For men of reason a single indication is enough, (but) how should the thirst (longing) of lovers be removed thereby?
عاقلان را یک اشارت بس بود ** عاشقان را تشنگی زان کی رود
He (the lover) repeats his tale unweariedly: how should a fish be satisfied with (mere) indication (so as to refrain) from the limpid water?
می‌کند تکرار گفتن بی‌ملال ** کی ز اشارت بس کند حوت از زلال
He (the lover), from that ancient grief, was speaking a hundred words in complaint, saying, “I have not spoken a word.”1250
صد سخن می‌گفت زان درد کهن ** در شکایت که نگفتم یک سخن
There was a fire in him: he did not know what it was, but on account of its heat he was weeping like a candle.
آتشی بودش نمی‌دانست چیست ** لیک چون شمع از تف آن می‌گریست
The beloved said, “Thou hast done all this, yet open thine ear wide and apprehend well;
گفت معشوق این همه کردی ولیک ** گوش بگشا پهن و اندر یاب نیک
For thou hast not done what is the root of the root of love and fealty: this that thou hast done is (only) the branches.”
کانچ اصل اصل عشقست و ولاست ** آن نکردی اینچ کردی فرعهاست
The lover said to her, “Tell me, what is that root?” She said, “The root thereof is to die and be naught.
گفتش آن عاشق بگو که آن اصل چیست ** گفت اصلش مردنست ونیستیست
Thou hast done all (else), (but) thou hast not died, thou art living. Hark, die, if thou art a self-sacrificing friend!”1255
تو همه کردی نمردی زنده‌ای ** هین بمیر ار یار جان‌بازنده‌ای
Instantly he laid himself at full length (on the ground) and gave up the ghost: like the rose, he played away his head (life), laughing and rejoicing.
هم در آن دم شد دراز و جان بداد ** هم‌چو گل درباخت سر خندان و شاد
That laughter remained with him as an endowment unto everlasting, like the untroubled spirit and reason of the gnostic.
ماند آن خنده برو وقف ابد ** هم‌چو جان و عقل عارف بی‌کبد
How should the light of the moon ever become defiled, though its light strike on everything good and evil?
نور مه‌آلوده کی گردد ابد ** گر زند آن نور بر هر نیک و بد
Pure of all (defilements) it returns to the moon, even as the light of the spirit and reason (returns) unto God.
او ز جمله پاک وا گردد به ماه ** هم‌چو نور عقل و جان سوی اله
The quality of purity is an endowment (settled) on the light of the moon, though its radiance is (falling) on the defilements of the way.1260
وصف پاکی وقف بر نور مه‌است ** تا بشش گر بر نجاسات ره‌است
Malignity does not accrue to the light of the moon from those defilements of the way or from pollution.
زان نجاسات ره و آلودگی ** نور را حاصل نگردد بدرگی
The light of the sun heard (the call) Return! and came back in haste to its source.
ارجعی بشنود نور آفتاب ** سوی اصل خویش باز آمد شتاب
No disgrace remained with it from the ashpits, no colour remained with it from the rose-gardens.
نه ز گلحنها برو ننگی بماند ** نه ز گلشنها برو رنگی بماند
The light of the eye and the seer of the light returned (to their source): the desert and plain were left in passionate desire thereof.
نور دیده و نوردیده بازگشت ** ماند در سودای او صحرا و دشت
A certain man asked a mystic theologian, “If any one weep loudly during the ritual prayer and moan and lament, is his prayer rendered void?” He replied, “The name of those (tears) is ‘water of the eye’: consider what that weeper has seen: if he has seen (felt) longing for God or repentance for a sin and weeps, his prayer is not spoilt; nay, it attains perfection, for ‘there is no prayer without presence of the heart’; but if he has (inwardly) seen bodily sickness or the loss of a son, his prayer is spoilt, for the foundation of prayer is the abandonment of the body and the abandonment of sons, like Abraham, who was offering his son as a sacrifice in order to perfect his prayer and giving up his body to Nimrod's fire; and Mustafá (Mohammed), on whom be peace, was commanded (by God) to act after these manners: “follow the religion of Abraham.” “Verily ye have had a good example in Abraham.”
یکی پرسید از عالمی عارفی کی اگر در نماز کسی بگرید به آواز و آه کند و نوحه کند نمازش باطل شود جواب گفت کی نام آن آب دیده است تا آن گرینده چه دیده است اگر شوق خدا دیده است و می‌گرید یا پشیمانی گناهی نمازش تباه نشود بلک کمال گیرد کی لا صلوة الا بحضور القلب و اگر او رنجوری تن یا فراق فرزند دیده است نمازش تباه شود کی اصل نماز ترک تن است و ترک فرزند ابراهیم‌وار کی فرزند را قربان می‌کرد از بهر تکمیل نماز و تن را به آتش نمرود می‌سپرد و امر آمد مصطفی را علیه‌السلام بدین خصال کی فاتبع ملة ابراهیم لقد کانت لکم اسوة حسنة فی‌ابراهیم
A certain man asked a mufti in private, “If any one weep lamentably during the ritual prayer,1265
آن یکی پرسید از مفتی به راز ** گر کسی گرید به نوحه در نماز
I wonder, will his prayer be rendered void, or will his prayer be licit and perfect?”
آن نماز او عجب باطل شود ** یا نمازش جایز و کامل بود
He replied, “Wherefore is it named ‘the water of the eye’? You should consider what it (the eye) saw and (then) wept.
گفت آب دیده نامش بهر چیست ** بنگری تا که چه دید او و گریست
Consider what the water of the eye saw in secret, so that on that account it began to flow from its spring.
آب دیده تا چه دید او از نهان ** تا بدان شد او ز چشمه‌ی خود روان
If the supplicant has seen yonder world, that prayer (of his) gains a lustre from (his) lamentation;
آن جهان گر دیده است آن پر نیاز ** رونقی یابد ز نوحه آن نماز
But if that weeping was caused by bodily pain or by mourning (for the dead), the thread is snapped and the spindle too is broken.”1270
ور ز رنج تن بد آن گریه و ز سوک ** ریسمان بسکست و هم بشکست دوک
A disciple came in to pay his respects to the Shaykh—and by this (word) “Shaykh” I do not mean one old in years, but one old in understanding and knowledge (of God), even if he is Jesus, on whom be peace, in the cradle, or Yahyá (John the Baptist), on whom be peace, in the children's school. The disciple saw the Shaykh weeping; he too acted in conformity (with the Shaykh) and wept. When he had finished and gone forth (from the Shaykh's presence), another disciple, who was more cognisant of the Shaykh's spiritual state, impelled by (noble) jealousy, went out quickly after him and said to him, “O brother, (whatever may happen) I shall have told you: for God's sake, for God's sake, beware of thinking or saying that the Shaykh wept and you wept likewise; you must practise self-discipline without hypocrisy for thirty years, and you must traverse ravines and seas full of leviathans, and lofty mountains full of lions and leopards, that you may attain to that weeping of the Shaykh or not attain. If you attain, you will often utter thanksgiving (as immense as is the extent of the earth, described in the words of the Tradition), ‘The earth was gathered together for me.’”
مریدی در آمد به خدمت شیخ و ازین شیخ پیر سن نمی‌خواهم بلک پیرعقل و معرفت و اگر چه عیسیست علیه‌السلام در گهواره و یحیی است علیه‌السلام در مکتب کودکان مریدی شیخ را گریان دید او نیز موافقت کرد و گریست چون فارغ شد و به در آمد مریدی دیگر کی از حال شیخ واقف‌تر بود از سر غیرت در عقب او تیز بیرون آمد گفتش ای برادر من ترا گفته باشم الله الله تا نیندیشی و نگویی کی شیخ می‌گریست و من نیز می‌گریستم کی سی سال ریاضت بی‌ریا باید کرد و از عقبات و دریاهای پر نهنگ و کوههای بلند پر شیر و پلنگ می‌باید گذشت تا بدان گریه‌ی شیخ رسی یا نرسی اگر رسی شکر زویت لی الارض گویی بسیار
A disciple came into the presence of the Pír: the Pír was (engaged) in weeping and lamentation.
یک مریدی اندر آمد پیش پیر ** پیر اندر گریه بود و در نفیر
When the disciple saw the Shaykh weeping, he began to weep: the tears ran from his eyes.
شیخ را چون دید گریان آن مرید ** گشت گریان آب از چشمش دوید
The man possessed of an ear (sense of hearing) laughs once, when a friend repeats a joke to a friend; the deaf man (laughs) twice:
گوشور یک‌بار خندد کر دو بار ** چونک لاغ املی کند یاری بیار
The first time by way of conformity and affectation, because he sees the company laughing.
بار اول از ره تقلید و سوم ** که همی‌بیند که می‌خندند قوم
The deaf man laughs then like them, without knowing the (inward) state of the laughers.1275
کر بخندد هم‌چو ایشان آن زمان ** بیخبر از حالت خندندگان
Afterwards he inquires what the laughter was about, and then, having heard, he laughs a second time.
باز وا پرسد که خنده بر چه بود ** پس دوم کرت بخندد چون شنود
Hence the mere imitator (of a Shaykh), too, resembles the deaf man in respect of the (feeling of) joy that is in his head.
پس مقلد نیز مانند کرست ** اندر آن شادی که او را در سرست
It is the Shaykh's reflexion, and its source is in the Shaykh: the overflow of joy is not (derived) from the disciples; nay, it is from the Shaykh.
پرتو شیخ آمد و منهل ز شیخ ** فیض شادی نه از مریدان بل ز شیخ
Like a basket in water or a (ray of) light on glass: if they think it (comes) from themselves, ’tis (owing to) defect (of intelligence).
چون سبد در آب و نوری بر زجاج ** گر ز خود دانند آن باشد خداج
When it (the basket) is separated from the river, that perverse one will recognise that the sweet water within it was from the river;1280
چون جدا گردد ز جو داند عنود ** که اندرو آن آب خوش از جوی بود
The glass also will recognise, at the setting (of the moon), that those beams (of light) were from the beauteous shining moon.
آبگینه هم بداند از غروب ** که آن لمع بود از مه تابان خوب
When the (Divine) command “Arise!” opens his (the imitator's) eye, then he will laugh, like the (true) dawn, a second time.
چونک چشمش را گشاید امر قم ** پس بخندد چون سحر بار دوم
He will even laugh at his own (former) laughter which was produced in him in that (period of) imitation,
خنده‌ش آید هم بر آن خنده‌ی خودش ** که در آن تقلید بر می‌آمدش
And will say (to himself), “(Travelling) by all these far and long ways, and thinking that this was the Reality and that this was the Mystery and Secret,
گوید از چندین ره دور و دراز ** کین حقیقت بود و این اسرار و راز
How forsooth, in that valley (of imitation), did I rejoice from afar through blindness and confusion?1285
من در آن وادی چگونه خود ز دور ** شادیی می‌کردم از عمیا و شور
What was I fancying, and what was it (in truth)? My weak perception was showing (only) a weak image (of the reality).”
من چه می‌بستم خیال و آن چه بود ** درک سستم سست نقشی می‌نمود
Where is the thought of the (holy) men in relation to the child of the (mystic) Way? Where is his fancy in comparison with true realisation?
طفل راه را فکرت مردان کجاست ** کو خیال او و کو تحقیق راست
The thought of children is (of) the nurse or milk or raisins and walnuts or weeping and crying.
فکر طفلان دایه باشد یا که شیر ** یا مویز و جوز یا گریه و نفیر
The imitator is like a sick child, although he may have (at his disposal) subtle argumentation and (logical) proofs.
آن مقلد هست چون طفل علیل ** گر چه دارد بحث باریک و دلیل
That profundity in (dealing with) proofs and difficult problems is severing him from (spiritual) insight.1290
آن تعمق در دلیل و در شکال ** از بصیرت می‌کند او را گسیل
It took away (from him) the stock (of insight), which is the collyrium of his inmost consciousness, and applied itself to the discussion of (formal) problems.
مایه‌ای کو سرمه‌ی سر ویست ** برد و در اشکال گفتن کار بست
O imitator, turn back from Bukhárá: go to self-abasement (ba-khwárí) that thou mayst become a (spiritual) hero,
ای مقلد از بخارا باز گرد ** رو به خواری تا شوی تو شیرمرد
And that thou mayst behold within (thee) another Bukhárá, in the assembly-place whereof the champions are unlearned.
تا بخارای دگر بینی درون ** صفدران در محفلش لا یفقهون
Although the courier is a swift runner on land, when he goes to sea his sinews are broken.
پیک اگر چه در زمین چابک‌تگیست ** چون به دریا رفت بسکسته رگیست
He is only (like those of whom God says in the Qur’án) We have borne them on the land; (but) that one who is borne on the sea—he is somebody.1295
او حملناهم بود فی‌البر و بس ** آنک محمولست در بحر اوست کس
The King (God) hath great bounty: run (to receive it), O thou who hast become in pawn to an imagination and fancy.
بخشش بسیار دارد شه بدو ** ای شده در وهم و تصویری گرو
From conformity that simple disciple, too, was weeping in concert with the venerable (Shaykh);
آن مرید ساده از تقلید نیز ** گریه‌ای می‌کرد وفق آن عزیز