بخش 43 - مثل قانع شدن آدمی به دنیا و حرص او در طلب دنیا و غفلت او از دولت روحانیان کی ابنای جنس وی‌اند و نعره‌زنان کی یا لَیْتَ قَوْمي یَعْلَمونَ

A dog saw a blind beggar in the street, and was rushing at him and tearing his cloak.

We have (already) related this, but it is repeated (here) once again in order to strengthen (the effect of) the story.

The blind man said to it (the dog), “Why, at this moment your friends are hunting and seeking prey on the mountain.

Your kinsfolk are catching onagers in the mountains: you are catching blind men in the streets.”

O recalcitrant Shaykh, abandon this imposture: thou art (like) briny water, having gathered some blind men (around thee),

(As though implicitly thou wert) saying, “These are my disciples, and I am (like) briny water: they drink of me and become blind.”

Sweeten thy water with the esoteric Sea: do not make the foul water a snare for these blind ones.

Arise, behold the lions of God who catch the onager: how art thou, like a dog, catching the blind with a (display of) hypocrisy?

What onager (do they catch)? They are far from hunting aught but the Beloved. They all are lions and lion-catchers and intoxicated with the Light (of God).

In contemplation of the chase and hunting of the King, they have abandoned the chase and have become dead in bewilderment.

The Friend has taken them, like a dead bird, that (by means of them) He may hunt down their congeners.

The dead bird is compelled (deprived of volition) in respect of being united or separated: you have read (the Hadíth), “The heart is between two fingers (of the Merciful God).”

Every one that has fallen a prey to His dead bird (will perceive), when he sees (the truth), (that) he has fallen a prey to the King.

Whoever turned his head away from this dead bird never gained the hand of that Hunter.

It (the dead bird) says, “Do not regard my being a carcase: see the King's love (shown) in preserving me.

I am not a carcase: the King hath killed me: my appearance has become like (that of) the dead.

My former motion was by means of wing and pinion: now my motion proceeds from the hand of the (Divine) Judge.

My perishable motion has gone forth from my skin: now my motion is everlasting, since it proceeds from Him.

If any one move crookedly (misbehave) in the presence of my motion, I will kill him miserably, (even) though he is the Símurgh.

Beware! If thou art (spiritually) alive, do not deem me dead; if thou art a (devoted) slave (of God), regard me (as being) in the hand of the King.

Jesus, by his grace, made the dead to be living: I am in the hand of the Creator of Jesus.

How should I remain dead in the grasp of God? Likewise, do not hold this to be possible in (the case of) the hand of ‘Jesus.’

I am ‘Jesus’; but every one that hath gained life from (been revived by) my breath will remain unto everlasting.

He (the dead man) was made living by Jesus, but died again. Happy is he that gave up his life to this ‘Jesus.’

I am the staff in the hand of my ‘Moses’: my ‘Moses’ is hidden, while I am visible in presence.

For the true believers I become a bridge across the sea; for Pharaoh, again, I become a dragon.”

O son, do not regard this staff alone, for the staff would not be like this without the hand of God.

The waves of the Flood too were a staff which, from being aggrieved, devoured the pomp of the votaries of magic.

If I should enumerate the staves of God, I should tear to pieces (expose and confound) the hypocrisy of these followers of Pharaoh;

But leave them to browse on this sweet poisonous grass for a few days.

If there be not the power and dominion of Pharaoh, whence shall Hell obtain nutriment?

Fatten him, then kill him, O Butcher; for the dogs in Hell are without food.

If there were no adversary and enemy in the world, then the anger in men would die.

That anger is Hell: it needs an adversary that it may live; else Mercy would kill it.

Then clemency would remain without any vengeance or evil: then how would the perfection of Kingship be (manifested)?

Those disbelievers have made a laughing-stock of the parables and clear exposition of them that glorify (God).

Make (them) a laughing-stock, if thou wishest (O disbeliever): how long wilt thou live, O carcase, how long?

Rejoice, O lovers (of God), in supplication at this same door, for it is opened today.

Every pot-herb, (such as) garlic and caper, has a different bed in the garden.

Each with its own kind in its own bed drinks moisture (is watered) for the purpose of becoming mature.

Thou, who art a saffron-bed, be saffron and do not mix with the others.

Drink the water, O saffron, that thou mayst attain to maturity: thou art saffron, thou wilt attain to that halwá (sweetmeat).

Do not put thy muzzle into the bed of turnips, for it (the turnip) will not agree with thee in nature and habit.

Thou art planted in one bed, it (the turnip) in another bed, because God's earth is spacious,

Particularly that earth (the unseen world) where, on account of its breadth, demon and genie are lost in their journey.

In (seeking to measure) those seas and deserts and mountains imagination and fancy fail entirely.

In (comparison with) the deserts thereof, this desert (the material world) is like a single hair in a full sea.

The still water whose course is hidden is fresher and sweeter than running brooks,

For, like the (vital) spirit and the (rational) soul, it hath within itself a hidden course and a moving foot.

The auditor is asleep: cut short (conclude) the address: O preacher, do not draw this picture on water.

Arise, O Bilqís, for ’tis a keen (busy and lucrative) market: flee from these vile wretches who ruin (the spiritual) trade.

O Bilqís, arise now with free-will, ere Death appear in his sovereign might.

After that, Death will pull thy ear (torment thee) in such wise that thou wilt come in agony, like a thief to the magistrate.

How long wilt thou be (engaged in) stealing shoes from these asses? If thou art going to steal, come and steal a ruby!

Thy sisters have gained the kingdom of everlasting life; thou hast won the kingdom of misery.

Oh, happy he that escaped from this kingdom, for Death makes this kingdom desolate.

Arise, O Bilqís! Come, behold for once the kingdom of the Sháhs and Sultans of the (true) Religion.

He (such a king) is seated inwardly (in spirit) amidst the rose-garden (of union with God); outwardly (in the body) he is acting as a hádí amongst his friends.

The garden is going with him wherever he goes, but it is (always) being concealed from the people.

The fruit is making entreaty, saying, “Eat of me”; the Water of Life is come, saying, “Drink of me.”

Make a circuit of heaven without wing and pinion, like the sun and like the full-moon and like the new moon.

Thou wilt be moving, like the spirit, and (there will be) no foot; thou wilt be eating a hundred dainties, and (there will be) none chewing a morsel.

Neither will the leviathan, Pain, dash against thy ship, nor will ugliness appear in thee from dying.

Thou wilt be sovereign, army, and throne, all together: thou wilt be both the fortunate and Fortune.

(Even) if thou art fortunate and a powerful monarch, (yet) Fortune is other than thou: one day Fortune goes,

And thou art left destitute like beggars. Be thou thine own fortune, O elect one!

When thou art thine own fortune, O man of Reality, then how wilt thou, who art Fortune, lose thyself?

How wilt thou lose thyself, O man with goodly qualities, when thy Essence has become thy kingdom and riches?