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5
1953-2002

  • When that Prince (Iblís) had laid thorns on this road, every one that was wounded (by them) cried, “Curse Iblís!”
  • Meaning to say, “This pain is (fallen) upon me through his treachery”: he (Iblís) who is taken as a model (by the wicked) was the first to tread the path of treason.
  • Truly, generation on generation came (into being) after him, and all set their feet on his way (followed his practice). 1955
  • Whosoever institutes an evil practice, O youth, in order that people may blindly fall in after him,
  • All their guilt is collected (and piled) on him, for he has been (as) a head (to them), while they are (like) the root of the tail.
  • But Adam brought forward (and kept in view) the rustic shoon and sheepskin jacket, saying, “I am of clay.”
  • By him, as by Ayáz, those shoon were (often) visited: consequently he was lauded in the end.
  • The Absolute Being is a worker in non-existence: what but non-existence is the workshop (working material) of the Maker of existence? 1960
  • Does one write anything on what is (already) written over, or plant a sapling in a place (already) planted?
  • (No); he seeks a sheet of paper that has not been written on and sows the seed in a place that has not been sown.
  • Be thou, O brother, a place unsown; be a white paper untouched by writing,
  • That thou mayst be ennobled by Nún wa ’l-Qalam, and that the Gracious One may sow seed within thee.
  • Assume, indeed, that thou hast never licked (tasted) this pálúda (honeycake); assume that thou hast never seen the kitchen which thou hast seen, 1965
  • Because from this pálúda intoxications arise, and the sheepskin jacket and the shoon depart from thy memory.
  • When the death-agony comes, thou wilt utter a (great) cry of lamentation: in that hour thou wilt remember thy ragged cloak and clumsy shoon;
  • (But) until thou art drowning in the waves of an evil plight in which there is no help (to be obtained) from any refuge,
  • Thou wilt never call to mind the right ship (for thy voyage): thou wilt never look at thy shoon and sheepskin jacket.
  • When thou art left helpless in the overwhelming waters of destruction, then thou wilt incessantly make (the words) we have done wrong thy litany; 1970
  • (But) the Devil will say, “Look ye at this half-baked (fool)! Cut off the head of this untimely bird (this cock that crows too late)!”
  • Far from the wisdom of Ayáz is this characteristic, (namely), that his prayer should be uttered without (being a real) prayer.
  • He has been the cock of Heaven from of old: all his crowings are (taking place) at their (proper) time.
  • On the meaning of this (Tradition), “Show unto us the things as they are (in reality)”; and on the meaning of this (saying), “If the covering were lifted, my certainty would not be increased”; and on his (the poet's) verse: “When thou regardest any one with a malign eye, thou art regarding him from the hoop (narrow circle) of thy (self-)existence.” (Hemistich): “The crooked ladder casts a crooked shadow.”
  • O cocks, learn crowing from him: he crows for God's sake, not for the sake of pence.
  • The false dawn comes and does not deceive him: the false dawn is the World with its good and evil. 1975
  • The worldly people had defective understandings, so that they deemed it to be the true dawn.
  • The false dawn has waylaid (many) caravans which have set out in hope of the daybreak.
  • May the false dawn not be the people's guide! for it gives many caravans to the wind (of destruction).
  • O thou who hast become captive to the false dawn, do not regard the true dawn also as false.
  • If thou (thyself) hast no protection (art not exempt) from hypocrisy and wickedness, wherefore shouldst thou impute the same (vices) to thy brother? 1980
  • The evil-doer is always thinking ill (of others): he reads his own book as referring to his neighbour.
  • The wretches who have remained (sunk) in (their own) unrighteous qualities have called the prophets magicians and unrighteous;
  • And those base Amírs, (who were) forgers of falsehood, conceived this evil thought about the chamber of Ayáz,
  • (Supposing) that he kept there a buried hoard and treasure. Do not look at others in the mirror of thyself!
  • The King, indeed, knew his innocence: (only) on their account was he making that investigation, 1985
  • Saying, “O Amír, open the door of the chamber at midnight, when he (Ayáz) will be unaware of it,
  • In order that his (secret) thoughts may come to light: afterwards it rests with me to punish him.
  • I bestow the gold and jewels upon you: of those riches I desire naught but the information (concerning them).”
  • Thus he spoke, while his heart was throbbing on account of the incomparable Ayáz,
  • (Thinking), “Is it I who am uttering this (command)? How (grieved) he will be if he hear of this injustice!” 1990
  • Again he says (to himself), “By the truth of his religion, (I vow) that his constancy is too great
  • For him to be annoyed by my foul aspersion and heedless of my purpose and meaning.
  • When an afflicted person has perceived the (true) interpretations (reasons) of his pain, he sees the victory: how should he be vanquished by the pain?
  • The (true) interpreter (of suffering) is (like) the patient Ayáz, for he is contemplating the ocean of ends (ultimate consequences).
  • To him, as to Joseph, the interpretation of the dream of these prisoners (in the world) is evident. 1995
  • How should the goodly man who is aware of the meaning of the dreams of others be ignorant of (the meaning of) his own dream?
  • If I give him a hundred stabs with my sword by way of trial, the union (concord) of that loving one (with me) will not be diminished.
  • He knows I am wielding that sword against myself: I am he in reality and he is I.”
  • Setting forth the real oneness of the lover and the beloved, although they are contrary to each other from the point of view that want is the opposite of wanting nothing. So a mirror is formless and pure, and formlessness is the opposite of form, yet in reality they have a oneness with each other which is tedious to explain: a hint is enough for the wise.
  • From grief for a (long) separation (from Laylá) there came suddenly a sickness into the body of Majnún.
  • (Heated) by the flame of longing his blood boiled up, so that (the symptoms of) quinsy appeared in that mad (lover). 2000
  • Thereupon the physician came to treat him and said, “There is no resource but to bleed him.
  • Bleeding is necessary in order to remove the blood.” (So) a skilled phlebotomist came thither,