He said (to himself), “I take little account of a (sheep's) head and belly: suppose that one grain is gone from the spirit's treasure, (what does it matter?)
گفت کم گیرم سر و اشکمبهای ** رفته گیر از گنج جان یک حبهای
Let the bodily form go: who am I (in reality)? Is not the (bodily) figure of small account when I am enduring for ever?
صورت تن گو برو من کیستم ** نقش کم ناید چو من باقیستم
Since by the grace of God the (Divine) spirit was breathed into me, I am the breath of God (which is) kept apart from the windpipe of the body,3935
چون نفخت بودم از لطف خدا ** نفخ حق باشم ز نای تن جدا
To the end that the sound of His breathing should not fall in this direction, and that that (spiritual) pearl should escape from the narrow (bodily) shell.
تا نیفتد بانگ نفخش این طرف ** تا رهد آن گوهر از تنگین صدف
Since God said, ‘Desire death, O ye that are sincere,’ I am sincere: I will lavish my soul upon this (I will sacrifice my life for this object).”
چون تمنوا موت گفت ای صادقین ** صادقم جان را برافشانم برین
How the people of the mosque blamed the lover-guest for (his intention of) sleeping the night there and threatened him.
ملامت کردن اهل مسجد مهمان عاشق را از شب خفتن در آنجا و تهدید کردن مرورا
The people said to him, “Beware! Do not sleep here, lest the Taker of the soul pound thee like the dregs of sesame-grain,
قوم گفتندش که هین اینجا مخسپ ** تا نکوبد جانستانت همچو کسپ
For thou art a stranger and ignorant of the fact that any one who sleeps in this place perishes.
که غریبی و نمیدانی ز حال ** کاندرین جا هر که خفت آمد زوال
This is not an (accidental) occurrence: we and all those possessed of intelligence have ofttimes witnessed this.3940
اتفاقی نیست این ما بارها ** دیدهایم و جمله اصحاب نهی
To whomsoever that mosque gave lodging for a single night, poisonous death came to him at midnight.
هر که آن مسجد شبی مسکن شدش ** نیمشب مرگ هلاهل آمدش
We have seen this not (only) once but a hundred times: we have not heard it at second-hand from any one.
از یکی ما تابه صد این دیدهایم ** نه به تقلید از کسی بشنیدهایم
The Prophet said, ‘The (Mohammedan) religion is (consists in) sincerity (nasíhat)’: that nasíhat etymologically is the opposite of ghulúl (unfaithfulness).
گفت الدین نصیحه آن رسول ** آن نصیحت در لغت ضد غلول
This nasíhat is ‘to be true in friendship’: in an act of ghulúl you are treacherous and currish.
این نصیحت راستی در دوستی ** در غلولی خاین و سگپوستی
We are showing this sincerity towards thee, without treachery, from (motives of) love: do not turn away from reason and justice!”3945
بی خیانت این نصیحت از وداد ** مینماییمت مگرد از عقل و داد
The lover's reply to those who chid him.
جواب گفتن عاشق عاذلان را
He said, “O sincere advisers, I have become unrepentantly weary of the world of life.
گفت او ای ناصحان من بی ندم ** از جهان زندگی سیر آمدم
I am an idle vagabond, seeking blows and desiring blows: do not seek rectitude from the vagabond on the road.
منبلیام زخم جو و زخمخواه ** عافیت کم جوی از منبل براه
(I am) not the vagabond who in sooth is a seeker of provender: I am the reckless vagabond (who is) the seeker of death.
منبلی نی کو بود خود برگجو ** منبلیام لاابالی مرگجو
(I am) not the vagabond who gets small money into his palm, (but) the nimble vagabond who would cross this bridge (to the world hereafter)—
منبلی نی کو به کف پول آورد ** منبلی چستی کزین پل بگذرد
Not the one who cleaves to every shop; nay, but (the one who) springs away from (phenomenal) existence and strikes upon a mine (of reality).3950
آن نه کو بر هر دکانی بر زند ** بل جهد از کون و کانی بر زند
Death and migration from this (earthly) abode has become as sweet to me as leaving the cage and flying (is sweet) to the (captive) bird—
مرگ شیرین گشت و نقلم زین سرا ** چون قفص هشتن پریدن مرغ را
The cage that is in the very midst of the garden, (so that) the bird beholds the rose-beds and the trees,
آن قفص که هست عین باغ در ** مرغ میبیند گلستان و شجر
(While) outside, round the cage, a multitude of birds is sweetly chanting tales of liberty:
جوق مرغان از برون گرد قفص ** خوش همیخوانند ز آزادی قصص
At (the sight of) that verdant place neither (desire for) food remains to the bird in the cage, nor patience and rest,
مرغ را اندر قفص زان سبزهزار ** نه خورش ماندست و نه صبر و قرار
(But) it puts out its head through every hole, that perchance it may tear off this fetter from its leg.3955
سر ز هر سوراخ بیرون میکند ** تا بود کین بند از پا برکند
Since its heart and soul are (already) outside like this, how will it be when you open the cage?”
چون دل و جانش چنین بیرون بود ** آن قفص را در گشایی چون بود
Not such is the bird caged amidst anxieties—cats round about it in a ring:
نه چنان مرغ قفص در اندهان ** گرد بر گردش به حلقه گربگان
How, in this dread and sorrow, should it have the desire to go out of the cage?
کی بود او را درین خوف و حزن ** آرزوی از قفص بیرون شدن
It wishes that, (to save it) from this unwelcome plucking (of its feathers), there might be a hundred cages round about this cage (in which it is confined).
او همیخواهد کزین ناخوش حصص ** صد قفص باشد بگرد این قفص
The love of (a) Galen is for this present life, for only here does his art avail; he has not practised any art that avails in yonder market: there he sees himself to be the same as the vulgar.
عشق جالینوس برین حیات دنیا بود کی هنر او همینجا بکار میآید هنری نورزیده است کی در آن بازار بکار آید آنجا خود را به عوام یکسان میبیند
That is even as wise Galen said on account of (his) passion for this world and because of what he desired (in it)—3960
آنچنانک گفت جالینوس راد ** از هوای این جهان و از مراد
“I am content that (only) half of my vital spirit should remain, so that I may see the world through the arse of a mule.”
راضیم کز من بماند نیم جان ** که ز کون استری بینم جهان
He sees around him cats in troops: his bird has despaired of flying;
گربه میبیند بگرد خود قطار ** مرغش آیس گشته بودست از مطار
Or he has deemed all except this world to be non-existence and has not perceived in non-existence a hidden resurrection.
یا عدم دیدست غیر این جهان ** در عدم نادیده او حشری نهان
Like the embryo which (the Divine) Bounty is drawing forth: it is fleeing back towards the belly.
چون جنین کش میکشد بیرون کرم ** میگریزد او سپس سوی شکم
(The Divine) Grace is turning its (the embryo's) face towards the place of exit, (while) it (the embryo) is making its abode in the mother's loins,3965
لطف رویش سوی مصدر میکند ** او مقر در پشت مادر میکند
Saying, “Oh, I wonder, if I fall outside of this city and (abode of) pleasure, shall I see with my eye this dwelling-place;
که اگر بیرون فتم زین شهر و کام ** ای عجب بینم بدیده این مقام
Or would there be in that noisome city a door, so that I might gaze into the womb,
یا دری بودی در آن شهر وخم ** که نظاره کردمی اندر رحم
Or would there be for me a path, (narrow) as the eye of a needle, so that the womb might become visible to me from outside?”
یا چو چشمهی سوزنی راهم بدی ** که ز بیرونم رحم دیده شدی
That embryo, too, is unaware of a world (outside): it is one unfamiliar (therewith), like Galen.
آن جنین هم غافلست از عالمی ** همچو جالینوس او نامحرمی
It does not know that the humours which exist (in the womb) are supplied (to it) from the external world,3970
اونداند کن رطوباتی که هست ** آن مدد از عالم بیرونیست
Even as the four elements in this world obtain a hundred supplies (means of support) from the City beyond space.
آنچنانک چار عنصر در جهان ** صد مدد آرد ز شهر لامکان
If it has found water and seeds in its cage, those have appeared (there) from a Garden and Expanse.
آب و دانه در قفص گر یافتست ** آن ز باغ و عرصهای درتافتست
The spirits of the prophets behold the Garden from this cage at the time of their being transported and freed (from the body);
جانهای انبیا بینند باغ ** زین قفص در وقت نقلان و فراغ
Hence they are free of Galen and the world: they are shining like the moon in the skies.
پس ز جالینوس و عالم فارغند ** همچو ماه اندر فلکها بازغند
And if this saying (as related) from Galen is a fiction, then my answer is not for Galen,3975
ور ز جالینوس این گفت افتراست ** پس جوابم بهر جالینوس نیست
(But) this is the answer to the person who said it, for the luminous heart has not been his mate.
این جواب آنکس آمد کین بگفت ** که نبودستش دل پر نور جفت
The bird, his spirit, became a mouse seeking a hole, when it heard from the cats (the cry), “Halt ye!”
مرغ جانش موش شد سوراخجو ** چون شنید از گربگان او عرجوا
On that account his spirit, mouse-like, deemed its home and abode to be in this world-hole.
زان سبب جانش وطن دید و قرار ** اندرین سوراخ دنیا موشوار
In this hole, too, it began to build and acquired a knowledge suitable to the hole;
هم درین سوراخ بنایی گرفت ** درخور سوراخ دانایی گرفت
It chose the trades advantageous to it, which would be of use in this hole.3980
پیشههایی که مرورا در مزید ** کاندرین سوراخ کار آید گزید
Inasmuch as it turned its heart away from (relinquished the desire for) going forth, the way of deliverance from the body was barred.
زانک دل بر کند از بیرون شدن ** بسته شد راه رهیدن از بدن
If the spider had the nature of the ‘Anqá, how should it have reared a tent (made) of some gossamer?
عنکبوت ار طبع عنقا داشتی ** از لعابی خیمه کی افراشتی