English    Türkçe    فارسی   

6
1905-1954

  • Since you are pleased and happy with your disposition, then why are you fleeing from that which is appropriate to your disposition? 1905
  • (If) feminality pleases you, get a chádar; (if) the prowess of Rustam pleases you, get a dagger.
  • This topic hath no end, and (meanwhile) the fakir has been sorely wounded by the blows of penury.
  • Story of the treasure-scroll (in which it was written), “Beside a certain domed building turn your face towards the qibla (Mecca) and put an arrow to the bow and shoot: the treasure is (buried) at the spot where it falls.”
  • One night he dreamed—but where was sleep? The vision without sleep is familiar to the Súfí—
  • (That) a heavenly voice said to him, “O you who have seen trouble, search among the (loose) leaves of handwriting sold (as models) by stationers for a certain scroll.
  • Unobserved by the stationer who is your neighbour, bring your hand into touch with his papers. 1910
  • It is a scroll of such a shape and such a colour: then (as soon as possible) read it in privacy, O sorrowful one.
  • When you steal it from the stationer, my lad, then go out of the crowd and the noise and turmoil,
  • And read it by yourself in some lonely place: beware, do not seek any partnership in reading it.
  • But even if it (the secret) be divulged, do not be anxious, for none but you will get (so much as) half a barley-corn thereof.
  • And if it (the affair) be long drawn out, beware and take heed! Make (the text) do not ye despair your litany at every moment.” 1915
  • The (heavenly) announcer of the good news said this and put his hand on his (the fakir's) heart, saying, “Go, endure the toil.”
  • When the youth came back to himself after the absence, on account of his joy he could not be contained in the world.
  • Had it not been for the tender care and protection and favour of God, his gallbladder would have burst from agitation.
  • One (cause of) joy was this, that after (having passed through) six hundred veils his ear had heard the answer (to his prayer) from the (Divine) Presence.
  • When his auditory sense had pierced through the veils, he raised his head aloft and passed beyond the skies, 1920
  • (Thinking) that maybe, by taking the lesson to heart, his sense of sight would also find a passage through the veil of the Unseen,
  • And that when (both) his senses had passed through the veil, his vision and allocution (from God) would then be continuous.
  • (So) he came to the stationer's shop and (for some time) was laying his hand here and there on his (the stationer's) models for writing.
  • Suddenly that piece of script, with the distinctive marks which the heavenly voice had mentioned, caught his eye.
  • He slipped it under his arm and said, “Good-bye, Khwája: I will come back presently, O master.” 1925
  • He went into a solitary nook and read it and remained lost in bewilderment and amazement,
  • (Wondering) how a priceless treasure-scroll of this sort had fallen and been left among the (stationer's) papers.
  • (Then) again the thought darted into his mind, that God is the guardian for everything,
  • (And) how should the Guardian, in (His) circumspection, let any one recklessly carry off anything?
  • Though the desert be filled with gold and (silver) money, not a single mite can be taken away without God's approval; 1930
  • And though you read a hundred volumes without a pause, you will not remember a single point (of argument) without the Divine decree;
  • But if you serve God and do not read a single book, you will learn rare sciences from your (own) bosom.
  • The hand of Moses was spreading from his bosom a radiance that surpassed the moon in the sky,
  • Saying (implicitly), “That which thou wert seeking from the terrible celestial sphere hath uprisen, O Moses, from thy own bosom,
  • In order that thou mayst know that the lofty heavens are the reflexion of the perceptive (rational) faculties of Man.” 1935
  • Is it not (the case) that the hand of the Glorious God created Reason first (of all), before (the creation of) the two worlds?
  • This discourse is clear (to some) and exceedingly recondite (to others), for the fly is not intimate with the ‘Anqá.
  • O son, return once more to the tale: bring the tale of the treasure and the fakir  to an end.
  • Conclusion of the Story of the fakir and (a description of) the signs indicating the position of the treasure.
  • This is what was written in the scroll—“Know that outside of the town a treasure is buried.
  • (Go to) such-and-such a domed building in which there is a martyr's shrine, with its back to the town and its gate towards the desert. 1940
  • Turn your back to it and face the qibla (Mecca) and then let loose an arrow from your bow.
  • When you have shot the arrow from your bow, O fortunate one, dig up the place where your arrow fell.”
  • Thereupon the youth fetched a strongbow and let fly an arrow into the expanse of (aerial) space,
  • And quickly and with great joy brought a pick-axe and mattock and dug up the spot where his arrow had fallen;
  • (But) both he and the mattock and pick-axe were worn out (in vain efforts), and he found not even a trace of the hidden treasure. 1945
  • Every day in like fashion he was shooting arrows, but never getting to know the situation of the treasure.
  • Since he made this his continual practice, a whispered rumour arose in the city and (among) the people.
  • How the news of this treasure became known and reached the ears of the king.
  • Then the party (of informers) who lay in ambush gave information of this to the king,
  • And submitted the matter (to him) secretly, saying that such-and-such an one had found a treasure-scroll.
  • When this person (the fakir) heard that it had come to (the knowledge of) the king, he saw no remedy but resignation and acquiescence; 1950
  • (So), ere he should suffer (torture on) the rack by order of the Emperor, that person laid the note (of the treasure) before him,
  • Saying, “(Ever) since I found this scroll, I have seen no treasure but (only) infinite trouble.
  • Not even a single mite of treasure has been discovered, but I have writhed very much, like a snake.
  • During a (whole) month I have been in bitter distress like this, for loss or gain (accruing) from this (treasure-scroll) is forbidden to me.