English    Türkçe    فارسی   

4
1085-1134

  • Thou, who art a saffron-bed, be saffron and do not mix with the others. 1085
  • Drink the water, O saffron, that thou mayst attain to maturity: thou art saffron, thou wilt attain to that halwá (sweetmeat).
  • Do not put thy muzzle into the bed of turnips, for it (the turnip) will not agree with thee in nature and habit.
  • Thou art planted in one bed, it (the turnip) in another bed, because God's earth is spacious,
  • Particularly that earth (the unseen world) where, on account of its breadth, demon and genie are lost in their journey.
  • In (seeking to measure) those seas and deserts and mountains imagination and fancy fail entirely. 1090
  • In (comparison with) the deserts thereof, this desert (the material world) is like a single hair in a full sea.
  • The still water whose course is hidden is fresher and sweeter than running brooks,
  • For, like the (vital) spirit and the (rational) soul, it hath within itself a hidden course and a moving foot.
  • The auditor is asleep: cut short (conclude) the address: O preacher, do not draw this picture on water.
  • Arise, O Bilqís, for ’tis a keen (busy and lucrative) market: flee from these vile wretches who ruin (the spiritual) trade. 1095
  • O Bilqís, arise now with free-will, ere Death appear in his sovereign might.
  • After that, Death will pull thy ear (torment thee) in such wise that thou wilt come in agony, like a thief to the magistrate.
  • How long wilt thou be (engaged in) stealing shoes from these asses? If thou art going to steal, come and steal a ruby!
  • Thy sisters have gained the kingdom of everlasting life; thou hast won the kingdom of misery.
  • Oh, happy he that escaped from this kingdom, for Death makes this kingdom desolate. 1100
  • Arise, O Bilqís! Come, behold for once the kingdom of the Sháhs and Sultans of the (true) Religion.
  • He (such a king) is seated inwardly (in spirit) amidst the rose-garden (of union with God); outwardly (in the body) he is acting as a hádí amongst his friends.
  • The garden is going with him wherever he goes, but it is (always) being concealed from the people.
  • The fruit is making entreaty, saying, “Eat of me”; the Water of Life is come, saying, “Drink of me.”
  • Make a circuit of heaven without wing and pinion, like the sun and like the full-moon and like the new moon. 1105
  • Thou wilt be moving, like the spirit, and (there will be) no foot; thou wilt be eating a hundred dainties, and (there will be) none chewing a morsel.
  • Neither will the leviathan, Pain, dash against thy ship, nor will ugliness appear in thee from dying.
  • Thou wilt be sovereign, army, and throne, all together: thou wilt be both the fortunate and Fortune.
  • (Even) if thou art fortunate and a powerful monarch, (yet) Fortune is other than thou: one day Fortune goes,
  • And thou art left destitute like beggars. Be thou thine own fortune, O elect one! 1110
  • When thou art thine own fortune, O man of Reality, then how wilt thou, who art Fortune, lose thyself?
  • How wilt thou lose thyself, O man with goodly qualities, when thy Essence has become thy kingdom and riches?
  • The rest of the story of Solomon, on whom be peace: how he built the Farther Mosque (the Temple of Solomon) by instruction and inspiration from God, (given to him) for wise purposes which He (only) knows; and how angels, demons, genies, and men lent visible aid.
  • (God said) “O Solomon, build the Farther Mosque, the army of Bilqís has come into (has adopted) the (ritual) prayer.”
  • When he laid the foundation of that Mosque, genies and men came and threw themselves into the work,
  • One party from love, and another company unwillingly, just as God’s servants (do) in the way of obedience (to Him). 1115
  • The folk (of the world) are (like) demons, and desire is the chain dragging them to shop and crops.
  • This chain is (the result) of being afraid (of poverty) and crazed (with worldliness): do not regard these folk as unchained.
  • It drags them to earning and hunting; it drags them to the mine and the seas.
  • It drags them to good and to evil: God hath said, “On her neck a cord of palm-fibre.
  • We have put the cordon their necks: We have made the cord (to consist) of their natural dispositions. 1120
  • There is none ever, (be he) defiled or (be he) recovered (from foul disease), but his fortune is on his neck
  • Your greed for evil-doing is like fire: the live coal (the evil deed) is (made) pleasing by the fire’s pleasing hue.
  • The blackness of the coal is hidden in the fire: when the fire is gone, the blackness becomes evident.
  • By your greed the black coal is made live: when the greed is gone, that vicious coal remains.
  • At that (former) time the coal appeared to be live; that was not (owing to) the goodness of (your) action: it was (owing to) the fire of greed. 1125
  • Greed had embellished your action: greed departed, and your action was left in squalor
  • (Only) one who is foolish will think ripe (and sweet) the ghawla which the ghouls deck out (describe as being attractive).
  • When his soul makes trial (of it), its teeth are blunted by the experiment.
  • From vain desire, the reflexion (distorting influence) of the ghoul, (which is) greed, was causing the trap to appear a (delicious) berry, though in truth it was unripe.
  • Seek greed (seek to be eager) in the practice of religion and in good works: they are (still) beautiful, (even) when the greed (eagerness) remains not. 1130
  • Good works are beautiful (in themselves), not through the re flexion of any other thing: if the glow of greed is gone, the glow of good remains;
  • (But) when the glow of greed is gone from worldly work, of the red-hot coal (only) the black ashes are left.
  • Folly excites greed (for amusement) in children, so that from gleefulness of heart they ride a cock-horse
  • When that evil greed of his is gone from the child, he begins to laugh at the other children,