Hark, do not castrate thyself, do not become a monk; for chastity is in pawn to (depends on the existence of) lust.
هین مکن خود را خصی رهبان مشو ** زانک عفت هست شهوت را گرو
Without (the existence of) sensuality ’tis impossible to forbid sensuality: heroism cannot be displayed against the dead.
بی‌هوا نهی از هوا ممکن نبود ** غازیی بر مردگان نتوان نمود
He (God) hath said ‘Spend’: therefore earn something, since there can be no expenditure without an old (previously acquired) income.
انفقوا گفتست پس کسپی بکن ** زانک نبود خرج بی‌دخل کهن
Although He used (the word) Spend absolutely, (yet) read (it as meaning) ‘Earn, then spend.’580
گر چه آورد انفقوا را مطلق او ** تو بخوان که اکسبوا ثم انفقوا
Similarly, since the King (God) has given the command ‘Refrain yourselves,’ there must be some desire from which thou shouldst avert thy face.
هم‌چنان چون شاه فرمود اصبروا ** رغبتی باید کزان تابی تو رو
Hence (the command) ‘Eat ye’ is for the sake of the snare (temptation) of appetite; after that (comes) ‘Do not exceed’: that is temperance.
پس کلوا از بهر دام شهوتست ** بعد از آن لاتسرفوا آن عفتست
When there is no ‘predicate’ (relative quality) in him (any one), the existence of the ‘subject’ (the correlative term) is impossible.
چونک محمول به نبود لدیه ** نیست ممکن بود محمول علیه
When thou hast not the pain of self-restraint, there is no protasis: therefore the apodosis (recompense) does not follow.
چونک رنج صبر نبود مر ترا ** شرط نبود پس فرو ناید جزا
How admirable is that protasis and how joyful is that apodosis (recompense), a recompense that charms the heart and increases the life of the spirit!585
حبذا آن شرط و شادا آن جزا ** آن جزای دل‌نواز جان‌فزا
Explaining that God (Himself) is the reward bestowed by Him for the (devotional) work of the lover.
در بیان آنک ثواب عمل عاشق از حق هم حق است
For (His) lovers He (alone) is (all their) joy and sorrow; He (alone) is their wages and hire for service.
عاشقان را شادمانی و غم اوست ** دست‌مزد و اجرت خدمت هم اوست
If there be any spectacle (object of regard for them) except the Beloved, ’tis not love: ’tis an idle passion.
غیر معشوق ار تماشایی بود ** عشق نبود هرزه سودایی بود
Love is that flame which, when it blazes up, consumes everything else but the Beloved.
عشق آن شعله‌ست کو چون بر فروخت ** هرچه جز معشوق باقی جمله سوخت
He (the lover) drives home the sword of Not in order to kill all other than God: thereupon consider what remains after Not.
تیغ لا در قتل غیر حق براند ** در نگر زان پس که بعد لا چه ماند
There remains except God: all the rest is gone. Hail, O mighty Love, destroyer of polytheism!590
ماند الا الله باقی جمله رفت ** شاد باش ای عشق شرکت‌سوز زفت
Verily, He is the First and the Last: do not regard polytheism as arising from aught except the eye that sees double.
خود همو بود آخرین و اولین ** شرک جز از دیده‌ی احول مبین
Oh, wonderful! Is there any beauty but from the reflexion of Him? The (human) body hath no movement but from the spirit.
ای عجب حسنی بود جز عکس آن ** نیست تن را جنبشی از غیر جان
The body that hath defect in its spirit will never become sweet, (even) if you smear it with honey.
آن تنی را که بود در جان خلل ** خوش نگردد گر بگیری در عسل
This he knows who one day was (spiritually) alive and received a cup from this Soul of the soul;
این کسی داند که روزی زنده بود ** از کف این جان جان جامی ربود
While to him whose eye has not beheld those (beauteous) cheeks this smoky heat is (appears to be) the spirit.595
وانک چشم او ندیدست آن رخان ** پیش او جانست این تف دخان
Inasmuch as he never saw ‘Umar (ibn) ‘Abdu ’l-‘Azíz, to him even Hajjáj seems just.
چون ندید او عمر عبدالعزیز ** پیش او عادل بود حجاج نیز
Inasmuch as he never saw the firmness (unshakable strength) of the dragon of Moses, he fancies (there is) life in the magic cords.
چون ندید او مار موسی را ثبات ** در حبال سحر پندارد حیات
The bird that has never drunk the limpid water keeps its wings and feathers in the briny water.
مرغ کو ناخورده است آب زلال ** اندر آب شور دارد پر و بال
No opposite can be known except through its opposite: (only) when he (any one) suffers blows will he know (the value of) kindness.
جز به ضد ضد را همی نتوان شناخت ** چون ببیند زخم بشناسد نواخت
Consequently the present life has come in front (first), in order that you may appreciate the realm of Alast.600
لاجرم دنیا مقدم آمدست ** تا بدانی قدر اقلیم الست
When you are delivered from this place and go to that place, you will give thanks (to God) in the sugar-shop of everlastingness.
چون ازینجا وا رهی آنجا روی ** در شکرخانه‌ی ابد شاکر شوی
You will say, ‘There (in the world below) I was sifting dust, I was fleeing from this pure world.
گویی آنجا خاک را می‌بیختم ** زین جهان پاک می‌بگریختم
Alas, would that I had died ere now, so that my (time of) being tormented in the mud might have been less!’
ای دریغا پیش ازین بودیم اجل ** تا عذابم کم بدی اندر وجل
Commentary on the saying of the Prophet, on whom be peace, “None ever died without wishing, if he was a righteous man, that he had died before he (actually) died, in order that he might sooner attain unto felicity; and if he was a wicked man, in order that his wickedness might be less.”
در تفسیر قول رسول علیه‌السلام ما مات من مات الا و تمنی ان یموت قبل ما مات ان کان برا لیکون الی وصول البر اعجل و ان کان فاجرا لیقل فجوره
Hence the wise Prophet has said that no one who dies and dismounts from (the steed of) the body
زین بفرمودست آن آگه رسول ** که هر آنک مرد و کرد از تن نزول
Feels grief on account of departure and death, but (only) grieves because of having failed (in good works) and missed his opportunities.605
نبود او را حسرت نقلان و موت ** لیک باشد حسرت تقصیر و فوت
In sooth every one that dies wishes that the departure to his destination had been earlier:
هر که میرد خود تمنی باشدش ** که بدی زین پیش نقل مقصدش
If he be wicked, in order that his wickedness might have been less; and if devout, in order that he might have come home sooner.
گر بود بد تا بدی کمتر بدی ** ور تقی تا خانه زوتر آمدی
The wicked man says, ‘I have been heedless, moment by moment I have been adding to the veil (of sin).
گوید آن بد بی‌خبر می‌بوده‌ام ** دم به دم من پرده می‌افزوده‌ام
If my passing (from the world) had taken place sooner, this screen and veil of mine would have been less.’
گر ازین زودتر مرا معبر بدی ** این حجاب و پرده‌ام کمتر بدی
Do not in covetousness rend the face of contentment, and do not in pride rend the visage of humility.610
از حریصی کم دران روی قنوع ** وز تکبر کم دران چهره‌ی خشوع
Likewise do not in avarice rend the face of munificence, and in devilishness the beauteous countenance of worship.
هم‌چنین از بخل کم در روی جود ** وز بلیسی چهره‌ی خوب سجود
Do not tear out those feathers which are an ornament to Paradise: do not tear out those feathers which (enable thee to) traverse the Way.”
بر مکن آن پر خلد آرای را ** بر مکن آن پر ره‌پیمای را
When he (the peacock) heard this counsel, he looked at him (the Sage) and, after that, began to lament and weep.
چون شنید این پند در وی بنگریست ** بعد از آن در نوحه آمد می‌گریست
The long lamentation and weeping of the sorrowful (peacock) caused every one who was there to fall a-weeping;
نوحه و گریه‌ی دراز دردمند ** هر که آنجا بود بر گریه‌ش فکند
And he who was asking the reason of (the peacock's) tearing out his feathers, (he too being left) without an answer repented (of having asked) and wept,615
وآنک می‌پرسید پر کندن ز چیست ** بی‌جوابی شد پشیمان می‌گریست
Saying, “Why did I impertinently ask him (that question)? He was full of grief: I made him distraught.”
کز فضولی من چرا پرسیدمش ** او ز غم پر بود شورانیدمش
From his (the peacock's) moist eyes the water (of tears) was trickling to the earth: in every drop were contained a hundred answers.
می‌چکید از چشم تر بر خاک آب ** اندر آن هر قطره مدرج صد جواب
Sincere weeping touches the souls (of all), so that it makes (even) the sky and heaven to weep.
گریه‌ی با صدق بر جانها زند ** تا که چرخ و عرش را گریان کند
Without any doubt, intellects and hearts (spirits) are celestial, (though) they live debarred from the celestial light.
عقل و دلها بی‌گمان عرشی‌اند ** در حجاب از نور عرشی می‌زیند
Explaining that the intellect and spirit are imprisoned in clay, like Hárút and Márút in the pit of Babylon.
در بیان آنک عقل و روح در آب و گل محبوس‌اند هم‌چون هاروت و ماروت در چاه بابل
Like Hárút and Márút, those two pure ones (the intellect and spirit) have been confined here (in this world) in a horrible pit.620
هم‌چو هاروت و چو ماروت آن دو پاک ** بسته‌اند اینجا به چاه سهمناک
They are in the low and sensual world: they have been confined in this pit on account of sin.
عالم سفلی و شهوانی درند ** اندرین چه گشته‌اند از جرم‌بند
The good and the evil (alike) learn magic and the opposite of magic from these twain involuntarily;
سحر و ضد سحر را بی‌اختیار ** زین دو آموزند نیکان و شرار
But first they admonish him, saying, “Beware, do not learn and pick up magic from us:
لیک اول پند بدهندش که هین ** سحر را از ما میاموز و مچین
We teach this magic, O such and such, for the purpose of trial and probation;
ما بیاموزیم این سحر ای فلان ** از برای ابتلا و امتحان
(But thou art free to choose), for probation necessarily involves free-will, and thou canst not have any (effective) free-will without the power (of action).”625
که امتحان را شرط باشد اختیار ** اختیاری نبودت بی‌اقتدار
Desires are like sleeping dogs: good and evil are hidden in them.
میلها هم‌چون سگان خفته‌اند ** اندریشان خیر و شر بنهفته‌اند