeped myself in the discourse, so that from story-telling I have become a story?
ما چه خود را در سخن آغشته‌ایم ** کز حکایت ما حکایت گشته‌ایم
I become naught and (unsubstantial as) a fable in making moan (to God), in order that I may gain influence over (the hearts of) them that prostrate themselves in prayer.
من عدم و افسانه گردم در حنین ** تا تقلب یابم اندر ساجدین
This (story of Moses and Pharaoh) is not a story in the eyes of the man of experience: it is a description of an actual (spiritual) state, and it is (equivalent to) the presence of the Friend of the Cave.
این حکایت نیست پیش مرد کار ** وصف حالست و حضور یار غار
That (phrase) “stories of the ancients,” which the disobedient (infidels) applied to the words of the Qur’án, was a mark of (their) hypocrisy.1150
آن اساطیر اولین که گفت عاق ** حرف قرآن را بد آثار نفاق
The man transcending space, in whom is the Light of God— whence (what concern of his) is the past, the future, or the present?
لامکانی که درو نور خداست ** ماضی و مستقبل و حال از کجاست
His being past or future is (only) in relation to thee: both are one thing, and thou thinkest they are two.
ماضی و مستقبلش نسبت به تست ** هر دو یک چیزند پنداری که دوست
One individual is to him father and to us son: the roof is below Zayd and above ‘Amr.
یک تنی او را پدر ما را پسر ** بام زیر زید و بر عمرو آن زبر
The relation of “below” and “above” arises from those two persons: as regards itself, the roof is one thing only.
نسبت زیر و زبر شد زان دو کس ** سقف سوی خویش یک چیزست بس
These expressions are not (exactly) similar to that (doctrine of spiritual timelessness): they are a comparison: the old words fall short of the new meaning.1155
نیست مثل آن مثالست این سخن ** قاصر از معنی نو حرف کهن
Since there is no river-marge, close thy lips, O waterskin: this Sea of candy hath (ever) been without marge or shore.
چون لب جو نیست مشکا لب ببند ** بی لب و ساحل بدست این بحر قند
How Pharaoh sent (messengers) to the cities in search of the magicians.
فرستادن فرعون به مداین در طلب ساحران
When Moses had returned (home) and he (Pharaoh) remained (with his own people), he called his advisers and counsellors to his presence.
چونک موسی بازگشت و او بماند ** اهل رای و مشورت را پیش خواند
They deemed it right that the King and Ruler of Egypt should assemble them (the magicians) from all parts of Egypt.
آنچنان دیدند کز اطراف مصر ** جمع آردشان شه و صراف مصر
Thereupon he sent many men in every direction to collect the sorcerers.
او بسی مردم فرستاد آن زمان ** هر نواحی بهر جمع جادوان
In whatsoever region there was a renowned magician, he set flying towards him ten active couriers.1160
هر طرف که ساحری بد نامدار ** کرد پران سوی او ده پیک کار
There were two youths, famous magicians: their magic penetrated into the heart of the moon.
دو جوان بودند ساحر مشتهر ** سحر ایشان در دل مه مستمر