بخش 140 - مثل

The case is like that of the mother who said to her child, “If a ghost come to you in the night,

Or if in a graveyard and frightful place you behold a black bogle full of rage,

Keep a stout heart and rush at it, and immediately it will turn its face away from you.”

“(But),” said the child, “suppose the devilish bogle's mother has said this (same thing) to it;

(If) I rush at it, by its mother's orders it will fall on my neck: what shall I do then?

You are teaching me to stand firm, (but) the ugly bogle has a mother too.”

The instructor of (the race of) devils and of mankind is the One (God): through Him the enemy prevails (even) if he is in small force.

On whichever side that Gracious One may be, go and for God's sake, for God's sake, be thou also on that side!

He (the cadi) said, “Suppose the worthy man is not induced to speak by your device and has (already) perceived the trick,

Tell me truly, how can you know his hidden nature?” He replied, “I sit before him in silence

And make patience a ladder to climb upwards: patience is the key to success.

And if in his presence there should gush from my heart a speech beyond this (realm of) joy and sorrow,

I know that he has sent it to me from the depths of a soul (illumined) like Canopus (rising) in Yemen.

The speech in my heart comes from that auspicious quarter, for there is a window between heart and heart.”