بخش 107 - دیدن ایشان در قصر این قلعهٔ ذات الصور نقش روی دختر شاه چین را و بیهوش شدن هر سه و در فتنه افتادن و تفحص کردن کی این صورت کیست

This topic is endless. The company (of three) espied a beauteous and majestic portrait.

The (travelling) party had seen (pictures) more beautiful than that, but at (the sight of) this one they were plunged in the deep sea,

Because opium came to them in this cup: the cups are visible, but the opium is unseen.

The fortress, (named) the destroyer of reason, wrought its work: it cast them, all three, into the pit of tribulation.

Without a bow the arrow-like glances (of Love) pierce the heart—mercy, mercy, O merciless one!

(Adoration of) a stone image consumed the (past) generations and kindled a fire (of love for it) in their religion and their hearts.

When it (the image) is spiritual, how (ravishing) must it be! Its fascination changes at every moment.

Since love of the pictured form was stabbing the hearts of the princes like a spear-point,

Each (of them) was shedding tears, like a cloud, and gnawing his hands and crying, “Oh, alas!

Now we see (what) the King saw at the beginning. How often did that peerless one adjure us!”

The prophets have conferred a great obligation (on us) because they have made us aware of the end,

Saying, “That which thou art sowing will produce naught but thorns; and (if) thou fly in this (worldly) direction thou wilt find there no room to fly (beyond).

Get the seed from me, that it may yield a (good) crop; fly with my wings, that the arrow may speed Yonder.

(If) thou dost not recognise the necessity and (real) existence of that (flight to God), yet in the end thou wilt confess that it was necessary.”

He (the prophet) is thou, but not this (unreal) “thou”: (he is) that “thou” which in the end is conscious of escape (from the world of illusion).

Thy last (unreal) “thou” has come to thy first (real) “thou” to receive admonition and gifts.

Thy (real) “thou” is buried in another (unreal “thou”): I am the (devoted) slave of a man who thus (truly) sees himself.

That which the youth sees in the mirror the Elder sees beforehand in the (crude iron) brick.

(The princes said), “We have transgressed the command of our King, we have rebelled against the favours of our father.

We have lightly esteemed the King's word and those incomparable favours.

Lo, we all are fallen into the moat, killed and wounded by affliction without combat.

We relied on our own intelligence and wisdom, so that this tribulation has come to pass.

We regarded ourselves as being without disease and emancipated (from fear of death), just as one suffering from phthisis regards himself.

Now, after we have been made prisoners and a prey, the hidden malady has become apparent.”

The shadow (protection) of the (spiritual) Guide is better than praising God (by one's self): a single (feeling of) contentment is better than a hundred viands and trays (of food).

A seeing eye is better than three hundred (blind men's) staves: the eye knows (can distinguish) pearls from pebbles.

(Moved) by sorrows (pains of love) they began to make inquiry, saying, “Who in the world, we wonder, is she of whom this is the portrait?”

After much inquiry in (the course of their) travel, a Shaykh endowed with insight disclosed the mystery,

Not (verbally) by way of the ear, but (silently) by inspiration (derived) from Reason: to him (all) mysteries were unveiled.

He said, “This is the portrait of (her who is) an object of envy to the Pleiades: this is the picture of the Princess of China.

She is hidden like the spirit and like the embryo: she is (kept) in a secret bower and palace.

Neither man nor woman is admitted to her (presence): the King has concealed her on account of her fascinations.

The King has a (great) jealousy for her (good) name, so that not even a bird flies above her roof.”

Alas for the heart that such an insane passion has stricken: may no one feel a passion like this!

This is the retribution due to him who sowed the seed of ignorance and held light and cheap that (precious) counsel,

And put a (great) trust in his own management, saying, “By dint of intelligence I will carry my affair to success.”

Half a mite of the (King's) favour is better than three hundred spells (expedients) devised by the intellect.

Abandon your own cunning, O Amír: draw back your foot before the (Divine) favour and gladly die.

This is not (to be gained) by a certain amount of contrivance: nothing avails until you die to (all) these contrivings.