A certain man came and was cleaving the soil: a fool cried out and could not control himself,
آن یکی آمد زمین را می‌شکافت ** ابلهی فریاد کرد و بر نتافت
Saying, ‘Wherefore are you ruining this soil and cleaving and scattering it?’
کین زمین را از چه ویران می‌کنی ** می‌شکافی و پریشان می‌کنی
‘O fool,’ said he, ‘begone, do not interfere with me: recognise (the difference of) cultivation from devastation.
گفت ای ابله برو و بر من مران ** تو عمارت از خرابی باز دان
How should this (soil) become a rose-garden or cornfield till this soil becomes ugly and ruined?
کی شود گلزار و گندم‌زار این ** تا نگردد زشت و ویران این زمین
How should it become orchards and crops and leaves and fruit till its arrangement is turned upside down?’2345
کی شود بستان و کشت و برگ و بر ** تا نگردد نظم او زیر و زبر
Till you pierce the purulent ulcer with a lancet, how will it become well and how will you become healthy?
تا بنشکافی به نشتر ریش چغز ** کی شود نیکو و کی گردید نغز
Till he (the physician) cleanse your (corrupt) humours with medicine, how will the indisposition be removed? How will a cure be effected?
تا نشوید خلطهاات از دوا ** کی رود شورش کجا آید شفا
When a tailor cuts (the cloth for) a garment piece by piece, will any one strike that expert tailor,
پاره پاره کرده درزی جامه را ** کس زند آن درزی علامه را
Saying, ‘Why have you torn this choice satin? What can I do with a torn (garment)?’
که چرا این اطلس بگزیده را ** بردریدی چه کنم بدریده را
Whenever they (the builders) put an old building in good repair, do not they first ruin the old one?2350
هر بنای کهنه که آبادان کنند ** نه که اول کهنه را ویران کنند
Likewise the carpenter, the iron-smith and the butcher—with them (too) there is destruction before restorations.
هم‌چنین نجار و حداد و قصاب ** هستشان پیش از عمارتها خراب
The pounding of myrobalan and bastard myrobalan—by reason of that destruction they become the means of restoring the body (to health).
آن هلیله و آن بلیله کوفتن ** زان تلف گردند معموری تن
Until you crush wheat in the mill, how will our table be garnished with it?
تا نکوبی گندم اندر آسیا ** کی شود آراسته زان خوان ما
(The obligation of gratitude for) that bread and salt (of thine) demanded that I should deliver thee, O fish, from the net.
آن تقاضا کرد آن نان و نمک ** که ز شستت وا رهانم ای سمک
If thou accept the counsel of Moses, thou wilt escape from such an evil infinite net.2355
گر پذیری پند موسی وا رهی ** از چنین شست بد نامنتهی
Inasmuch as thou hast made thyself the slave of sensuality, thou hast made a petty worm into a dragon.
بس که خود را کرده‌ای بنده‌ی هوا ** کرمکی را کرده‌ای تو اژدها
I have brought a dragon for (thy) dragon, that I may correct (thy dragon's) breath by (my dragon's) breath,
اژدها را اژدها آورده‌ام ** تا با صلاح آورم من دم به دم
So that the breath of that one may be defeated by the breath of this one, and that my serpent may destroy that dragon (of thine).
تا دم آن از دم این بشکند ** مار من آن اژدها را بر کند
If thou submittest, thou art freed from two serpents; otherwise, it (thy dragon) will bring thy spirit to utter perdition.”
گر رضا دادی رهیدی از دو مار ** ورنه از جانت برآرد آن دمار
He (Pharaoh) said, “In truth, thou art an exceedingly cunning sorcerer, for by craft thou hast introduced duality (disunion) here.2360
گفت الحق سخت استا جادوی ** که در افکندی به مکر اینجا دوی
Thou hast made the unanimous people into two factions: sorcery makes fissures in rock and mountain.”
خلق یک‌دل را تو کردی دو گروه ** جادوی رخنه کند در سنگ و کوه
He (Moses) said, “I am submerged in the message of God: who (ever) saw sorcery together with the name of God?
گفت هستم غرق پیغام خدا ** جادوی کی دید با نام خدا
The substance of sorcery is forgetfulness (of God) and unbelief: the spirit of Moses is the flaming torch of the (true) religion.
غفلت و کفرست مایه‌ی جادوی ** مشعله‌ی دینست جان موسوی
How do I resemble sorcerers, O impudent one?—for the Messiah (Jesus) is becoming jealous of my (life-giving) breath.
من به جادویان چه مانم ای وقیح ** کز دمم پر رشک می‌گردد مسیح
How do I resemble sorcerers, O polluted one?—for the (Revealed) Books are receiving light from my spirit.2365
من به جادویان چه مانم ای جنب ** که ز جانم نور می‌گیرد کتب
Since thou art soaring on the wings of sensuality, inevitably thou bearest (in thy heart) that (ill) thought against me.”
چون تو با پر هوا بر می‌پری ** لاجرم بر من گمان آن می‌بری
Every one whose actions are those of wild beasts hath ill thoughts against the noble.
هر کرا افعال دام و دد بود ** بر کریمانش گمان بد بود
Since thou art a part of the world, howsoever thou art thou deemest all to be of the same description as thyself, misguided man.
چون تو جزو عالمی هر چون بوی ** کل را بر وصف خود بینی سوی
If thou whirl round and thy head whirl round, thy (organ of) sight sees the house whirling round;
گر تو برگردی و بر گردد سرت ** خانه را گردنده بیند منظرت
And if thou embark in a ship moving on the sea, thou deemest the seashore to be running (along).2370
ور تو در کشتی روی بر یم روان ** ساحل یم را همی بینی دوان
If thou art narrow (oppressed) at heart from (being engaged in) combat, thou deemest the whole atmosphere of the world to be narrow;
گر تو باشی تنگ‌دل از ملحمه ** تنگ بینی جمله دنیا را همه
And if thou art happy as thy friends would desire, this world seems to thee like a garden of roses.
ور تو خوش باشی به کام دوستان ** این جهان بنمایدت چون گلستان
How many a one has gone as far as Syria and ‘Iráq and has seen nothing but unbelief and hypocrisy;
ای بسا کس رفته تا شام و عراق ** او ندیده هیچ جز کفر و نفاق
And how many a one has gone as far as India and Hirá (Herát) and seen nothing but selling and buying;
وی بسا کس رفته تا هند و هری ** او ندیده جز مگر بیع و شری
And how many a one has gone as far as Turkistán and China and seen nothing but deceit and hidden guile!2375
وی بسا کس رفته ترکستان و چین ** او ندیده هیچ جز مکر و کمین
Since he has no object of perception save colour and perfume (external phenomena), let him seek (through) all the climes, (he will see nothing spiritual).
چون ندارد مدرکی جز رنگ و بو ** جمله‌ی اقلیمها را گو بجو
(If) a cow come suddenly into Baghdád and pass from this side (of the city) to that (farther) side,
گاو در بغداد آید ناگهان ** بگذرد او زین سران تا آن سران
Of all (its) pleasures and joys and delights she will see nothing but the rind of a water-melon.
از همه عیش و خوشیها و مزه ** او نبیند جز که قشر خربزه
(If) straw or hay has fallen on the road, (it is) suitable to his (such a one's) bovine or asinine disposition.
که بود افتاده بر ره یا حشیش ** لایق سیران گاوی یا خریش
(Hanging) dry on the nail of (his bestial) nature, like strips of meat (exposed to the sun), his spirit, bound with (the cords of) secondary causes, does not grow;2380
خشک بر میخ طبیعت چون قدید ** بسته‌ی اسباب جانش لا یزید
But the spacious realm where means and causes are torn to shreds (transcended) is the earth of God, O most honourable sire.
وان فضای خرق اسباب و علل ** هست ارض الله ای صدر اجل
It is ever changing, like a (fleeting) picture: the spirit beholds in clairvoyance a world (appearing) anew and anew.
هر زمان مبدل شود چون نقش جان ** نو به نو بیند جهانی در عیان
(Everything), though it be Paradise and the rivers of Eden, becomes ugly when it is congealed (fixed permanently) in one aspect.
گر بود فردوس و انهار بهشت ** چون فسرده‌ی یک صفت شد گشت زشت
Explaining that every percipient sense of man has different objects of perception too, of which the other senses are ignorant, as (for example) every skilled craftsman is unfamiliar with the work of those skilled in other crafts; and its (another sense's) ignorance of that which is not its business does not prove that those objects of perception are non-existent. Although it virtually denies them, yet here in this place we only mean by its ‘denial’ its ignorance.
بیان آنک هر حس مدرکی را از آدمی نیز مدرکاتی دیگرست کی از مدرکات آن حس دگر بی‌خبرست چنانک هر پیشه‌ور استاد اعجمی کار آن استاد دگر پیشه‌ورست و بی‌خبری او از آنک وظیفه‌ی او نیست دلیل نکند کی آن مدرکات نیست اگر چه به حکم حال منکر بود آن را اما از منکری او اینجا جز بی‌خبری نمی‌خواهیم درین مقام
Thy perception is the measure of thy vision of the world: thy impure senses are the veil (which prevents thee from having sight) of the pure (holy men).