بخش 90 - شنیدن آن طوطی حرکت آن طوطیان و مردن آن طوطی در قفص و نوحهٔ خواجه بر وی

When the bird heard what that (other) parrot had done, she trembled exceedingly, fell, and became cold.

The merchant, seeing her thus fallen, sprang up and dashed his cap on the ground.

When he saw her in this guise and in this state, the merchant sprang forward and tore the breast of his garment.

He said, “O beautiful parrot with thy sweet cry, what is this that has happened to thee? Why hast thou become like this?

Oh, alas for my sweet-voiced bird! Oh, alas for my bosom-friend and confidant!

Oh, alas for my melodious bird, the wine of my spirit and my garden and my sweet basil!

Had Solomon possessed a bird like this, how indeed should he have become occupied with those (other) birds?

Oh, alas for the bird which I gained cheaply, and (so) soon turned my face away from her countenance!

O tongue, thou art a great damage to me, (but) since thou art speaking, what should I say to thee?

O tongue, thou art both the fire and the stack: how long wilt thou dart this fire upon this stack?

Secretly my soul is groaning because of thee, although it is doing whatsoever thou biddest it.

O tongue, thou art a treasure without end. O tongue, thou art also a disease without remedy.

Thou art at once a whistle and decoy for birds, and a comforter in the desolation of absence (from the Beloved).

How long wilt thou grant me mercy, O merciless one, O thou who hast drawn the bow to take vengeance on me?

Lo, thou hast made my bird fly away. Do not browse (any more) in the pasture of injustice!

Either answer me or give redress or mention to me (what will be) the means of (producing) joy.

Oh, alas for my darkness-consuming dawn! Oh, alas for my day-enkindling light!

Oh, alas for my bird of goodly flight, that has flown from my end (my last state) to my beginning (my first state).

The ignorant man is in love with pain unto everlasting. Arise and read (in the Qur’án) I swear as far as (the words) in trouble.

With thy face I was free from trouble, and in thy river I was unsoiled by froth.

These cries of ‘Alas’ are (caused by) the phantasy (idea) of seeing (the Beloved) and (by) separation from my present existence.

’Twas the jealousy of God, and there is no device against God: where is a heart that is not (shattered) in a hundred pieces by God's love?

The jealousy (of God) is this, that He is other than all things, that He is beyond explanation and the noise of words.

Oh, alas! Would that my tears were an ocean, that they might be strewn as an offering to the fair charmer!

My parrot, my clever-headed bird, the interpreter of my thought and inmost consciousness,

She has told me from the first, that I might remember it, whatsoever should come to me as my allotted portion of right and wrong.”

The parrot whose voice comes from (Divine) inspiration and whose beginning was before the beginning of existence—

That parrot is hidden within thee: thou hast seen the reflexion of her upon this and that (the things of the phenomenal world).

She takes away thy joy, and because of her thou art rejoicing: thou receivest injury from her as though it were justice.

O thou who wert burning the soul for the body's sake, thou hast burned (destroyed) the soul and illumined (delighted) the body.

I am burning (with love of God): does any one want tinder, let him set his rubbish ablaze with fire from me.

Inasmuch as tinder is combustible, take tinder that catches fire (readily).

O alas, O alas, O alas that such a moon became hidden under the clouds!

How should I utter a word?—for the fire in my heart is grown fierce, the lion of separation (from the Beloved) has become raging and blood-shedding.

One that even when sober is violent and furious, how will it be when he takes the wine-cup in his hand?

The furious Lion who is beyond description is too great for (cannot be contained in) the wide expanse of the meadow.

I am thinking of rhymes, and my Sweetheart says to me, “Do not think of aught except vision of Me.

Sit at thy ease, My rhyme-meditating (friend): in My presence thou art rhymed with (attached to) felicity.

What are words that thou shouldst think of them? What are words? Thorns in the hedge of the vineyard.

I will throw word and sound and speech into confusion, that without these three I may converse with thee.

That word which I kept hidden from Adam I will speak to thee, O (thou who art the) consciousness of the world.

(I will tell to thee) that word which I did not communicate to Abraham, and that pain (love) which Gabriel does not know.”

That word of which the Messiah (Jesus) breathed not a word God, from jealousy, did not utter even without má.

What is má in language? Positive and negative. I am not positive, I am selfless and negated.

I found (true) individuality in non-individuality: therefore I wove (my) individuality into non-individuality.

All kings are enslaved to their slaves, all people are dead (ready to die) for one who dies for them.

All kings are prostrate before one who is prostrate before them, all people are intoxicated with (love for) one who is intoxicated with them.

The fowler becomes a prey to the birds in order that of a sudden he may make them his prey.

The hearts of heart-ravishers are captivated by those who have lost their hearts (to them): all loved ones are the prey of (their) lovers.

Whomsoever thou didst deem to be a lover, regard (him) as the loved one, for relatively he is both this and that.

If they that are thirsty seek water from the world, (yet) water too seeks in the world them that are thirsty.

Inasmuch as He is (thy) lover, do thou be silent: as He is pulling thine ear, be thou (all) ear.

Dam the torrent (of ecstasy) when it runs in flood; else it will work shame and ruin.

What care I though ruin be (wrought)? Under the ruin there is a royal treasure.

He that is drowned in God wishes to be more drowned, (while) his spirit (is tossed) up and down like the waves of the sea,

(Asking), “Is the bottom of the sea more delightful, or the top? Is His (the Beloved's) arrow more fascinating, or the shield?”

O heart, thou art torn asunder by evil suggestion if thou recognise any difference between joy and woe.

Although the object of thy desire has the taste of sugar, is not absence of any object of desire (in thee) the object of the Beloved's desire?

Every star of His is the blood-price of a hundred new moons: it is lawful for Him to shed the blood of the (whole) world.

We gained the price and the blood-price: we hastened to gamble our soul away.

Oh, the life of lovers consists in death: thou wilt not win the (Beloved's) heart except in losing thine own.

I sought (to win) His heart with a hundred airs and graces, (but) He made excuses to me (put me off) in disdain.

I said, “After all, this mind and soul (of mine) are drowned in Thee.” “Begone,” said He, “begone! Do not chant these spells over Me (do not seek thus to beguile Me).

Do not I know what thought thou hast conceived? O thou who hast seen double, how hast thou regarded the Beloved?

O gross-spirited one, thou hast held Me in light esteem, because thou hast bought Me very cheaply.

He that buys cheaply gives cheaply: a child will give a pearl for a loaf of bread.”

I am drowned in a love (so deep) that therein are drowned the first loves and the last.

I have told it summarily, I have not explained it (at length), otherwise both (thy) perceptions and (my) tongue would be consumed.

When I speak of “lip,” ’tis the lip (shore) of the Sea; when I say “not,” the intended meaning is “except.”

By reason of (inward) sweetness I sit with sour face: from fullness of speech I am silent,

That in the mask of sour-facedness my sweetness may be kept hidden from the two worlds.

In order that this subject may not come to every ear, I am telling (only) one out of a hundred esoteric mysteries.