Who are we to (aspire to) this? Come, my friend, make my day bright with (thy) goodly disposition.
ما کییم این را بیا ای یار من ** روز من روشن کن از خلق حسن
Do not regard my ugliness and hatefulness, though I am as venomous as a mountain-snake.
منگر اندر زشتی و مکروهیم ** که ز پر زهری چو مار کوهیم
Oh, I am ugly and all my qualities are ugly: since He planted me as a thorn, how should I become a rose?2705
ای که من زشت و خصالم جمله زشت ** چون شوم گل چون مرا او خار کشت
Bestow on the thorn the springtide of the rose's beauty: bestow on this snake the loveliness of the peacock!
نوبهار حسن گل ده خار را ** زینت طاووس ده این مار را
I have reached the limit in perfection of ugliness: thy grace has reached the limit in excellence and accomplishment.
در کمال زشتیم من منتهی ** لطف تو در فضل و در فن منتهی
Do thou grant the boon sought by this consummate one from that consummate one, O thou who art the envy of the tall cypress.
حاجت این منتهی زان منتهی ** تو بر آر ای حسرت سرو سهی
When I die, thy bounty, though it is exempt from need, will weep for kindness' sake.
چون بمیرم فضل تو خواهد گریست ** از کرم گرچه ز حاجت او بریست
It will sit beside my grave a long while: tears will gush from its gracious eye.2710
بر سر گورم بسی خواهد نشست ** خواهد از چشم لطیفش اشک جست
It will mourn for my deprivation (of beauty), it will shut its eyes to my abjectness.
نوحه خواهد کرد بر محرومیم ** چشم خواهد بست از مظلومیم
Bestow a little of those favours now, put a few of those (kind) words as a ring into my ear!
اندکی زان لطفها اکنون بکن ** حلقه‌ای در گوش من کن زان سخن
That which thou wilt say (hereafter) to my dust—strew it (now) upon my sorrowful perception!”
آنک خواهی گفت تو با خاک من ** برفشان بر مدرک غمناک من
How the mouse humbly entreated the frog, saying, “Do not think of pretexts and do not defer the fulfilment of this request of mine, for ‘there are dangers in delay,’ and ‘the Súfí is the son of the moment.’” A son (child) does not withdraw his hand from the skirt of his father, and the Súfí's kind father, who is the “moment,” does not let him be reduced to the necessity of looking to the morrow (but) keeps him all the while absorbed, unlike the common folk, in (contemplation of) the garden of his (the father's) swift (immediate) reckoning. He (the Súfí) does not wait for the future. He is of the (timeless) River, not of Time, for “with God is neither morn nor eve”: there the past and the future and time without beginning and time without end do not exist: Adam is not prior nor is Dajjál (Antichrist) posterior. (All) these terms belong to the domain of the particular (discursive) reason and the animal soul: they are not (applicable) in the non-spatial and non-temporal world. Therefore he is the son of that “moment” by which is to be understood only a denial of the division of times (into several categories), just as (the statement) “God is One” is to be understood as a denial of duality, not as (expressing) the real nature of unity.
لابه کردن موش مر چغز را کی بهانه میندیش و در نسیه مینداز انجاح این حاجت مرا کی فی التاخیر آفات و الصوفی ابن الوقت و ابن دست از دامن پدر باز ندارد و اب مشفق صوفی کی وقتست او را بنگرش به فردا محتاج نگرداند چندانش مستغرق دارد در گلزار سریع الحسابی خویش نه چون عوام منتظر مستقبل نباشد نهری باشد نه دهری کی لا صباح عند الله و لا مساء ماضی و مستقبل و ازل و ابد آنجا نباشد آدم سابق و دجال مسبوق نباشد کی این رسوم در خطه‌ی عقل جز وی است و روح حیوانی در عالم لا مکان و لا زمان این رسوم نباشد پس او ابن وقتیست کی لا یفهم منه الا نفی تفرقة الا زمنة چنانک از الله واحد فهم شود نفی دوی نی حقیقت واحدی
A certain Khwája, accustomed to scatter (pieces of) silver, said to a Súfí, “O you for whose feet my soul is a carpet,
صوفیی را گفت خواجه‌ی سیم‌پاش ** ای قدمهای ترا جانم فراش
Would you like one dirhem to-day, my king, or three dirhems at breakfast-time to-morrow?”2715
یک درم خواهی تو امروز ای شهم ** یا که فردا چاشتگاهی سه درم
He replied, “I am more pleased with (the possession of) half a dirhem yesterday than with (the promise of) this (one dirhem) to-day and a hundred dirhems to-morrow.”
گفت دی نیم درم راضی‌ترم ** زانک امروز این و فردا صد درم
(The mouse said), “A slap (given) in cash (immediately) is better than a donation (paid) on credit (hereafter): lo, I put the nape of my neck before thee: give (me) the cash!
سیلی نقد از عطاء نسیه به ** نک قفا پیشت کشیدم نقد ده
Especially as the slap is from thy hand, for both the nape and the slap inflicted on it are intoxicated (enraptured) with thee.
خاصه آن سیلی که از دست توست ** که قفا و سیلیش مست توست
Hark, come, O soul of my soul and (O thou who art the soul) of a hundred worlds, gladly take the opportunity of (seizing) the cash of this (present) moment.
هین بیا ای جان جان و صد جهان ** خوش غنیمت دار نقد این زمان
Do not stealthily remove thy moon-like face from the night-travellers, do not withdraw thyself from this river-bed, O flowing water,2720
در مدزد آن روی مه از شب روان ** سرمکش زین جوی ای آب روان
(But flow) in order that the river-bank may laugh (may be made to blossom) by the running water, and that jasmines may rear their heads on each brim of the river.”
تا لب جو خندد از آب معین ** لب لب جو سر برآرد یاسمین
When you see that verdure is fresh on the river-brim, then (you may) know (even) from afar that water is there.
چون ببینی بر لب جو سبزه مست ** پس بدان از دور که آنجا آب هست
The Maker hath said, “Their mark is (on) their faces,” for the verdant orchard tells a tale of rain.
گفت سیماهم وجوه کردگار ** که بود غماز باران سبزه‌زار
If it rains during the night, no one sees (the rain), for (then) every soul and breath is asleep;
گر ببارد شب نبیند هیچ کس ** که بود در خواب هر نفس و نفس
(But) the freshness of every beauteous rose-garden is (clear) evidence of the rain (that was) hidden (from view).2725
تازگی هر گلستان جمیل ** هست بر باران پنهانی دلیل
(The mouse said), “O comrade, I am of the earth, thou art of the water; but thou art the king of mercy and munificence.
ای اخی من خاکیم تو آبیی ** لیک شاه رحمت و وهابیی
By way of (conferring) bounty and dispensing (favour) so act that I may attain to (the privilege of) serving thee early and late.
آن‌چنان کن از عطا و از قسم ** که گه و بی‌گه به خدمت می‌رسم
I am always calling thee on the river-bank with (all) my soul, (but) I never experience the mercy of response.
بر لب جو من به جان می‌خوانمت ** می‌نبینم از اجابت مرحمت
Entrance into the water is barred against me because my (bodily) frame has grown from a piece of earth.
آمدن در آب بر من بسته شد ** زانک ترکیبم ز خاکی رسته شد
Use the aid either of a messenger or a token to make thee aware of my (piteous) cry.”2730
یا رسولی یا نشانی کن مدد ** تا ترا از بانگ من آگه کند
The two friends debated on this (matter): at the close of the debate it was settled
بحث کردند اندرین کار آن دو یار ** آخر آن بحث آن آمد قرار
That they should procure a long string, in order that by pulling the string the secret should be revealed.
که به دست آرند یک رشته‌ی دراز ** تا ز جذب رشته گردد کشف راز
(The mouse said), “One end must be tied to the foot of this slave (who is bent) double, and the other (end) to thy foot,
یک سری بر پای این بنده‌ی دوتو ** بست باید دیگرش بر پای تو
That by this device we two persons may come together and mingle as the soul with the body.”
تا به هم آییم زین فن ما دو تن ** اندر آمیزیم چون جان با بدن
The body is like a string (tied) on the foot of the soul, drawing it (down) from Heaven to earth.2735
هست تن چون ریسمان بر پای جان ** می‌کشاند بر زمینش ز آسمان
When the frog-like soul escapes from the mouse-like body into the water, (which is) the sleep of unconsciousness, it enters into a happy state;
چغز جان در آب خواب بیهشی ** رسته از موش تن آید در خوشی
(But) the mouse-like body pulls it back with that string: how much bitterness does the soul taste from this pulling!
موش تن زان ریسمان بازش کشد ** چند تلخی زین کشش جان می‌چشد
Were it not for the pulling of the scatter-brained mouse, the frog would have enjoyed himself in the water.
You will hear the rest of it from the light-giving (illumination) of the Sun when you rise from slumber on the Day (of Resurrection).
باقیش چون روز برخیزی ز خواب ** بشنوی از نوربخش آفتاب
(The mouse said), “Knot one end of the string on my foot and the other end on thine,2740
یک سر رشته گره بر پای من ** زان سر دیگر تو پا بر عقده زن
That I may be able to pull thee to this dry land: lo, the end of the string (the object of my plan) is (now) clear (to thee).”
تا توانم من درین خشکی کشید ** مر ترا نک شد سر رشته پدید
This news (proposal) was disagreeable to the heart of the frog, (who thought to himself), “This wicked fellow will bring me into a tangle.”
تلخ آمد بر دل چغز این حدیث ** که مرا در عقده آرد این خبیث
Whenever a feeling of repugnance comes into the heart of a good man, ’tis not devoid of some significance.
هر کراهت در دل مرد بهی ** چون در آید از فنی نبود تهی
Deem that (intuitive) sagacity to be a Divine attribute, not a (vain) suspicion: the light of the heart has apprehended (by intuitive perception) from the Universal Tablet.
وصف حق دان آن فراست را نه وهم ** نور دل از لوح کل کردست فهم
(For example) the refusal of the Elephant to march against the House (of Allah) notwithstanding the driver's efforts and cries of “Come on!”2745
امتناع پیل از سیران ببیت ** با جد آن پیلبان و بانگ هیت
In spite of all blows the Elephant's feet would not move, either much or little, towards the Ka‘ba.
جانب کعبه نرفتی پای پیل ** با همه لت نه کثیر و نه قلیل
You would have said that its legs were paralysed or that its impetuous spirit was dead.
گفتیی خود خشک شد پاهای او ** یا بمرد آن جان صول‌افزای او
(But) whenever they turned its head towards Yemen, the fierce Elephant would begin to stride (forward) with the speed of a hundred horses.
چونک کردندی سرش سوی یمن ** پیل نر صد اسپه گشتی گام‌زن
(Since) the Elephant's perception was aware of the blow (coming) from the Unseen, how (much more) must the perception of the saint (endowed) with (the Divine) afflatus be (aware)!
حس پیل از زخم غیب آگاه بود ** چون بود حس ولی با ورود
Is it not (the case) that the prophet Jacob, that man of holy nature, (said) for Joseph's sake to all his (Joseph's) brethren—2750
نه که یعقوب نبی آن پاک‌خو ** بهر یوسف با همه اخوان او
When the brothers begged their father to give him to them, that they might take him to the country for a while,
از پدر چون خواستندش دادران ** تا برندش سوی صحرا یک زمان
(And) they all said to him, “Do not be afraid of harm (befalling him): give him one or two days' time, O father;
جمله گفتندش میندیش از ضرر ** یک دو روزش مهلتی ده ای پدر