Do not endure all this anguish for the sake of (mere) forms: grasp the reality without (suffering) headache on account of a form. بهر صورتها مکش چندین زحیر ** بی‌صداع صورتی معنی بگیر
The ascetic feels anxiety concerning his latter end: (he considers) what will be his plight on the Day of Reckoning; 4065 هست زاهد را غم پایان کار ** تا چه باشد حال او روز شمار
(But) the gnostics, having become conscious of the beginning, are free from anxiety and (care for) the ultimate conditions. عارفان ز آغاز گشته هوشمند ** از غم و احوال آخر فارغ‌اند
(Formerly) the gnostic had the same fear and hope (as the ascetic), (but) his knowledge of the past devoured both those (feelings). بود عارف را همین خوف و رجا ** سابقه‌دانیش خورد آن هر دو را
He perceived that in the past he had sown pulse: he knows what the produce will be. دید کو سابق زراعت کرد ماش ** او همی‌داند چه خواهد بود چاش
He is a gnostic and has been delivered from fear and dread: the sword of God has cut lamentation asunder عارفست و باز رست از خوف و بیم ** های هو را کرد تیغ حق دو نیم
(Formerly) he had from God (feelings of) fear and hope: the fear has passed away and the hope has come into clear view. 4070 بود او را بیم و اومید از خدا ** خوف فانی شد عیان گشت آن رجا
When he (Ayáz) broke that choice pearl, thereupon from the Amirs arose a hundred clamours and outcries— چون شکست او گوهر خاص آن زمان ** زان امیران خاست صد بانگ و فغان
“What recklessness is this! By God, whoever has broken this luminous pearl is an infidel”— کین چه بی‌باکیست والله کافرست ** هر که این پر نور گوهر را شکست
And (yet) the whole company (of Amirs) in their ignorance and blindness had broken the pearl of the King’s command. وآن جماعت جمله از جهل و عما ** در شکسته در امر شاه را
The precious pearl, the product of love and affection—why was it (ever) veiled from hearts like those? قیمتی گوهر نتیجه‌ی مهر و ود ** بر چنان خاطر چرا پوشیده شد
How the Amirs reviled Ayáz, saying, “Why did he break it?” and how Ayáz answered them. تشنیع زدن امرا بر ایاز کی چرا شکستش و جواب دادن ایاز ایشان را
Ayáz said, “O renowned princes, is the King’s command more precious or the pearl? 4075 گفت ایاز ای مهتران نامور ** امر شه بهتر به قیمت یا گهر
In your eyes is the command of the sovereign or this goodly pearl superior? For God’s sake (tell me that)! امر سلطان به بود پیش شما ** یا که این نیکو گهر بهر خدا
O ye whose gaze is (fixed) upon the pearl, not upon the King, the ghoul is your object of desire, not the highway. ای نظرتان بر گهر بر شاه نه ** قبله‌تان غولست و جاده‌ی راه نه
I will never avert my gaze from the King, I will not turn my face towards a stone, like the polytheist. من ز شه بر می‌نگردانم بصر ** من چو مشرک روی نارم با حجر
Devoid of the (spiritual) pearl is the soul that prefers a coloured stone and puts my King behind.” بی‌گهر جانی که رنگین سنگ را ** برگزیند پس نهد شاه مرا
Turn thy back towards the rose-colored doll, lose thy reason in Him who bestows the colour. 4080 پشت سوی لعبت گل‌رنگ کن ** عقل در رنگ‌آورنده دنگ کن
Come into the river (of reality), dash the pitcher (of phenomenal form) against the stone, set fire to (mere) scent and colour. اندر آ در جو سبو بر سنگ زن ** آتش اندر بو و اندر رنگ زن
If thou art not one of the brigands on the Way of the Religion, do not be addicted, like women, to colour and scent. گر نه‌ای در راه دین از ره‌زنان ** رنگ و بو مپرست مانند زنان
Those princes cast down their heads, craving with (all) their soul to be excused for that (act of) forgetfulness. سر فرود انداختند آن مهتران ** عذرجویان گشه زان نسیان به جان
At that moment from the heart of each one (of them) two hundred sighs were going (up), like a (great) smoke, to heaven. از دل هر یک دو صد آه آن زمان ** هم‌چو دودی می‌شدی تا آسمان
The King made a sign to the ancient executioner, as though to say, "Remove these vile wretches from my seat of honour. 4085 کرد اشارت شه به جلاد کهن ** که ز صدرم این خسان را دور کن
How are these vile wretches worthy of my seat of honour, when they break my command for the sake of a stone? این خسان چه لایق صدر من‌اند ** کز پی سنگ امر ما را بشکنند
For the sake of a coloured stone my command is held contemptible and cheap by evil-doers like these.” امر ما پیش چنین اهل فساد ** بهر رنگین سنگ شد خوار و کساد
How the King was about to kill the Amirs, and how Ayáz made intercession before the royal throne, saying, “‘Tis better to forgive.” قصد شاه به کشتن امرا و شفاعت کردن ایاز پیش تخت سلطان کی ای شاه عالم العفو اولی
Then Ayáz, who was abounding in love, sprang up and ran to the throne of that mighty Sultan. پس ایاز مهرافزا بر جهید ** پیش تخت آن الغ سلطان دوید
He made a prostration and spoke with bated breath, saying, "O Emperor at whom the celestial sphere is astounded, سجده‌ای کرد و گلوی خود گرفت ** کای قبادی کز تو چرخ آرد شگفت
O Humá from whom (all) humá’s have (their) auspiciousness, and every man (his) generosity, 4090 ای همایی که همایان فرخی ** از تو دارند و سخاوت هر سخی
O Noble One before whose self-sacrifice (all) acts of nobility in the world are hidden (eclipsed) and disappear, ای کریمی که کرمهای جهان ** محو گردد پیش ایثارت نهان
O Lovely One whom the red rose beheld and tore its shirt in shame, ای لطیفی که گل سرخت بدید ** از خجالت پیرهن را بر درید
Forgiveness (itself) is fully content with thy forgivingness: because of thy pardon the foxes prevail over the lion. از غفوری تو غفران چشم‌سیر ** روبهان بر شیر از عفو تو چیر
Whosoever treats thy command with insolence, whom should he have to support him except thy pardon? جز که عفو تو کرا دارد سند ** هر که با امر تو بی‌باکی کند
The heedlessness and irreverence of these sinners arise from the abundance of thy pardon (clemency), O mine of pardon." 4095 غفلت و گستاخی این مجرمان ** از وفور عفو تست ای عفولان
Heedlessness always grows up from irreverence, for (only) reverence will remove the inflammation from the eye . دایما غفلت ز گستاخی دمد ** که برد تعظیم از دیده رمد
The heedlessness and wicked forgetfulness (which) he (the sinner) has learned will be consumed by the fire of reverence. غفلت و نسیان بد آموخته ** ز آتش تعظیم گردد سوخته
Awe (of God) will bestow on him wakefulness and keen wittedness: negligence and forgetfulness will leap forth from his heart. هیبتش بیداری و فطنت دهد ** سهو نسیان از دلش بیرون جهد
Folk do not fall asleep at the time of a raid, lest any one should carry off his (the sleeper’s) cloak. وقت غارت خواب ناید خلق را ** تا بنرباید کسی زو دلق را
Since sleep is banished by fear for one’s cloak, how should the sleep of forgetfulness be (possible when accompanied) with fear for one’s throat? 4100 خواب چون در می‌رمد از بیم دلق ** خواب نسیان کی بود با بیم حلق
(The text) do not punish (us) if we forget is evidence that forgetfulness too, in a certain way, is sinful, لاتاخذ ان نسینا شد گواه ** که بود نسیان بوجهی هم گناه
Because he (who was forgetful) did not attain to complete reverence, or else forgetfulness would not have assailed him زانک استکمال تعظیم او نکرد ** ورنه نسیان در نیاوردی نبرد
Although (his) forgetfulness was necessary and inevitable, (yet) he was a free agent in employing the means (by which it was produced); گرچه نسیان لابد و ناچار بود ** در سبب ورزیدن او مختار بود
For he showed remissness in his feelings of reverence, so that forgetfulness was born or negligence and trespass. که تهاون کرد در تعظیمها ** تا که نسیان زاد یا سهو و خطا
(‘Tis) like (the case of) the drunken man who commits sins and says, “I was excused from (responsibility for) myself” 4105 هم‌چو مستی کو جنایتها کند ** گوید او معذور بودم من ز خود
“But,” says he (the other) to him, “the cause (of your sin), (consisting) in the loss of that power to choose, proceeded from you, O evil-doer. گویدش لیکن سبب ای زشتکار ** از تو بد در رفتن آن اختیار
Your senselessness did not come of itself, you invited it; your power to choose did not go of itself, you drove it away. بی‌خودی نامد بخود تش خواندی ** اختیارت خود نشد تش راندی
If an intoxication had come (upon you) without exertion on your part, the spiritual Cup-bearer would have kept your covenant (inviolate). گر رسیدی مستی بی‌جهد تو ** حفظ کردی ساقی جان عهد تو
He would have been your backer and intercessor: I am devoted to the sin of him who is intoxicated by God.” پشت‌دارت بودی او و عذرخواه ** من غلام زلت مست اله
(Ayáz said), “The forgivenesses of the whole world are (but) a mote—the reflexion of thy forgiveness, O thou from whom comes, every fortune. 4110 عفوهای جمله عالم ذره‌ای ** عکس عفوت ای ز تو هر بهره‌ای
(All) forgivenesses sing the praise of thy forgiveness: there is no peer to it. O people, beware (of comparing it)! عفوها گفته ثنای عفو تو ** نیست کفوش ایها الناس اتقوا
Grant them their lives, neither banish them from thyself: they are (the objects of) thy sweet desire, O thou who bringest (all thy) desire to fruition. جانشان بخش و ز خودشان هم مران ** کام شیرین تو اند ای کامران
Have mercy on him that beheld thy face: how shall he endure the bitter separation from thee? رحم کن بر وی که روی تو بدید ** فرقت تلخ تو چون خواهد کشید