بخش 228 - یافتن عاشق معشوق را و بیان آنک جوینده یابنده بود کی وَ مَنْ یَعْمَلْ مِثْقالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَیْراً یَرَهُ

(It happened) that for seven years that youth was (engaged) in search and seeking: from (cherishing) the phantasy of union he became like a phantom.

(If) the shadow (protection) of God be over the head of the servant (of God), the seeker at last will be a finder.

The Prophet said that when you knock at a door, at last a head will come forth from that door.

When you sit (wait) on the road of a certain person, at last you will see also the face of a certain person[#]

When, every day, you keep digging the earth from a pit, at last you will arrive at the pure water.

(Even) if you may not believe (it), all know this, (that) one day you will reap whatsoever you are sowing.

You struck the stone (flint) against the iron (steel): the fire did not flash out! This may not be; or if it be (so), ’tis rare.

He to whom felicity and salvation are not apportioned (by God)—his mind regards naught but the rarities.

(He says) that such and such a one sowed seed and had no crop, while that (other) one bore away an oyster-shell (from the sea), and the shell had no pearl (within it).

(He says that in the cases of) Bal‘am son of Bá‘úr and the accursed Iblís, their acts of worship and their religion availed them not.

The hundreds of thousands of prophets and travellers on the Way do not come into the mind of that evil-thinking man.

He takes these two (examples) which produce (spiritual) darkness: how should (his) ill fate put aught but this in his heart?

Oh, there is many a one that eats bread with a glad heart, and it becomes the death of him: it sticks in his gullet.

Go, then, O ill-fated man, do not eat bread at all, lest thou fall like him into bale and woe!

Hundreds of thousands of folk are eating loaves of bread and gaining strength and nourishing the (vital) spirit.

How hast thou fallen into that rare (calamity), unless thou art deprived (of blessedness) and art born a fool?

He (the ill-fated man) has forsaken this world full of sunshine and moonlight and has plunged his head into the pit,

Saying, “If it is true, then where is the radiance?” Lift up thy head from the pit and look, O miserable wretch!

The whole world, east and west, obtained that light, (but) whilst thou art in the pit it will not shine upon thee.

Leave the pit, go to the palace and the vineyards; do not wrangle here, know that quarrelling is unlucky.

Beware! Do not say, “Mark you, such and such a one sowed seed, and in such and such a year the locusts devoured what he had sown.

Why, then, should I sow? for there is danger in this respect. Why should I scatter this corn(- seed) from my hand?”

And (meanwhile) he who did not neglect to sow and labour fills his barn (with grain), to your confusion.

Since he (the lover) was patiently knocking at a door, at last one day he obtained a meeting in private.

From fear of the night-patrol he sprang by night into the orchard: (there) he found his beloved, (radiant) as candle and lamp.

At that moment he said to the Maker of the means (by which he had attained to his desire), “O God, have mercy on the night-patrol!

Unbeknown (to me), Thou hast created the means: from the gate of Hell Thou hast brought me to Paradise.

Thou hast made this affair (dread of the night-patrol) a means, to the end that I may not hold (even) a single thorn in contempt.”

In (consequence of) the fracture of a leg God bestows a wing; likewise from the depths of the pit He opens a door (of escape).

(God saith), “Do not consider whether thou art on a tree or in a pit: consider Me, for I am the Key of the Way.”

If you wish (to read) the rest of this tale, seek (it), O my brother, in the Fourth Book.