English    Türkçe    فارسی   

5
1826-1875

  • Neither outwardly hast thou any act of piety (to thy credit), nor inwardly and in thy heart an intention (to perform one);
  • No nightly orisons and vigils, no abstinence and fasting in the daytime;
  • No holding thy tongue to avoid hurting any one, no looking earnestly forward and backward.
  • What is (meant by looking) forward? To think of thy own death and last agony. What is (meant by looking) backward? (To remember) the predecease of thy friends.
  • Thou hast (in thy record) no wailful penitence for thy injustice, O rogue who showest wheat and sellest barley. 1830
  • Since thy scales were wrong and false, how shouldst thou require the scales of thy retribution to be right?
  • Since thou wert a left foot (wert going to the left) in fraud and dishonesty, how should the scroll come into thy right hand?
  • Since retribution is (like) the shadow, accordingly thy shadow, O man of bent figure, falls crookedly before thee.’”
  • (To him) from this quarter (Heaven) come (such) harsh words of rebuke that even the back of a mountain would be bowed by them.
  • The servant (of God) answers: “I am a hundred, hundred, hundred times as much as that which Thou hast declared. 1835
  • Verily, in Thy forbearance Thou hast thrown a veil over worse things (than those mentioned); otherwise (Thou mightst have declared them, for) Thou knowest with Thy knowledge (all my) shameful deeds;
  • But, outside of my own exertion and action, beyond good and evil and religion and infidelity,
  • And beyond my feeble supplication and the fancy and imagination of myself or a hundred like me,
  • Beyond living righteously or behaving disobediently—I had a (great) hope in Thy pure lovingkindness.
  • I had hope in the pure bounty (flowing) from Thy spontaneous loving kindness, O Gracious Disinterested One. 1840
  • I turn my face back to that pure grace: I am not looking towards my own actions.
  • I turn my face towards that hope, for Thou hast given me existence older than of old.
  • Thou gavest (me) existence, free of cost, as a robe of honour: I have always relied upon that (generosity).”
  • When he recounts his sins and trespasses, the Pure Bounty begins to show munificence,
  • Saying, “O angels, bring him back to Us, for his inward eye has (ever) been (turned) towards hope. 1845
  • Like one who recks of naught, We will set him free and cancel all his trespasses.
  • (To say) ‘I reck not’ is permitted to that One (alone) who loses nothing by perfidy and (gains nothing) by probity.
  • We will kindle up a goodly fire of grace, in order that no sin and fault, great or small, may endure—
  • Such a fire that the least spark of the flame thereof is consuming (all) sin and necessity and free-will.
  • We will set fire to the tenement of Man and make the thorns (in it) a spiritual garden of roses. 1850
  • We have sent from the Ninth Sphere (the highest Heaven) the elixir (namely), He will rectify for you your actions.”
  • What in sooth is Adam's (Man's) sovereignty and power of choice beside the Light of the Everlasting Abode?
  • His speaking organ is a piece of flesh; the seat of his vision is a piece of fat;
  • The seat of his hearing consists of two pieces of bone; the seat of his (intellectual) perception is two drops of blood, that is to say, the heart.
  • Thou art a little worm and art stuffed with filth; (yet) thou hast made a (great) display of pomp in the world. 1855
  • Thou wert (originally composed) of seed: relinquish egoism! O Ayáz, keep in mind that sheepskin jacket!
  • The Story of Ayáz and his having a chamber for his rustic shoon and sheepskin jacket; and how his fellow-servants thought he had a buried treasure in that room, because the door was so strong and the lock so heavy.
  • Impelled by sagacity, Ayáz hung up his sheepskin jacket and rustic shoon.
  • Every day he would go into the private chamber, (saying to himself), “These are thy shoon: do not regard thy (present) eminence.”
  • They (his rivals) said to the King (Mahmúd), “He has a chamber, and in it there is gold and silver and a jar (of treasure).
  • He admits no one into it: he always keeps the door locked.” 1860
  • The King said, “Oh, I wonder what in sooth that servant (of mine) has that is hidden and concealed from me.”
  • Then he gave orders to a certain Amír, saying, “Go at midnight and open (the door) and enter the room.
  • Whatever you find is yours: plunder him, expose his secret to the courtiers.
  • Notwithstanding such innumerable kindnesses and favours (as I have bestowed upon him), does he meanly hide silver and gold (from me)?
  • He professes loyalty and love and enthusiasm—and then (after all) he is one who shows wheat and sells barley! 1865
  • To any one who finds life in love, aught but (devoted) service would seem infidelity.”
  • At midnight the Amír with thirty trusted (officers) set out to open his chamber,
  • And all these valiant men, carrying torches, moved joyfully in that direction,
  • Saying, “’Tis the Sultan's command: let us raid the room and each of us pocket a purse of gold.”
  • “Hey!” cried one of them, “why trouble about gold?” Talk (rather) of cornelians and rubies and (all sorts of) jewels. 1870
  • He is the most privileged (keeper) of the Sultan's treasury: nay, he is now (as dear) to the King (as) life itself.”
  • What worth should rubies and corundums and emeralds or cornelians possess in the eyes of this man (so) beloved (of the King)?
  • The King had no evil thoughts of him: he was (only) making a mock (of the courtiers) by way of trial.
  • He knew him to be free from all deceitfulness and guile; (yet) again his heart was shaken with misgiving,
  • Lest this (charge) might be (true) and he (Ayáz) should be wounded (in his feelings). “I do not wish,” (he said), “that shame should come over him. 1875