بخش 85 - حکایت تعلق موش با چغز و بستن پای هر دو به رشته‌ای دراز و بر کشیدن زاغ موش را و معلق شدن چغز و نالیدن و پشیمانی او از تعلق با غیر جنس و با جنس خود ناساختن

As it happened, a mouse and a faithful frog had become friends on the bank of a river.

Both of them were bound to (keep) a (daily) tryst: every morning they would come into a nook,

(Where) they played heart-and-soul with one another and emptied their breasts of evil (suspicious) thoughts.

The hearts of both swelled (with joy) from meeting: they recited stories and listened to each other,

Telling secrets with and without tongue, knowing how to interpret (the Tradition), “A united party is a (Divine) mercy.”

Whenever the exultant (mouse) consorted with the merry (frog), a five years' tale would come into his mind.

Flow of speech from the heart is a sign of (intimate) friendship; obstruction of speech arises from lack of intimacy.

The heart that has seen the sweetheart, how should it remain bitter? (When) a nightingale has seen the rose, how should he remain silent?

At the touch of Khadir the roasted fish came to life and took its abode in the sea.

To the friend, when he is seated beside his Friend, a hundred thousand tablets of mystery are made known.

The brow of the Friend is a Guarded Tablet: to him (his friend) it reveals plainly the secret of the two worlds.

The Friend is the guide on the way during (his friend's) advance: hence Mustafá (Mohammed) said, “My Companions are (like) the stars.”

The star shows the way in (desert) sands and on the sea: fix thine eye on the (spiritual) Star, for he is the one to be followed.

Keep thine eye always paired with (unseparated from) his face: do not stir up dust by way of discussion and argument,

Because the Star will be hidden by that dust: the eye is better than the stumbling tongue.

(Be silent) in order that he may speak whose innermost garment is (Divine) inspiration which lays the dust and does not stir up trouble.

When Adam became the theatre of (Divine) inspiration and love, his rational soul revealed (to him) the knowledge of the Names.

His tongue, (reading) from the page of his heart, recited the name of everything as it (really) is.

Through his (inward) vision his tongue was divulging the properties and quiddities of all things.

(It was bestowing) such a name as fits the things (named), not so as to call a catamite a lion (hero).

Nine hundred years Noah (walked) in the straight way, and every day he had a new sermon to preach.

His ruby (lip) drew its eloquence from the corundum (precious jewel) in the hearts (of prophets): he had not read (mystical books like) the Risála or the Qútu ’l-qulúb.

He had never learned to preach from (studying) commentaries; nay, (he learned) from the fountain of revelations and from the exposition (set forth) by the spirit—

From the wine that (is so potent that) when it is quaffed the water of speech gushes from (the mouth of) the dumb,

And the new-born child becomes an eloquent divine and, like the Messiah (Christ), recites (words of) mature wisdom.

The prophet David learned a hundred odes (melodies) from the mountain that gained from that wine (the gift of) sweet song.

All the birds left off chirping and joined their voices with King David as accompanists.

What wonder that a bird should be enraptured by him, since (even) iron obeyed the call of his hand?

A roaring wind became murderous to (the people of) ‘Ád, (but) to Solomon it became (serviceable) as a carrier.

A roaring wind carried on its head the throne of the king (Solomon) a month's journey every morn and eve.

It became both a carrier and a spy for him, making the talk of the absent to be apprehended by him.

The waft of air that caught the words of the absent would hasten to the ear of the king,

Saying, “Such-and-such an one said so-and-so just now, O mighty Solomon of auspicious fortune!”