How the bird attributed its being caught in the trap to the artifice and cunning and hypocrisy of the ascetic; and how the ascetic answered the bird.
شاعر: رومی
وزن: فاعلاتن فاعلاتن فاعلن (رمل مسدس محذوف یا وزن مثنوی)
صنف: مثنوی
The bird said, “This is a fit punishment for one who listens to the beguiling talk of ascetics.”
“Nay,” said the ascetic; “it is a fit punishment for the greedy wretch who incontinently devours the property of orphans.”
Afterwards it (the bird) began to lament in such wise that the trap and the fowler trembled at the grief (which it displayed),
Crying, “My back is broken by the contradictions (conflicting motives) in my heart: come, O Beloved, rub Thy hand on my head.
Under Thy hand my head hath a (great) relief (from pain): Thy hand is a miracle in bestowing favour.
Do not take away Thy shadow (protection) from my head: I am restless, restless, restless.
(All) sorts of sleep have quitted mine eye in my passion for Thee, O Thou who art envied by the cypress and the jasmine.
Though I am not deserving (of Thy favour), what matter if for a moment Thou ask after an unworthy one (who is) in a (great) anguish?”
What right (to Thy favour), forsooth, had Not-being, to which Thy grace opened such doors?
(Thy) bounty touched (embraced) the mangy earth and put in its bosom ten pearls of the light of sensation—
Five outward senses and five inward senses—whereby the dead semen was made Man.
Repentance without Thy blessing, O sublime Light, what is it but to laugh at the beard of repentance?
Thou dost tear the moustaches of repentance piecemeal: repentance is the shadow and Thou art the shining moon.
O Thou by whom my shop and dwelling is ruined, how shall not I wail when Thou rackest my heart?
How shall I flee (from Thee), since without Thee none liveth, and without Thy lordship no slave hath existence?
Take my life, O Source of my life, for without Thee I have become weary of my life.
I am in love with the art of madness, I am surfeited with wisdom and sagacity.
When (the veil of) shame is rent asunder, I will publicly declare the mystery: how much (more) of this self- restraint and griping pain and tremor?
I have become concealed in shame, like the fringe (sewn on the inside of a garment): I will spring forth of a sudden from beneath this coverlet.
O comrades, the Beloved has barred the ways: we are lame deer and He a hunting lion.
(For one who is) in the clutch of a fierce bloodthirsty lion where is any resource except resignation and acquiescence?
He, like the sun, hath neither sleep nor food: He makes the spirits (also) to be without food and sleep,
Saying, “Come, be Me or one with Me in nature, that thou mayest behold My Face when I unveil Myself.
And if thou hadst not beheld it, how shouldst thou have become so distraught? Thou wert earth, (and now) thou hast become one who seeks to be quickened (with spiritual life).”
If He has not given you provender from the (world that is) without spatial relations, how has your spiritual eye remained (fixed) on that region?
The cat became intent on (watching) the (mouse)-hole because she had (formerly) provisioned herself from that hole.
Another cat prowls on the roof because she (formerly) obtained food by preying on birds.
One man's qibla (object of attention) is the weaver's craft, while another is a guardsman for the sake of the (king's) allowance;
And another is unemployed, his face (turned) towards (the world of) nonspatiality because Thou (formerly) gavest him spiritual food from that quarter.
He has the (real) work who has become desirous of God and for His work's sake has severed himself from every (other) work.
The rest are like children playing, these few days, till the departure at nightfall.
The drowsy one who awakes and springs up, him the nurse, evil suggestion, beguiles,
Saying, “Go to sleep, my darling, for I will not let any one arouse thee from (thy heedless) slumber.”
You yourself (if you are wise) will tear up your slumber by the roots, like the thirsty man who heard the noise of the water.
(God says to you), “I am the noise of the water in the ears of the thirsty: I am coming like rain from heaven.
Spring up, O lover, exhibit agitation: noise of water and (you) thirsty, and then to fall asleep!”
