بخش 114 - قصهٔ بط بچگان کی مرغ خانگی پروردشان

Thou art the offspring of a duck, though a domestic fowl has nursed thee beneath her wing.

Thy mother was the duck of that Sea; thy nurse was of the earth and devoted to the dry land.

The desire which is in thy heart for the Sea—thy soul hath that nature (instinct) from thy mother.

The desire thou hast for the dry land is from this nurse. Leave the nurse, for she is an evil counsellor.

Leave the nurse on the dry land, and press on: come into the Sea of spiritual reality, like the ducks.

(Even) if thy mother should bid thee be afraid of the water, fear not thou, but push speedily into the Sea.

Thou art a duck: thou art one that lives (both) on dry and wet; thou art not one like the domestic fowl, whose house is dug (in the ground).

Thou art a king in virtue of (the text), We have ennobled the sons of Adam: thou settest foot both on the dry land and on the Sea.

For in spirit thou art (what is signified by the text), We have conveyed them on the Sea: push forward (then) from (the state implied in the words), We have conveyed them on the land.

The angels have no access to the land; the animal kind, again, are ignorant of the Sea.

Thou in (thy) body art an animal, and in (thy) spirit thou art of the angels, so that thou mayst walk on the earth and also in the sky;

So that the seer with heart divinely inspired may be, in appearance, a man like yourselves.

His body of dust (is here), fallen upon the earth; (but) his spirit (is) circling in yonder highest sphere (of Heaven).

We all are water-birds, O lad: the Sea fully knows our language.

Therefore the Sea is (our) Solomon, and we are as the birds (familiar with Solomon): in Solomon we move unto everlasting.

With Solomon set thy foot in the Sea, that the water, David-like, may make a hundred rings of mail (ripples).

That Solomon is present to all, but (His) jealousy binds (our) eyes (with spells) and enchants (us),

So that from folly and drowsiness (forgetfulness) and vanity— He is beside us, and (yet) we are sick of Him.

The noise of thunder gives the thirsty man headache, when he does not know that it (the thunder) brings on the rain-clouds of felicity.

His eye remains (fixed) upon the running stream, unaware of the delicious taste of the Water of Heaven.

He has urged the steed of (his) attention towards (secondary) causes: consequently he remains debarred from the Causer.

(But) one that sees the Causer plainly—how should he set his mind upon the (secondary) causes in the world?