(If) you take (any one as) an enemy, take within your limit (capacity), so that it may be possible for you to make (him your) prisoner.3625
دشمنی گیری بحد خویش گیر ** تا بود ممکن که گردانی اسیر
When (one like) a drop of water contends with the Ocean, he is a fool: he is tearing out his own beard.
قطره با قلزم چو استیزه کند ** ابلهست او ریش خود بر می‌کند
His cunning does not pass beyond his moustache: how should it penetrate the vaulted chamber of the Moon?
حیلت او از سبالش نگذرد ** چنبره‌ی حجره‌ی قمر چون بر درد
This (preceding discourse) was a rebuke (addressed) to the enemy of the Sun, O enemy of the Sun of the Sun.
با عدو آفتاب این بد عتاب ** ای عدو آفتاب آفتاب
O enemy of the Sun at whose glory His sun and stars tremble,
ای عدو آفتابی کز فرش ** می‌بلرزد آفتاب و اخترش
You are not His enemy, you are the adversary of yourself: what does the Fire care that you have become firewood?3630
تو عدو او نه‌ای خصم خودی ** چه غم آتش را که تو هیزم شدی
Oh, marvellous! Shall He suffer defect through your burning, or shall He become full of sorrow for the pain of your burning?
ای عجب از سوزشت او کم شود ** یا ز درد سوزشت پر غم شود
His mercy is not the mercy of Adam, for sorrow is mingled with the mercy of Adam.
رحمتش نه رحمت آدم بود ** که مزاج رحم آدم غم بود
The mercy of the creature is anxious; the mercy of God is exempt from sorrow and anxiety.
رحمت مخلوق باشد غصه‌ناک ** رحمت حق از غم و غصه‌ست پاک
Know that the mercy of the Unconditioned (God) is like this, O father; naught but the effect thereof comes into the imagination (is conceivable to us).
رحمت بی‌چون چنین دان ای پدر ** ناید اندر وهم از وی جز اثر
The difference between knowing a thing by comparison and convention and knowing the quiddity of that thing.
فرق میان دانستن چیزی به مثال و تقلید و میان دانستن ماهیت آن چیز
The effects and fruit of His mercy are manifest, but how should any one except Him know its quiddity?3635
ظاهرست آثار و میوه‌ی رحمتش ** لیک کی داند جز او ماهیتش
None knows the quiddities of the attributes of (Divine) Perfection except through (their) effects and by means of comparison.
هیچ ماهیات اوصاف کمال ** کس نداند جز بثار و مثال
The child does not know the quiddity of concubitus, except that you say, “It is like sweetmeat to thee.” [The child does not know the quiddity of sexual intercourse, except that you say, “it is like sweetmeat to thee.”]
طفل ماهیت نداند طمث را ** جز که گویی هست چون حلوا ترا
How should the quiddity of the pleasure of sexual intercourse be like the quiddities of sweetmeat, O master?
کی بود ماهیت ذوق جماع ** مثل ماهیات حلوا ای مطاع
But, since you are childish, that intelligent man offered you the analogy respecting the sweetness (of it),
لیک نسبت کرد از روی خوشی ** با تو آن عاقل چو تو کودک‌وشی
In order that the child might know it by comparison, though he does not know the quiddity or essence of the matter.3640
تا بداند کودک آن را از مثال ** گر نداند ماهیت یا عین حال
Therefore, if you say “I know,” ’tis not far (from the truth); and if you say, “I do not know,” ’tis not a lie and a falsehood.
پس اگر گویی بدانم دور نیست ** ور ندانم گفت کذب و زور نیست
If some one say (to you), “Do you know Noah, the Messenger of God and the Light of the spirit?”—
گر کسی گوید که دانی نوح را ** آن رسول حق و نور روح را
And if you reply, “How should not I know (him)? for that (spiritual) Moon is more celebrated than the sun and moon:
گر بگویی چون ندانم کان قمر ** هست از خورشید و مه مشهورتر
The little children at school and all the Imáms in the mosques
کودکان خرد در کتابها ** و آن امامان جمله در محرابها
Recite his name distinctly in the Qur’án and tell plainly his story (as it has come down) from the past”—3645
نام او خوانند در قرآن صریح ** قصه‌اش گویند از ماضی فصیح
You, veracious man, know him by way of description, though the quiddity of Noah has not been revealed (to you).
راست‌گو دانیش تو از روی وصف ** گرچه ماهیت نشد از نوح کشف
And if you reply, “How should I know Noah? (Only) one like him can know him, O youth.
ور بگویی من چه دانم نوح را ** همچو اویی داند او را ای فتی
I am a lame ant. How should I know the elephant? How should a gnat know Isráfíl?”—
مور لنگم من چه دانم فیل را ** پشه‌ای کی داند اسرافیل را
This saying (answer) is also true in regard to the fact that you do not know him in his quiddity, O so-and-so.
این سخن هم راستست از روی آن ** که بماهیت ندانیش ای فلان
To be unable to perceive the quiddity, uncle, is the condition of common men: do not say it absolutely,3650
عجز از ادراک ماهیت عمو ** حالت عامه بود مطلق مگو
Inasmuch as quiddities and their inmost secret are clearly visible to the eyes of the Perfect.
زانک ماهیات و سر سر آن ** پیش چشم کاملان باشد عیان
Where in existence is (anything) more remote from understanding and mental perception than the consciousness and essence of God?
در وجود از سر حق و ذات او ** دورتر از فهم و استبصار کو
Since that does not remain hidden from (His) familiars, what is the essence and attribute that should remain concealed?
چونک آن مخفی نماند از محرمان ** ذات و وصفی چیست کان ماند نهان
The intellect of the scholastic theologian says, “This is far (from reasonable) and deeply involved (in error): do not listen to an absurdity without some explanation.”
عقل بحثی گوید این دورست و گو ** بی ز تاویل محالی کم شنو
The Qutb (the Head of the Saints) replies, “To thee, O infirm one, that which is above thy (spiritual) state seems absurd.”3655
قطب گوید مر ترا ای سست‌حال ** آنچ فوق حال تست آید محال
The visions which are now revealed to you, is it not the case that at first they seemed absurd to you?
واقعاتی که کنونت بر گشود ** نه که اول هم محالت می‌نمود
Inasmuch as the (Divine) Bounty has released you from ten prisons, do not make the (wide) desert an oppressive prison to yourself.
چون رهانیدت ز ده زندان کرم ** تیه را بر خود مکن حبس ستم
How the negation and affirmation of one (and the same) thing may be combined and reconciled from the standpoint of relativity and difference of aspect.
جمع و توفیق میان نفی و اثبات یک چیز از روی نسبت و اختلاف جهت
It is possible to deny and affirm the same thing: when the point of view is different, the relation is twofold.
نفی آن یک چیز و اثباتش رواست ** چون جهت شد مختلف نسبت دوتاست
(The text) thou didst not throw when thou threwest is relative: it is negation and affirmation: both are authorised.
ما رمیت اذ رمیت از نسبتست ** نفی و اثباتست و هر دو مثبتست
Thou threwest that (gravel), since it was on thy hand; thou didst not throw, for God manifested (His) power.3660
آن تو افکندی چو بر دست تو بود ** تو نه افکندی که قوت حق نمود
The strength of one born of Adam has a limit: how should a handful of earth become (the cause of) the rout of an army?
زور آدم‌زاد را حدی بود ** مشت خاک اشکست لشکر کی شود
“(O Mohammed), the handful is thy handful, and the throwing is from Me”: on account of these two relations (both) the denial and the affirmation of it (the throwing) are right.
مشت مشت تست و افکندن ز ماست ** زین دو نسبت نفی و اثباتش رواست
The prophets are known by their enemies, just as their (the enemies') children are not doubtful (to their parents).
یعرفون الانبیا اضدادهم ** مثل ما لا یشتبه اولادهم
The unbelievers know them (the prophets) as (they know) their children by a hundred indications and a hundred signs,
همچو فرزندان خود دانندشان ** منکران با صد دلیل و صد نشان
But, from jealousy and envy, they conceal (their knowledge) and attach themselves to (become addicted to saying) “I do not know.”3665
لیک از رشک و حسد پنهان کنند ** خویشتن را بر ندانم می‌زنند
Then, since He (God) hath said, “He (the unbeliever) knows,” how hath He said in another place?—“None knoweth them except Me, so leave off (seeking to know them);
پس چو یعرف گفت چون جای دگر ** گفت لایعرفهم غیری فذر
Verily, they are hidden beneath My tents.” None knows them by (immediate) experience except God.
انهم تحت قبابی کامنون ** جز که یزدانشان نداند ز آزمون
Regard also as (explicable) by means of relation this (subject) which was opened (above), (namely) that you know and do not know Noah.
هم بنسبت گیر این مفتوح را ** که بدانی و ندانی نوح را
The question of the faná and baqá of the dervish.
مسله‌ی فنا و بقای درویش
The speaker said, “There is no dervish in the world; and if there be a dervish, that dervish is (really) non-existent.”
گفت قایل در جهان درویش نیست ** ور بود درویش آن درویش نیست
He exists in respect of the survival of his essence, (but) his attributes have become non-existent in the attributes of Him (God).3670
هست از روی بقای ذات او ** نیست گشته وصف او در وصف هو
Like the flame of a candle in the presence of the sun, he is (really) non-existent, (though he is) existent in (formal) calculation.
چون زبانه‌ی شمع پیش آفتاب ** نیست باشد هست باشد در حساب
Its (the flame's) essence is existent, so that, if you put cotton upon it, it (the cotton) will be consumed by the sparks;
هست باشد ذات او تا تو اگر ** بر نهی پنبه بسوزد زان شرر
(But) it is (really) non-existent: it gives you no light: the sun will have naughted it.
نیست باشد روشنی ندهد ترا ** کرده باشد آفتاب او را فنا
When you have thrown an ounce of vinegar into two hundred maunds of sugar, and it has become dissolved therein,
در دو صد من شهد یک اوقیه خل ** چون در افکندی و در وی گشت حل