بخش 107 - حکایت آن شخص کی از ترس خویشتن را در خانه‌ای انداخت رخ زرد چون زعفران لبها کبود چون نیل دست لرزان چون برگ درخت خداوند خانه پرسید کی خیرست چه واقعه است گفت بیرون خر می‌گیرند به سخره گفت مبارک خر می‌گیرند تو خر نیستی چه می‌ترسی گفت خر به جد می‌گیرند تمییز برخاسته است امروز ترسم کی مرا خر گیرند

A certain man took refuge in a house: his face was yellow, his lips blue, and his colour had ebbed away.

The master of the house said to him, “Is it well (with you)? for your hand is trembling like (that of) an old man.

What has happened? Why have you taken refuge (here)? How have you lost the colour of your face so (entirely)?”

“To-day,” said he, “they are seizing asses outside (in the streets) to do forced labour for the tyrannical king.”

He (the householder) replied, “O beloved of your uncle, they are taking it because it is an ass: since you are not an ass, go (your way): why are you troubled at this?”

He answered, “They are very urgent and furious in taking (them): ’twill be no wonder if they take me too for an ass.

They have put their hands with all their might to (the job of) taking asses: accordingly discrimination has ceased.”

Since undiscriminating persons are our rulers, they carry off the owner of the ass instead of the ass.

(But) the King of our city is not one who takes at random: He has discrimination, He is hearing and seeing.

Be a man and do not be afraid of those who take the asses: thou art not an ass: be not afraid, O Jesus of the (world of) Time.

The Fourth Heaven, moreover, is filled with thy light: God forbid (that I should say) that the Stable is thy abode.

Thou art higher even than the sky and the stars, though for a good reason thou art (temporarily) in the Stable.

The Master of the Stable is one thing and the ass another: not every one who has entered the Stable is an ass.

Why have we fallen in behind the ass? Tell of the Rose-garden and the fresh roses,

And of the pomegranate and the citron and the apple-bough, and of the wine and the fair youths innumerable,

Or of the Sea whose waves are pearls and whose pearls are speaking and seeing,

Or of the Birds which pick roses and lay eggs of silver and gold,

Or of the Falcons which foster the partridges and fly both with their bellies turned downward and also on their backs.

In the world there are invisible ladders, (leading) step by step up to the summit of heaven.

There is a different ladder for every class, there is a different heaven for every (traveller's) way.

Every one is ignorant of another's condition (in) the kingdom (which is) wide and without end or beginning.

This one is amazed at that one and asks wherefore he is happy, while that one is astounded at this one and asks why he is amazed.

The area of God's earth is spacious: every tree springs up from a certain soil.

The leaves and boughs on the trees are giving thanks (to God), crying, “Oh, what a fine kingdom! Oh, what a broad expanse!”

The nightingales are (flying) round the knobby blossom, saying, “Give us some of that which thou drinkest.”

This discourse hath no end: return to the fox and the lion and the (lion's) sickness and hunger.