بخش 116 - بیان آنک روح حیوانی و عقل‌ِ جزوی و وهم و خیال بر مثال دوغند و روح کی باقیست درین دوغ هم‌چون روغن پنهانست

Thy true substance is concealed in falsehood, like the taste of butter in the taste of buttermilk.

Thy falsehood is this perishable body; thy truth is that lordly spirit.

(During many) years this buttermilk, (which is) the body, is visible and manifest, (while) the butter, (which is) the spirit, is perishing and naughted within it,

Till God send a messenger (prophet), a (chosen) servant, a shaker of the buttermilk in the churn,

That he may shake (it) with method and skill, to the end that I may know that (my true) ego was hidden;

Or (till) the speech of a (chosen) servant, which is part is part of (the speech of) him (the prophet), enter into the ear of him who is seeking inspiration.

The true believer's ear is retaining our inspiration: such an ear is closely linked to the caller (the perfect saint)—

Just as (for example) the infant's ear is filled with its mother's words, (and then) it (the infant) begins to speak articulately;

And if the infant have not a right (rightly-hearing) ear, it does not hear its mother's words and becomes a mute.

Every one born deaf has always been dumb: (only) that one who heard (speech) from his mother became a speaker.

Know that the deaf ear and the dumb man are the result of a certain defect; for it (the deaf ear) is not capable of (hearing) words and being taught.

The (only) one that possessed speech without being taught is God, whose attributes are separated (exempt) from infirmities,

Or one like Adam whom God instructed without the screen (mediation) of mother and nurse and necessaries,

Or the Messiah (Christ) who, through being taught by the Loving (God), at his birth came speaking into the world,

For the purpose of repelling the suspicion as to his birth (and proving) that he was not born of fornication and wickedness.

A (great) shaking was required in the effort that the buttermilk might render back that butter from its (inmost) heart.

The butter in the buttermilk is (invisible) like non-existence; the buttermilk has raised its banner (has become manifest) in existence.

That which seems to you to be (really) existent is (mere) skin, while that which seems to have perished—that (in reality) is the root.

The buttermilk has not (yet) taken (the form of) butter and is old: lay it (in store) and do not squander it till you pick out (the butter from it).

Hark, turn it knowingly from hand to hand (side to side), that it may reveal that which it has hidden;

For this perishable (body) is a proof of the everlasting (spirit): the maundering of the intoxicated is a proof of (the existence of) the Cupbearer.