بخش 91 - رجوع کردن به قصهٔ طلب کردن آن موش آن چغز را لب‌لب جو و کشیدن سر رشته تا چغز را در آب خبر شود از طلب او

That (creature) moulded of love is pulling the string in hope of being united with the righteous frog.

He is perpetually harping on the heart-string, saying, “I have got the end of the string in my paw.

My heart and soul have become as (frail as) a thread in contemplation, ever since the end of the string (the prospect of success) showed itself to me.”

But suddenly the raven of separation came to chase the mouse and carried it off from that spot.

When the mouse was taken up into the air by the raven, the frog too was dragged from the bottom of the water.

The mouse (was) in the raven's beak, and the frog likewise (was) suspended in the air, (with) its foot (entangled) in the string.

The people were saying, “How could the raven make the water-frog its prey by craft and cunning?

How could it go into the water, and how could it carry him off? When was the water-frog (ever) the raven's prey?”

“This,” said the frog, “is the fit punishment for that one who, like persons devoid of honour, consorts with a rascal.”

Oh, alas, alas for the sorrow caused by a base friend! O sirs, seek ye a good companion.

Reason complains bitterly of the vicious carnal soul: (they are as discordant) as an ugly nose on a beautiful face.

Reason was saying to him (the frog), “’Tis certain that congeniality is spiritual in origin and is not (derived) from water and clay (the outward form).”

Take heed, do not become a worshipper of form and do not say this. Do not seek (to discover) the secret of congeniality in the (outward) form.

Form resembles the mineral and the stone: an inorganic thing has no knowledge of congeniality.

The spirit is like an ant, and the body like a grain of wheat which it (the ant) carries to and fro continually.

The ant knows that the grains of which it has taken charge will be changed and become homogeneous with it.

One ant picks up (a grain of) barley on the road, another ant picks up a grain of wheat and runs away.

The barley does not hurry to the wheat, but the ant comes to the ant; yes (it does).

The going of the barley to the wheat is (merely) consequential: (’tis) the ant, mark you, (that) returns to its congener.

Do not say, “Why did the wheat go to the barley?” Fix your eye on the holder, not on that which he holds in pawn.

(As when) a black ant (moves along) on a black felt cloth: the ant is hidden (from view), (only) the grain is visible on its way,

(But) Reason says, “Look well to your eye: when does a grain ever go along without a grain-bearer?”

(’Twas) on this account (that) the dog came to the Companions (of the Cave): the (outward) forms are (like) the grains, while the heart (spirit) is (like) the ant.

Hence Jesus goes (ascends) to the holy ones of Heaven: the cages (bodies) were diverse, (but) the young birds (spirits) were of the same kind.

This cage is visible, but the young bird in it is hidden (from sight): how should the cage be moving without a cage-carrier?

Oh, blessed is the eye that is ruled by reason, (the eye) that discerns the end and is wise and cool.

Get (learn) the distinction between evil and good from reason, not from the eye that tells (only) of black and white.

The eye is beguiled by the verdure on dunghills, (but) reason says, “Put it to my touchstone.”

The eye that sees (only) its (object of) desire is the bird's bane; reason, which sees the trap, is the bird's means of deliverance.

(But) there was another trap which reason did not perceive; hence the inspiration which beholds the unseen sped in this direction.

By reason you can recognise congener and non-congener: you ought not to run at once to (outward) forms.

My being your congener is not in respect of (outward) form: Jesus, in the form of man, was (really) homogeneous with the angels

The celestial Bird (Gabriel) carried him up above this dark-blue fortress (vault) as the raven (carried) the frog.