Whether the pure ruby loves itself or whether it loves the sun,
خواه خود را دوست دارد لعل ناب ** خواه تا او دوست دارد آفتاب
There is really no difference in these two loves: both sides (aspects) are naught but the radiance of the sunrise.2030
اندرین دو دوستی خود فرق نیست ** هر دو جانب جز ضیای شرق نیست
Until it (the stone) has become a ruby, it is an enemy to itself, because it is not a single “I”: two “I's” are there;
تا نشد او لعل خود را دشمنست ** زانک یک من نیست آنجا دو منست
For the stone is dark and blind to the day (-light): the dark is essentially opposed to light.
زانک ظلمانیست سنگ و روزکور ** هست ظلمانی حقیقت ضد نور
(If) it love itself, it is an infidel, because it offers intense resistance to the supreme Sun.
خویشتن را دوست دارد کافرست ** زانک او مناع شمس اکبرست
Therefore ’tis not fitting that the stone should say “I,” (for) it is wholly darkness and in (the state of) death.
پس نشاید که بگوید سنگ انا ** او همه تاریکیست و در فنا
A Pharaoh said “I am God” and was laid low; a Mansúr (Halláj) said “I am God” and was saved.2035
گفت فرعونی انا الحق گشت پست ** گفت منصوری اناالحق و برست
The former “I” is followed by God's curse and the latter “I” by God's mercy, O loving man;
آن انا را لعنة الله در عقب ** وین انا را رحمةالله ای محب
For that one (Pharaoh) was a black stone, this one (Halláj) a cornelian; that one was an enemy to the Light, and this one passionately enamoured (of it).
زانک او سنگ سیه بد این عقیق ** آن عدوی نور بود و این عشیق
This “I,” O presumptuous meddler, was “He” (God) in the inmost consciousness, through oneness with the Light, not through (belief in) the doctrine of incarnation.
این انا هو بود در سر ای فضول ** ز اتحاد نور نه از رای حلول
Strive that thy stony nature may be diminished, so that thy stone may become resplendent with the qualities of the ruby.
جهد کن تا سنگیت کمتر شود ** تا به لعلی سنگ تو انور شود
Show fortitude in (enduring) self-mortification and affliction; continually behold everlasting life in dying to self.2040
صبر کن اندر جهاد و در عنا ** دم به دم می‌بین بقا اندر فنا
(Then) thy stoniness will become less at every moment, the nature of the ruby will be strengthened in thee.
وصف سنگی هر زمان کم می‌شود ** وصف لعلی در تو محکم می‌شود
The qualities of (self-)existence will depart from thy body, the qualities of intoxication (ecstasy) will increase in thy head (thy spiritual centre).
وصف هستی می‌رود از پیکرت ** وصف مستی می‌فزاید در سرت
Become entirely hearing, like an ear, in order that thou mayst gain an ear-ring of ruby.
سمع شو یکبارگی تو گوشوار ** تا ز حلقه‌ی لعل یابی گوشوار
If thou art a man, dig earth, like a well-digger, from this earthen body, that thou mayst reach some water;
هم‌چو چه کن خاک می‌کن گر کسی ** زین تن خاکی که در آبی رسی
(And) if the pull (inspiration) of God come (to thee), the running water will bubble up from the earth without thy well having been dug.2045
گر رسد جذبه‌ی خدا آب معین ** چاه ناکنده بجوشد از زمین
Be always working, do not pay heed to that (hope of being enabled to dispense with work): keep scraping away the earth of the (bodily) well little by little.
کار می‌کن تو بگوش آن مباش ** اندک اندک خاک چه را می‌تراش
To every one who suffers a tribulation there is revealed a treasure: every one who makes an earnest endeavour comes into a fortune.
هر که رنجی دید گنجی شد پدید ** هر که جدی کرد در جدی رسید
The Prophet hath said that acts of genuflexion and prostration (in the ritual prayer) are (equivalent to) knocking the door-ring of (mystical) attainment on the Divine Portal.
گفت پیغمبر رکوعست و سجود ** بر در حق کوفتن حلقه‌ی وجود
When any one continues to knock that door-ring, felicity peeps out for his sake.
حلقه‌ی آن در هر آنکو می‌زند ** بهر او دولت سری بیرون کند
How the Amír who was the author of the mischievous intrigue came at midnight with his officers to open the chamber of Ayáz, and saw the sheepskin jacket and rustic shoon hanging (there) and supposed that this was a trick and pretence; and how he dug up every suspected corner and brought excavators and made holes in the walls and discovered nothing and fell into confusion and despair. So (it is with such) evil thinking men (as those) who imagined vain things about the work of the prophets and saints, saying that they were magicians and self-advertisers and (only) sought to occupy the chief position (among their people): after having investigated, they are covered with confusion, but it does not avail them.
آمدن آن امیر نمام با سرهنگان نیم‌شب بگشادن آن حجره‌ی ایاز و پوستین و چارق دیدن آویخته و گمان بردن کی آن مکرست و روپوش و خانه را حفره کردن بهر گوشه‌ای کی گمان آمد چاه کنان آوردن و دیوارها را سوراخ کردن و چیزی نایافتن و خجل و نومید شدن چنانک بدگمانان و خیال‌اندیشان در کار انبیا و اولیا کی می‌گفتند کی ساحرند و خویشتن ساخته‌اند و تصدر می‌جویند بعد از تفحص خجل شوند و سود ندارد
Those trusted (officers) came to the door of the chamber: they began to search for the treasure and the gold and the jar.2050
آن امینان بر در حجره شدند ** طالب گنج و زر و خمره بدند
A number of them, (urged) by vain desire, unlocked the door with infinite dexterity and skill;
قفل را برمی‌گشادند از هوس ** با دو صد فرهنگ و دانش چند کس
For it was a formidable lock with intricate bolts: he (Ayáz) had selected it from (many other) locks,
زانک قفل صعب و پر پیچیده بود ** از میان قفلها بگزیده بود
Not that he was avaricious of silver and riches and crude (uncoined) gold, (but) in order to hide that secret (of his) from the vulgar,
نه ز بخل سیم و مال و زر خام ** از برای کتم آن سر از عوام
“Lest” (so he thought) “some people imagine evil, (while) others call me a hypocrite.”
که گروهی بر خیال بد تنند ** قوم دیگر نام سالوسم کنند
With the man of lofty aspiration the soul's secrets are kept from the base (worldlings) more safely than the ruby in the mine.2055
پیش با همت بود اسرار جان ** از خسان محفوظ‌تر از لعل کان
To fools gold seems better than the soul; in the opinion of (spiritual) kings gold is to be scattered on the soul (as an offering).
زر به از جانست پیش ابلهان ** زر نثار جان بود نزد شهان
In greed of gold they (the officers) were hastening rapidly (to the chamber), (though) their reason was saying, “No; not so fast.”
می شتابیدند تفت از حرص زر ** عقلشان میگفت نه آهستهتر
Greed runs in vain towards the mirage, (though) reason says, "Look carefully: it is not water."
حرس تازد بیهده سوی سراب ** عقل گوید نیک بین کان نیست آب
Greed was predominant (in them), and gold had become (dear to them) as their souls: at that moment the cry of reason was unheard.
حرص غالب بود و زر چون جان شده ** نعره‌ی عقل آن زمان پنهان شده
Greed and its clamours had become hundredfold; wisdom and its suggestions had vanished,2060
گشته صدتو حرص و غوغاهای او ** گشته پنهان حکمت و ایمای او
To the end that he (the greedy man) may fall into the pit of delusion, and then hearken to the reproaches of Wisdom.
تا که در چاه غرور اندر فتد ** آنگه از حکمت ملامت بشنود
When his wind (idle self-conceit) is broken by imprisonment in the trap,the rebuking soul gets the upper hand over him.
چون ز بند دام باد او شکست ** نفس لوامه برو یابید دست
Until his head comes against the wall of affliction, his deaf ear will not listen to the counsel of his heart.
تا به دیوار بلا ناید سرش ** نشنود پند دل آن گوش کرش
Greed for walnut-cake and sugar makes the ears of children deaf to admonitions;
کودکان را حرص گوزینه و شکر ** از نصیحتها کند دو گوش کر
(Only) when the pain of his abscess begins do his (the child's) ears become open to good advice.2065
چونک دردت دنبلش آغاز شد ** در نصیحت هر دو گوشش باز شد
Then the party (of searchers), with cupidity and a hundred kinds of vain desire, opened the chamber.
حجره را با حرص و صدگونه هوس ** باز کردند آن زمان آن چند کس
They swarmed in through the doorway, jostling each other, like vermin (falling) on fetid buttermilk.
اندر افتادند از در ز ازدحام ** هم‌چو اندر دوغ گندیده هوام
They (the insects) fall on it triumphantly, like lovers, (but) there is no possibility of drinking, and both wings are stuck.
عاشقانه در فتد با کر و فر ** خورد امکان نی و بسته هر دو پر
They (the officers) looked to the left and to the right: there was (only) a torn pair of shoon and a sheepskin jacket.
بنگریدند از یسار و از یمین ** چارقی بدریده بود و پوستین
After (having looked), they said (to one another), “This place is not without balm: the shoon are only (displayed) here as a blind.2070
باز گفتند این مکان بی‌نوش نیست ** چارق اینجا جز پی روپوش نیست
Hey, bring sharp picks: try excavation and tunnelling.”
هین بیاور سیخهای تیز را ** امتحان کن حفره و کاریز را
The (searching) party dug and searched in every direction: they dug holes and deep cavities.
هر طرف کندند و جستند آن فریق ** حفره‌ها کردند و گوهای عمیق
Thereupon the holes were (virtually) crying out to them, “We are empty holes, O ye stinkers!”
حفره‌هاشان بانگ می‌داد آن زمان ** کنده‌های خالییم ای کندگان
Accordingly they (the officers) were ashamed of that (evil) thought (concerning Ayáz) and filled up the holes again.
زان سگالش شرم هم می‌داشتند ** کنده‌ها را باز می‌انباشتند
In every breast were innumerable (sighs of) lá hawl: the bird, their greed, was left without any food to peck.2075
بی‌عدد لا حول در هر سینه‌ای ** مانده مرغ حرصشان بی‌چینه‌ای
The holes in the walls and in the door were informers against them (giving intelligence) of their futile aberrations.
زان ضلالتهای یاوه‌تازشان ** حفره‌ی دیوار و در غمازشان
The wall could not possibly be plastered (repaired): there was no possibility of denying before Ayáz (what they had done);
ممکن اندای آن دیوار نی ** با ایاز امکان هیچ انکار نی
(For) if they make a pretence of being innocent, the wall and floor will bear witness (against them).
گر خداع بی‌گناهی می‌دهند ** حایط و عرصه گواهی می‌دهند