If you do not perceive the ark and the sea (flood) before you, (then) consider (whence come) the tremors in all your limbs.
گر نبینی کشتی و دریا به پیش ** لرزها بین در همه اجزای خویش
Since his (the trembling man's) eyes do not perceive the source of his fear, he is affrighted by diverse kinds of phantasy.
چون نبیند اصل ترسش را عیون ** ترس دارد از خیال گونه‌گون
(For example), a drunken boor strikes a blind man with his fist: the blind man thinks it is a kicking camel,
مشت بر اعمی زند یک جلف مست ** کور پندارد لگدزن اشترست
Because at that moment he heard a camel's cry: the ear, not the eye, is the mirror for the blind.
زانک آن دم بانگ اشتر می‌شنید ** کور را گوشست آیینه نه دید
(But) then again the blind man says, “No, it was a stone (which some one threw at me), or perhaps it was (a brick) from an echoing dome.”2215
باز گوید کور نه این سنگ بود ** یا مگر از قبه‌ی پر طنگ بود
It was neither this nor that nor that: He who created fear produced these (phantasies).
این نبود و او نبود و آن نبود ** آنک او ترس آفرید اینها نمود
Certainly fear and trembling are (produced) by another: nobody is frightened by himself, O sorrowful man.
ترس و لرزه باشد از غیری یقین ** هیچ کس از خود نترسد ای حزین
The miserable philosopher calls fear “imagination” (wahm): he has wrongly understood this lesson.
آن حکیمک وهم خواند ترس را ** فهم کژ کردست او این درس را
How should there be any imagination without reality? How should any false coin pass (into circulation) without a genuine one?
هیچ وهمی بی‌حقیقت کی بود ** هیچ قلبی بی‌صحیحی کی رود
How should a lie fetch a price (have value) without truth? Every lie in both worlds has arisen from truth.2220
کی دروغی قیمت آرد بی ز راست ** در دو عالم هر دروغ از راست خاست
He (the liar) saw the currency and prestige enjoyed by truth: he set going (circulated) the lie in hope of (its enjoying) the same.
راست را دید او رواجی و فروغ ** بر امید آن روان کرد او دروغ
O (incarnate) lie, whose fortune is (derived) from veracity, give thanks for the bounty and do not deny the truth!
ای دروغی که ز صدقت این نواست ** شکر نعمت گو مکن انکار راست
Shall I speak of the philosopher and his mad fancy, or of His (God's) ships (arks) and seas (floods)?
از مفلسف گویم و سودای او ** یا ز کشتیها و دریاهای او
Nay, (I will speak) of His arks, which are the spiritual counsel (given by the saints); I will speak of the whole: the part is included in the whole.
بل ز کشتیهاش کان پند دلست ** گویم از کل جزو در کل داخلست
Know every saint to be a Noah and captain of the Ark; know companionship with these (worldly) people to be the Flood.2225
هر ولی را نوح و کشتیبان شناس ** صحبت این خلق را طوفان شناس
Do not flee from lions and fierce dragons, (but) beware of friends and kinsmen.
کم گریز از شیر و اژدرهای نر ** ز آشنایان و ز خویشان کن حذر
They waste your time (when you are) face to face (with them), and your recollections of them devour (the time of) your absence (from them).
در تلاقی روزگارت می‌برند ** یادهاشان غایبی‌ات می‌چرند
Like a thirsty ass, the image of each one (in your phantasy) is licking up the sherbet of (spiritual) thought from the flagon of the body.
چون خر تشنه خیال هر یکی ** از قف تن فکر را شربت‌مکی
The (mental) image of those talebearers has sucked out of you the dew that you have (derived) from the Sea of Life.
نشف کرد از تو خیال آن وشات ** شبنمی که داری از بحر الحیات
The sign, then, of the absorption (drying up) of the water (sap) in the boughs is that they are not moved to sway (to and fro).2230
پس نشان نشف آب اندر غصون ** آن بود کان می‌نجنبد در رکون
The limb of him who is free (detached from the world) is (like) a moist fresh bough: (if) you pull it in any direction, it is (easily) pulled.
عضو حر شاخ تر و تازه بود ** می‌کشی هر سو کشیده می‌شود
If you want a basket, you can make it (a basket); you can also make its neck a hoop;
گر سبد خواهی توانی کردنش ** هم توانی کرد چنبر گردنش
(But) when it has been sucked dry by the draining of (the sap from) its root, it does not come (readily) in the direction to which (your) command is pulling it.
چون شد آن ناشف ز نشف بیخ خود ** ناید آن سویی که امرش می‌کشد
Recite, then, from the Qur’án (the words) they stand up languidly, when the bough gets no medicinal (curative) treatment from its root.
پس بخوان قاموا کسالی از نبی ** چون نیابد شاخ از بیخش طبی
This symbol (allegory) is fiery, (but) I will cut it short and resume (the story of) the fakir and the treasure and the circumstances connected with it.2235
آتشین است این نشان کوته کنم ** بر فقیر و گنج و احوالش زنم
You have seen the fire that burns every (dry) sapling; (now) see the fire of the Spirit by which phantasy is burnt.
آتشی دیدی که سوزد هر نهال ** آتش جان بین کزو سوزد خیال
Neither for phantasy nor for reality is there any protection against a fire like this which flamed forth from the Spirit.
نه خیال و نه حقیقت را امان ** زین چنین آتش که شعله زد ز جان
He is the adversary of every lion and every fox: everything is perishing except His Face.
خصم هر شیر آمد و هر روبه او ** کل شیء هالک الا وجهه
Go into His aspects (attributes) and Face (Essence), become spent (emptied of self): go in, become enveloped (suppressed), like the alif in bism.
در وجوه وجه او رو خرج شو ** چون الف در بسم در رو درج شو
In bism the alif has stayed hidden: it is in bism and also it is not in bism.2240
آن الف در بسم پنهان کرد ایست ** هست او در بسم و هم در بسم نیست
Such is the case with all the letters that disappear when they are elided for the purpose of (effecting) conjunctions.
هم‌چنین جمله‌ی حروف گشته مات ** وقت حذف حرف از بهر صلات
It (the suppressed alif in bism) is a sila (means of conjunction) and through it the b and the s have attained to union: the union of the b and the s could not bear the (external intervention of the) alif.
از صله‌ست و بی و سین زو وصل یافت ** وصل بی و سین الف را بر نتافت
Since this union cannot bear (the intervention of) a single letter, it behoves me to cut short the discourse.
چونک حرفی برنتابد این وصال ** واجب آید که کنم کوته مقال
Since a single letter is the cause of separation between the s and the b, here silence is a most urgent duty.
چون یکی حرفی فراق سین و بیست ** خامشی اینجا مهمتر واجبیست
When the alif has passed away from self(-existence), taking shelter (in self-abandonment), the b and the s say “alif” without it.2245
چون الف از خود فنا شد مکتنف ** بی و سین بی او همی‌گویند الف
(The words) thou didst not throw when thou threwest are (an utterance spoken) without him (the Prophet); likewise (the words) God said sprang from his silence.
ما رمیت اذ رمیت بی ویست ** هم‌چنین قال الله از صمتش بجست
So long as a drug exists (independently), it has no effect; it removes diseases (only) when it has perished (has been dissolved and assimilated).
تا بود دارو ندارد او عمل ** چونک شد فانی کند دفع علل
(Even) if (all) the forest should become pens and (all) the ocean ink, (yet) there is no hope of bringing the Mathnawí to an end.
گر شود بیشه قلم دریا مداد ** مثنوی را نیست پایانی امید
So long as the Brick-maker's mould is (filled with) earth, the scansion of its (the Mathnawí's) poetry, too, will be kept up.
چارچوب خشت‌زن تا خاک هست ** می‌دهد تقطیع شعرش نیز دست
When earth remains no more and He (God) dries (withers and destroys) its existence, His sea when it foams will make (fresh) earth.2250
چون نماند خاک و بودش جف کند ** خاک سازد بحر او چون کف کند
When the forest remains no more and disappears (from existence), (other) forests will raise their heads from the essence of the Sea.
چون نماند بیشه و سر در کشد ** بیشه‌ها از عین دریا سر کشد
Hence that Lord of relief (from sorrow) said, “Relate Traditions (drawn) from our Sea, since there is no harm (in doing so).”
بهر این گفت آن خداوند فرج ** حدثوا عن بحرنا اذ لا حرج
(Now) turn back from the Sea and set thy face towards dry land: talk only of the plaything, for it is better (more suitable) for the child,
باز گرد از بحر و رو در خشک نه ** هم ز لعبت گو که کودک‌راست به
So that in his boyhood, (advancing) little by little beyond the plaything, his spirit may become acquainted with the ocean of Reason.
تا ز لعبت اندک اندک در صبا ** جانش گردد با یم عقل آشنا
By means of that play the boy is (gradually) acquiring reason, though superficially it (his play) is repugnant (to reason).2255
عقل از آن بازی همی‌یابد صبی ** گرچه با عقلست در ظاهر ابی
How can a demented child play? There must be (in the child) a part (of reason) in order that it (the part) may attain to the whole.
کودک دیوانه بازی کی کند ** جزو باید تا که کل را فی کند
Returning to the Story of the dome and the treasure.
رجوع کردن به قصه‌ی قبه و گنج
Lo, the idea of that fakir with (his cries) “Come! come!” has rendered me unfeignedly (really) unable (to resist his appeal).
نک خیال آن فقیرم بی‌ریا ** عاجز آورد از بیا و از بیا
You do not hear his cry, (but) I hear it, because I am his confidant in my inmost thoughts.
بانگ او تو نشنوی من بشنوم ** زانک در اسرار همراز ویم
Do not regard him as a seeker of the treasure; he is the treasure himself, how should the lover in reality be other than the beloved?
طالب گنجش مبین خود گنج اوست ** دوست کی باشد به معنی غیر دوست
At even moment he is bowing down (in worship) to himself: the bowing is (performed) in front of the mirror for the sake of (beholding) the face.2260
سجده خود را می‌کند هر لحظه او ** سجده پیش آینه‌ست از بهر رو