Knowledge Has Two Wings, Opinion One
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 3, section 55 of 185: Explaining that Knowledge has two wings, and Opinion (only) one: “Opinion is defective and curtailed in flight” (بیان آنک علم را دو پرست و گمان را یک پرست ناقص آمد ظن به پرواز ابترست مثال ظن و یقین در). Below, each of its 12 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
Explaining that Knowledge has two wings, and Opinion (only) one: “Opinion is defective and curtailed in flight”; and a comparison illustrating opinion and certainty in knowledge. بیان آنک علم را دو پرست و گمان را یک پرست ناقص آمد ظن به پرواز ابترست مثال ظن و یقین در علم
علم را دو پر گمان را یک پرست ناقص آمد ظن به پرواز ابترست
Knowledge has two wings, Opinion one wing: Opinion is defective and curtailed in flight.
مرغ یک‌پر زود افتد سرنگون باز بر پرد دو گامی یا فزون
The one-winged bird soon falls headlong; then again it flies up some two paces or (a little) more.
افت خیزان می‌رود مرغ گمان با یکی پر بر امید آشیان
The bird, Opinion, falling and rising, goes on with one wing in hope of (reaching) the nest.
چون ز ظن وا رست علمش رو نمود شد دو پر آن مرغ یک‌پر پر گشود
(But) when he has been delivered from Opinion, Knowledge shows its face to him: that one-winged bird becomes two-winged and spreads his wings.
بعد از آن یمشی سویا مستقیم نه علی وجهه مکبا او سقیم
After that, he walks erect and straight, not falling flat on his face or ailing.
با دو پر بر می‌پرد چون جبرئیل بی گمان و بی مگر بی قال و قیل
He flies aloft with two wings, like Gabriel, without opinion and without peradventure and without disputation.
گر همه عالم بگویندش توی بر ره یزدان و دین مستوی
If all the world should say to him, “You are on the Way of God and (are following) the right religion,”
او نگردد گرم‌تر از گفتشان جان طاق او نگردد جفتشان
He will not be made hotter by their words: his lonely soul will not mate with them;
ور همه گویند او را گم‌رهی کوه پنداری و تو برگ کهی
And if they all should say to him, “You are astray: you think (you are) a mountain, and (in reality) you are a blade of straw,”
او نیفتد در گمان از طعنشان او نگردد دردمند از ظعنشان
He will not fall into opinion (doubt) because of their taunts, he will not be grieved by their departure (estrangement from him).
بلک گر دریا و کوه آید بگفت گویدش با گم‌رهی گشتی تو جفت
Nay, if seas and mountains should come to speech and should say to him, “You are wedded to perdition,”
هیچ یک ذره نیفتد در خیال یا به طعن طاعنان رنجورحال
Not the least jot will he fall into phantasy or sickness on account of the taunts of the scoffers.
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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