For a long time, gnashing his teeth, he suffered this (agony): ere he attained, his life reached its end.
مدتی دندان‌کنان این می‌کشید ** نارسیده عمر او آخر رسید
The form (appearance) of the Beloved vanished from him: he died and was united with the reality of the Beloved.
صورت معشوق زو شد در نهفت ** رفت و شد با معنی معشوق جفت
He said (to himself), “Though his raiment was of silk and Shushtar cloth, his unscreened embrace is sweeter.
گفت لبسش گر ز شعر و ششترست ** اعتناق بی‌حجابش خوشترست
(Now) I am denuded of my body, and he of (the veil of) phantasy: I am advancing triumphantly in the consummation of union.”
من شدم عریان ز تن او از خیال ** می‌خرامم در نهایات الوصال
These topics may be discussed up to this point, (but) all that comes after this must be kept hid;4620
این مباحث تا بدین‌جا گفتنیست ** هرچه آید زین سپس بنهفتنیست
And if you would tell it and make a hundred thousand efforts, ’tis fruitless labour, for it will never become clear.
ور بگویی ور بکوشی صد هزار ** هست بیگار و نگردد آشکار
As far as the sea, ’tis a journey on horseback: after this you (must) have a wooden horse.
تا به دریا سیر اسپ و زین بود ** بعد ازینت مرکب چوبین بود
The wooden horse is no good on the dry land: it carries exclusively those who voyage on the sea.
مرکب چوبین به خشکی ابترست ** خاص آن دریاییان را رهبرست
The wooden horse is this (mystical) silence: (this) silence gives instruction to the sea-folk.
این خموشی مرکب چوبین بود ** بحریان را خامشی تلقین بود
Every (such) silent one who wearies you is (really) uttering shrieks of love Yonder.4625
هر خموشی که ملولت می‌کند ** نعره‌های عشق آن سو می‌زند
You say, “I wonder why he is silent”; he says (to himself), “How strange! Where is his ear?
تو همی‌گویی عجب خامش چراست ** او همی‌گوید عجب گوشش کجاست
I am deafened by the shrieks, (yet) he is unaware (of them).” The (apparently) sharp-eared are (in fact) deaf to this (mystical) converse.
من ز نعره کر شدم او بی‌خبر ** تیزگوشان زین سمر هستند کر
(For example), some one cries aloud in his dream and gives a hundred thousand discussions and communications,
آن یکی در خواب نعره می‌زند ** صد هزاران بحث و تلقین می‌کند
(While) this (other), sitting beside him, is unaware (of it): ’tis really he who is asleep and deaf to (all) that turmoil and tumult.
این نشسته پهلوی او بی‌خبر ** خفته خود آنست و کر زان شور و شر
And he whose wooden horse is shattered and sunk in the water (of the sea), he in sooth is the fish.4630
وان کسی کش مرکب چوبین شکست ** غرقه شد در آب او خود ماهیست
He is neither silent nor speaking: he is a marvel: there is no name to describe his state.
نه خموشست و نه گویا نادریست ** حال او را در عبارت نام نیست
He does not belong to these two (categories), (and yet) that prodigy is (really) both: to explain this would transgress the limits of due reverence.
نیست زین دو هر دو هست آن بوالعجب ** شرح این گفتن برونست از ادب
This comparison is poor and unsuccessful, but in the sensible (world) there was none better than this (to be found).
این مثال آمد رکیک و بی‌ورود ** لیک در محسوس ازین بهتر نبود
The death of the eldest prince, and how the middle brother came to his funeral—for the youngest was confined to his bed by illness; and how the King treated the middle brother with great affection, so that he too was crippled (captivated) by his kindness; (and how) he remained with the King, and a hundred thousand spoils (precious gifts), from the unseen and visible worlds, were conferred upon him by the fortune and favour of the King; with an exposition of some part thereof.
متوفی شدن بزرگین از شه‌زادگان و آمدن برادر میانین به جنازه‌ی برادر کی آن کوچکین صاحب‌فراش بود از رنجوری و نواختن پادشاه میانین را تا او هم لنگ احسان شد ماند پیش پادشاه صد هزار از غنایم غیبی و غنی بدو رسید از دولت و نظر آن شاه مع تقریر بعضه
The youngest (brother) was ill, and (so) the middle one came alone to the funeral of the eldest.
کوچکین رنجور بود و آن وسط ** بر جنازه‌ی آن بزرگ آمد فقط
(When) the King espied him, he said with a purpose, “Who is this?—for he is of that sea, and he too is a fish.”4635
شاه دیدش گفت قاصد کین کیست ** که از آن بحرست و این هم ماهیست
Then the announcer said, “He is a son of the same father: this brother is younger than that (deceased) brother.”
پس معرف گفت پور آن پدر ** این برادر زان برادر خردتر
The King greeted him affectionately, saying, “Thou art a keepsake (from thy brother to me)”; and by this enquiry (gracious attention) made him too his prey.
شه نوازیدش که هستی یادگار ** کرد او را هم بدان پرسش شکار
In consequence of the kindness shown (to him) by the King, that wretched man, (who was) roasted (in the fire of love), found in his body a soul other than the (animal) soul.
از نواز شاه آن زار حنیذ ** در تن خود غیر جان جانی بدیذ
He felt within his heart a sublime emotion which the Súfí does not experience during a hundred chilas.
در دل خود دید عالی غلغله ** که نیابد صوفی آن در صد چله
Court-yard and wall and mountain woven of stone seemed to split open before him like a laughing (bursting) pomegranate.4640
عرصه و دیوار و کوه سنگ‌بافت ** پیش او چون نار خندان می‌شکافت
One by one, the atoms (of the universe) were momently opening their doors to him, like tents, in a hundred diverse ways.
ذره ذره پیش او هم‌چون قباب ** دم به دم می‌کرد صدگون فتح باب
The door would become now the window, now the sunbeams; the earth would become now the wheat, now the bushel.
باب گه روزن شدی گاه شعاع ** خاک گه گندم شدی و گاه صاع
In (men's) eyes the heavens are very old and threadbare; in his eye ’twasa new creation at every moment.
در نظرها چرخ بس کهنه و قدید ** پیش چشمش هر دمی خلق جدید
When the beauteous spirit is delivered from the body, no doubt an eye like this will be conferred upon it by (Divine) destiny.
روح زیبا چونک وا رست از جسد ** از قضا بی شک چنین چشمش رسد
A hundred thousand mysteries were revealed to him: he beheld that which the eyes of the initiated behold.4645
صد هزاران غیب پیشش شد پدید ** آنچ چشم محرمان بیند بدید
He opened (the inward) eye (and gazed) on the (ideal) form of that which he had (only) read in books.
آنچ او اندر کتب بر خوانده بود ** چشم را در صورت آن بر گشود
From the dust of the mighty King's horse he obtained a precious collyrium for his eyesight.
از غبار مرکب آن شاه نر ** یافت او کحل عزیزی در بصر
In such a garden of flowers he was trailing his skirt, while every part of him was crying, “Is there any more?”
برچنین گلزار دامن می‌کشید ** جزو جزوش نعره زن هل من مزید
The flowers that grow from plants are (living but) a moment; the flowers that grow from Reason are (ever) fresh.