How the wife counselled her husband, saying, “Don't talk any more about thy merit and (spiritual) rank—‘why say ye that which ye do not?’—for although these words are true, yet thou hast not attained to the degree of trust in God, and to speak thus above thy station and devotional practice is harmful and ‘exceedingly hateful in the sight of God.’”
شاعر: رومی
وزن: فاعلاتن فاعلاتن فاعلن (رمل مسدس محذوف یا وزن مثنوی)
صنف: مثنوی
The wife cried out at him, saying, “O thou who makest reputation thy religion, I will not swallow thy spells (deceiving speeches) any more.
Don't talk nonsense in thy presumption and pretension: begone, don't speak from pride and arrogance.
How long (wilt thou utter) pompous and artificial phrases? Look at thine own acts and feelings and be ashamed!
Pride is ugly, and in beggars (all the) more ugly: (it is like) wet clothes after a cold snowy day.
How long (this) pretension and palaver and bluster, O thou whose house is (frail) as the house of the spider?
When hast thou illumined thy soul by contentment? Of contentment thou hast learned (only) the name.
The Prophet said, ‘What is contentment? A treasure.’ Thou canst not distinguish the gain from the pain.
This contentment is the soul's treasure: do not thou boast (of possessing it), O (thou who art) grief and pain to my soul.
Don't call me thy mate, don't flap so much. I am the mate of justice, I am not the mate of fraud.
How art thou walking (consorting) with amír and bey, when thou art slitting the veins of (killing for food) the locust in the air?
Thou art contending with dogs for the sake of a bone, thou art wailing like an empty-bellied reed-pipe.
Don't look at me dully (coldly) with contempt, lest I tell (others) what is in thy veins (disclose thy hidden faults).
Thou hast deemed thy understanding superior to mine, (but) how hast thou (truly) seen me, who am deficient in understanding?
Don't spring upon me like a reckless wolf! Oh, better be without understanding (mad) than (suffer) the disgrace of (having) thy understanding.
Since thy understanding is a shackle for mankind, it is not understanding: it is a snake and scorpion.
May God be the enemy of thy iniquity and deceit! May the deceitfulness of thy understanding fall short of (fail to injure) us!
Thou art both the snake and the charmer—oh, wonderful! Thou art (both) the snakecatcher and the snake, O thou disgrace to the Arabs!
If the crow knew its ugliness, from grief and sorrow it would melt like snow.
The charmer chants (a spell) as an enemy (does); he is (casting) a spell upon the snake and the snake is (casting) a spell upon him.
If his trap were not (devised by him as) a spell for the snake (a means of catching it), how would he become a prey to the snake's spell?
The charmer, from greed and (desire of) getting and making (money), is not conscious of the snake's spell at the time.
The snake says, ‘O charmer, beware, beware! Thou hast beheld thine own spell (and its effect upon me): now behold mine!
Thou beguilest me with the Name of God in order that thou mayst expose me to shame and confusion.
The Name of God enthralled me, not thy contrivance: thou madest the Name of God a trap: woe to thee!
The Name of God will take vengeance from thee on my behalf: I commit my soul and body to the Name of God.
Either it will sever the vein of thy life by my stroke, or it will bring thee into a prison as (it has brought) me.’”
Rough speeches of this sort, (whole) volumes, the woman recited to her youthful husband.
