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5
3411-3460

  • (One day) that family man brought home, for a guest, (some) meat (which he had procured) with infinite pains.
  • His wife ate it up with kabáb and wine: (when) the man came in, she put him off with useless words.
  • The man said to her, “Where is the meat? The guest has arrived: one must set nice food before a guest.”
  • “This cat has eaten the meat,” she replied: “hey, go and buy some more meat if you can!”
  • He said (to the servant), “O Aybak, fetch the balance: I will weigh the cat. 3415
  • He weighed her. The cat was half a mann. Then the man said, “O deceitful wife,
  • The meat was half a mann and one sitír over; the cat is just half a mann, my lady.
  • If this is the cat, then where is the meat? Or, if this is the meat, where is the cat? Search (for her)!”
  • If Báyazíd is this (body), what is that spirit? And if he is that spirit, who is this (bodily) image?
  • ’Tis bewilderment on bewilderment. O my friend, (the solution of) this (problem) is not your affair, nor is it mine either. 3420
  • He is both (spirit and body), but in the corn-crop the grain is fundamental, while the stalk is derivative.
  • (The Divine) Wisdom has bound these contraries together: O butcher, this fleshy thigh-bone goes along with the neck.
  • The spirit cannot function without the body; your body is frozen (inanimate) and cold (inert) without the spirit.
  • Your body is visible, while your spirit is hidden from view: the business of the world is conducted by means of them both.
  • If you throw earth at (some one's) head, his head will not be broken; if you throw water at his head, it will not be broken. 3425
  • If you wish to break his head, you bring the earth and the water into contact with each other (and make a lump of clay).
  • When you have broken your head, its water (the spirit) returns to its source, and earth returns to earth on the day of separation.
  • The providential purpose that God had—namely, humble supplication or obstinate contumacy—was fulfilled by means of the marriage (of body and spirit).
  • Then (afterwards) there are other marriages that no ear hath heard and no eye hath seen.
  • If the ear had heard, how should the ear have remained (in action) or how should it have apprehended words any more? 3430
  • If the snow and ice were to behold the sun, they would despair of (retaining their) iciness;
  • They would become water (formless and) devoid of roots and knobs: the air, David-like, would make of the water a mail-coat (of ripples),
  • And then it (the water) would become a life-giving medicine for every tree: every tree (would be made) fortunate by its advent.
  • (But) the frozen ice that remains (locked) within itself cries to the trees,Touch me not!
  • Its body makes none its friend nor is it made a friend by any: its portion is naught but miserly selfishness. 3435
  • It is not wasted (entirely), the heart is refreshed by it; but it is not the herald and lord of (the vernal) greenery.
  • “O Ayáz, thou art a very exalted star: not every sign of the zodiac is worthy of its transit.
  • How should thy lofty spirit be satisfied with every loyalty? How should thy pureness choose (to accept) every sincerity?”
  • Story of the Amír who bade his slave fetch some wine: the slave went off and was bringing a jug of wine, (when) an ascetic (who) was on the road admonished him that he should act righteously and threw a stone and smashed the jug; the Amír heard (of this) and resolved to punish the ascetic. That happened in the epoch of the religion of Jesus, on whom be peace, when wine had not yet been declared unlawful; but the ascetic was showing an abhorrence (for worldly pleasure) and preventing (others) from indulging themselves.
  • There was an Amír of merry heart, exceedingly fond of wine: (he was) the refuge of every drunkard and every resourceless person.
  • (He was) a compassionate man, kind to the poor and just; a jewel (of bounty), gold-lavishing, ocean-hearted; 3440
  • A king of men and commander of the Faithful; a keeper of the Way and a knower of secrets and a discerner of friends.
  • ’Twas the epoch of Jesus and the days of the Messiah: he (the Amír) was beloved of the people and unoppressive and agreeable.
  • Suddenly one night, another Amír, a person of good principles (who was) congenial to him, came seeking his hospitality.
  • They wanted wine in order to enjoy themselves: at that period wine was permissible and lawful;
  • (But) they had no wine, so he (the Amír) said to his slave, “Go, fill the jug and fetch us wine 3445
  • From such-and-such a Christian ascetic who has choice wine, that the soul (in us) may win release from high and low.”
  • One draught from the Christian ascetic's cup has the same effect as thousands of wine-jars and wine-cellars.
  • In that (Christian's) wine there is a hidden (spiritual) substance, even as (spiritual) sovereignty is (hidden) in the dervish-cloak.
  • Do not regard (merely) the tattered cloak, for they have put black on the outside of the gold.
  • On account of the evil eye he (the dervish) becomes (apparently) reprobate, and that (spiritual) ruby is tarnished with smoke on the outside. 3450
  • When are treasures and jewels (exposed to view) in the rooms of a house? Treasures are always (hidden) in ruins.
  • Since Adam's treasure was buried in a ruin, his clay became a bandage over the eye of the accursed (Iblís).
  • He (Iblís) was regarding the clay with the utmost contempt, (but) the spirit (of Adam) was saying, “My clay is a barrier to thee.”
  • The slave took two jugs and ran with goodwill: (almost) immediately he arrived at the monastery of the Christian monks.
  • He paid gold and purchased wine like gold: he gave stones and bought jewels in exchange. 3455
  • (’Twas) a wine that would fly to the head of kings and put a golden tiara on the crown of the cupbearer's head.
  • (By it) troubles and commotions are aroused, slaves and emperors are mingled together;
  • Bones vanish and become spirit entirely; throne and bench at that moment become alike.
  • They (the drinkers), when sober, are as water and oil; when intoxicated, they are as the spirit in the body.
  • They become like a harísa: no difference exists there: there is no difference that is not submerged there. 3460