بخش 62 - حکایت در تقریر آنک صبر در رنج کار سهل‌تر از صبر در فراق یار بود

A certain woman said to her husband, “Hey, O you who have finished with generosity once and for all, Why have you no care for me? How long shall I dwell in this abode of misery?”

The husband replied, “I am doing my best to earn money; though I am destitute, I am moving hand and foot.

O beloved, it is my duty (to provide you with) money and clothes: you get both these from me and they are not insufficient.”

The wife showed (him) the sleeve of her chemise: the chemise was very coarse and dirty.

“It is so rough,” said she, “it eats (wounds) my body: does any one get a garment of this kind for any one?”

He said, “O wife, I will ask you one question. I am a poor man: this is all I know (how to do).

This (chemise) is rough and coarse and disagreeable, but think (well), O thoughtful (anxious) wife!

Is this (chemise) rougher and nastier, or divorce? Is this (chemise) more odious to you, or separation?”

Even so, O Khwája who art reviling on account of affliction and poverty and distress and tribulations,

No doubt this renunciation of sensuality gives bitter pain, but ’tis better than the bitterness of being far from God.

If fighting (against the flesh) and fasting are hard and rough, yet these are better than being far from Him who inflicts tribulation.

How should pain endure for a single moment when the Giver of favours says to thee, “How art thou, O My sick one?”

And (even) if He say (it) not, because thou hast not the understanding and knowledge (needed) for it, yet thy inward feeling (of supplication) is (equivalent to His) inquiring (after thee).

Those beauteous ones who are spiritual physicians turn towards the sick to inquire (after them);

And if they be afraid of (incurring) disgrace and (loss of) reputation, they devise some means and send a message;

Or if not, that (care for the sick) is pondered in their hearts: no beloved is unaware (forgetful) of his lover.

O thou who desirest (to hear) a wondrous tale, read the story of them that play the game of love.

Thou hast been boiling mightily during (all) this long time, (and yet), O dried meat, thou hast not even become half-cooked.

During a (whole) life-time thou hast seen the justice and jurisdiction (of God), and then (after all) thou art more ignorant than the blind.

Whoever serves Him as a pupil becomes a master, (but) thou hast gone backwards, O blind fool!

Verily thou hast learned nothing from thy parents, nor hast thou taken a lesson from night and day.