Generations have passed away, and this is a new generation: the moon is the same moon, the water is not the same water.3175
قرنها بگذشت و این قرن نویست ** ماه آن ماهست آب آن آب نیست
The justice is the same justice, and the learning is the same learning too; but those generations and peoples have been changed (supplanted by others).
عدل آن عدلست و فضل آن فضل هم ** لیک مستبدل شد آن قرن و امم
Generations on generations have gone, O sire, but these Ideas (Divine attributes) are permanent and everlasting.
قرنها بر قرنها رفت ای همام ** وین معانی بر قرار و بر دوام
The water in this channel has been changed many times: the reflexion of the moon and of the stars remains unaltered.
آن مبدل شد درین جو چند بار ** عکس ماه و عکس اختر بر قرار
Therefore its foundation is not in the running water; nay, but in the regions of the breadth (wide expanse) of Heaven.
پس بنااش نیست بر آب روان ** بلک بر اقطار عرض آسمان
These attributes are like Ideal stars: know that they are stablished in the sphere of the Ideas (Realities).3180
این صفتها چون نجوم معنویست ** دانک بر چرخ معانی مستویست
The beauteous are the mirror of His beauty: love for them is the reflexion of the desire of which He is the (real) object.
خوب‌رویان آینه‌ی خوبی او ** عشق ایشان عکس مطلوبی او
This cheek and mole goes (back) to the Source thereof: how should a phantom continue in the water for ever?
هم به اصل خود رود این خد و خال ** دایما در آب کی ماند خیال
The whole sum of pictured forms (phenomena) is a (mere) reflexion in the water of the river: when you rub your eye, (you will perceive that) all of them are really He.
جمله تصویرات عکس آب جوست ** چون بمالی چشم خود خود جمله اوست
Again, his (the debtor's) reason said (to him), “Abandon this seeing double: vinegar is grape-syrup and grape-syrup is vinegar.
باز عقلش گفت بگذار این حول ** خل دوشابست و دوشابست خل
Since, from defect (of vision), you have called the Khwája ‘other’ (than God), be ashamed (contrite) before the jealous King, O man of double sight.3185
خواجه را چون غیر گفتی از قصور ** شرم‌دار ای احول از شاه غیور
Do not suppose the Khwája, who has passed beyond the aether (the ninth celestial sphere), to be homogeneous with these mice of darkness.
خواجه را که در گذشتست از اثیر ** جنس این موشان تاریکی مگیر
Regard the Khwája as spirit, do not regard him as gross body: regard him as marrow, do not regard him as bone.
خواجه‌ی جان بین مبین جسم گران ** مغز بین او را مبینش استخوان
Do not look at the Khwája with the eye of Iblís the accursed, and do not relate him (refer his origin) to clay.
خواجه را از چشم ابلیس لعین ** منگر و نسبت مکن او را به طین
Do not call the fellow-traveller of the Sun ‘a bat’: do not call him who was worshipped (by the angels) a worshipper (of the material).
همره خورشید را شب‌پر مخوان ** آنک او مسجود شد ساجد مدان
This (Khwája) resembles the (other) reflexions; but (in reality) ’tis not a reflexion, ’tis the appearance of God in the likeness of a reflexion.3190
عکس‌ها را ماند این و عکس نیست ** در مثال عکس حق بنمودنیست
He beheld a Sun and remained frozen no more: the oil of roses was no longer (mingled with) oil of sesame.
آفتابی دید او جامد نماند ** روغن گل روغن کنجد نماند
Since the Abdál (Lieutenants) of God have been transmuted, they are not (to be reckoned) among created beings: turn over a (new) leaf!
چون مبدل گشته‌اند ابدال حق ** نیستند از خلق بر گردان ورق
How should the qibla (object of worship), namely, the (Divine) Unity, be two? How should earth be worshipped by the angels?
قبله‌ی وحدانیت دو چون بود ** خاک مسجود ملایک چون شود
When a man sees the reflexion of apples in this river, and the sight of them fills his skirt with (real) apples,
چون درین جو دیدعکس سیب مرد ** دامنش را دید آن پر سیب کرد
How should that which he saw in the river be a phantom, when a hundred sacks have been filled by his vision?3195
آنچ در جو دید کی باشد خیال ** چونک شد از دیدنش پر صد جوال
Do not regard the body, and do not act like those dumb and deaf men (who) disbelieved in the Truth when it came to them.
تن مبین و آن مکن کان بکم و صم ** کذبوا بالحق لما جائهم
The Khwája is (the God-man of whom God said) Thou didst not throw when thou threwest: to see him is to see the Creator.
ما رمیت اذ رمیت احمد بدست ** دیدن او دیدن خالق شدست
To serve him is to serve God: to see this window is to see the Daylight;
خدمت او خدمت حق کردنست ** روز دیدن دیدن این روزنست
Especially (as) this window is resplendent of itself: nothing (no light) is deposited (therein) by the sun and the Farqad (stars).
خاصه این روزن درخشان از خودست ** نی ودیعه‌ی آفتاب و فرقدست
From that (Divine) Sun, too, (beams) strike upon a window, but not in the ordinary way and direction.3200
هم از آن خورشید زد بر روزنی ** لیک از راه و سوی معهود نی
Between the Sun and this window there is a way; (but) the (other) windows are not acquainted with it,
در میان شمس و این روزن رهی ** هست روزنها نشد زو آگهی
So that, if a cloud arise and cover the sky, in this window its (the Sun's) light will (still) be coruscating.
تا اگر ابری بر آید چرخ‌پوش ** اندرین روزن بود نورش به جوش
There is familiarity between the window and the Sun, otherwise than (by) the way of this atmosphere and the six directions.
غیر راه این هوا و شش جهت ** در میان روزن و خور مالفت
To praise and glorify him (the Perfect Man) is to glorify God: the fruit is growing out of the essential nature of this tray.
مدحت و تسبیح او تسبیح حق ** میوه می‌روید ز عین این طبق
Apples grow from this basket in fine variety: ’tis no harm if you bestow on it the name ‘tree.’3205
When the dust on the road illumines the eye and the spirit, regard its dust as collyrium and know that it is collyrium.3210
خاک ره چون چشم روشن کرد و جان ** خاک او را سرمه بین و سرمه دان
When the sunrise shines forth from the face of this earth, why should I lift up my face to (the star) ‘Ayyúq?
چون ز روی این زمین تابد شروق ** من چرا بالا کنم رو در عیوق
He (the Khwája) is naughted: do not call him existent, O bold-eyed (impudent) man! How should the sod remain dry in a River like this?
شد فنا هستش مخوان ای چشم‌شوخ ** در چنین جو خشک کی ماند کلوخ
How should the new-moon shine in the presence of this Sun? What is the strength of a decrepit old woman (zál) against such a Rustam?
پیش این خورشید کی تابد هلال ** با چنان رستم چه باشد زور زال
The (only real) Agent is seeking and prevailing (over all), to the end that He may utterly destroy (all unreal) existences.
طالبست و غالبست آن کردگار ** تا ز هستی‌ها بر آرد او دمار
Do not say ‘two,’ do not know ‘two,’ and do not call ‘two’: deem the slave to be effaced in his master.3215
دو مگو و دو مدان و دو مخوان ** بنده را در خواجه‌ی خود محو دان
The Khwája likewise is naughted and dead and checkmated and buried in the Khwája's Creator.
خواجه هم در نور خواجه‌آفرین ** فانیست و مرده و مات و دفین
When you regard this Khwája as separate from God, you lose both the text and the preface.
چون جدا بینی ز حق این خواجه را ** گم کنی هم متن و هم دیباجه را
Hark, let your (inward) eye and your heart pass beyond (transcend) the (bodily) clay! This is One Qibla (object of worship): do not see two qiblas.
چشم و دل را هین گذاره کن ز طین ** این یکی قبله‌ست دو قبله مبین
When you see two you remain deprived of both sides (aspects of the One): a flame falls on the touchwood, and the touchwood is gone.”
چون دو دیدی ماندی از هر دو طرف ** آتشی در خف فتاد و رفت خف
Parable of the man who sees double. (He is) like the stranger in the town of Kásh (Káshán), whose name was ‘Umar. Because of this (name) they (refused to serve him and) passed him on from one shop to another. He did not perceive that all the shops were one in this respect that they (the shopkeepers) would not sell bread to (a person named) ‘Umar; (so he did not say to himself), “Here (and now) I will repair my error (and say), ‘I made a mistake: my name is not ‘Umar.’ When I recant and repair my error in this shop, I shall get bread from all the shops in the town; but if, without repairing my error, I still keep the name ‘Umar and depart from this shop (to another), (then) I am deprived (of bread) and seeing double, for I (shall) have deemed (all) these shops to be separate from each other.”
مثل دوبین هم‌چو آن غریب شهر کاش عمر نام کی از یک دکانش به سبب این به آن دکان دیگر حواله کرد و او فهم نکرد کی همه دکان یکیست درین معنی کی به عمر نان نفروشند هم اینجا تدارک کنم من غلط کردم نامم عمر نیست چون بدین دکان توبه و تدارک کنم نان یابم از همه دکان‌های این شهر و اگر بی‌تدارک هم‌چنین عمر نام باشم ازین دکان در گذرم محرومم و احولم و این دکان‌ها را از هم جدا دانسته‌ام
If your name is ‘Umar, nobody in the town of Kásh will sell you a roll of bread (even) for a hundred dángs.3220
گر عمر نامی تو اندر شهر کاش ** کس بنفروشد به صد دانگت لواش
When you say at one shop, “I am ‘Umar: kindly sell bread to this ‘Umar,”
چون به یک دکان بگفتی عمرم ** این عمر را نان فروشید از کرم
He (the baker) will say, “Go to that other shop: one loaf from that (shop) is better than fifty from this.”
او بگوید رو بدان دیگر دکان ** زان یکی نان به کزین پنجاه نان
If he (the customer) had not been seeing double, he would have replied, “There is no other shop”;
گر نبودی احول او اندر نظر ** او بگفتی نیست دکانی دگر
And then the illumination produced by not seeing double would have shot (rays) upon the heart of him (the baker) of Kásh, and ‘Umar would have become ‘Alí.