Where Are Paradise and Hell?
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 4, section 107 of 137: Explaining that one who knows the power of God will not ask, "Where are Paradise and Hell?" (در بیان آنک شناسای قدرت حق نپرسد کی بهشت و دوزخ کجاست). Below, each of its 44 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
Explaining that one who knows the power of God will not ask, “Where are Paradise and Hell?” در بیان آنک شناسای قدرت حق نپرسد کی بهشت و دوزخ کجاست
هر کجا خدا دوزخ کند
اوج را بر مرغ دام و فخ کند
God makes Hell to be wheresoever He will: He makes the zenith to be a snare and trap for the bird.
هم ز دندانت برآید دردها
تا بگویی دوزخست و اژدها
Likewise from thy teeth arise pangs of pain, to the end that thou mayst say, “‘Tis Hell and the dragon.”
یا کند آب دهانت را عسل
که بگویی که بهشتست و حلل
Or He makes the water of thy mouth to be (sweet as) honey, that thou mayst say, “’Tis Paradise and the robes (of Paradise).”
از بن دندان برویاند شکر
تا بدانی قوت حکم قدر
He makes sugar to grow from the roots of the teeth, that thou mayst know the power of the ordinance of the (Divine) decree.
پس به دندان بی‌گناهان را مگز
فکر کن از ضربت نامحترز
Do not, then, bite the innocent with thy teeth: bethink thee of the stroke that is not to be guarded against.
نیل را بر قبطیان حق خون کند
سبطیان را از بلا محصون کند
God makes the Nile to be blood for the Egyptians; He makes the Israelites safe from calamity,
تا بدانی پیش حق تمییز هست
در میان هوشیار راه و مست
That thou mayst know that with God there is discrimination between the sober (traveller) on the Way and the intoxicated.
نیل تمییز از خدا آموختست
که گشاد آن را و این را سخت بست
The Nile has learned from God to discriminate, for it opened (the door) for these (Israelites) and shut fast (the door) against those (Egyptians).
لطف او عاقل کند مر نیل را
قهر او ابله کند قابیل را
His grace makes the Nile intelligent; His wrath makes Cain foolish.
در جمادات از کرم عقل آفرید
عقل از عاقل به قهر خود برید
He, from kindness, created intelligence in lifeless things; He, because of His wrath, cut off intelligence from the intelligent one.
در جماد از لطف عقلی شد پدید
وز نکال از عاقلان دانش رمید
By (His) grace an intelligence appeared in lifeless matter, and through (His) chastisement knowledge fled from the intelligent.
عقل چون باران به امر آنجا بریخت
عقل این سو خشم حق دید و گریخت
There, by (His) command the rain-like intelligence poured down; here, intelligence saw God’s anger and took to flight.
ابر و خورشید و مه و نجم بلند
جمله بر ترتیب آیند و روند
Clouds and sun and moon and lofty stars, all come and go according to arrangement.
هر یکی ناید مگر در وقت خویش
که نه پس ماند ز هنگام و نه پیش
None comes but at its appointed hour, so that it neither lags behind the time nor (arrives) before.
چون نکردی فهم این را ز انبیا
دانش آوردند در سنگ و عصا
How hast not thou understood this from the prophets? They brought knowledge into stone and rod,
تا جمادات دگر را بی لباس
چون عصا و سنگ داری از قیاس
That thou, (judging) by analogy, might’st undoubtingly deem the other lifeless things to be like rod and stone (in this respect).
طاعت سنگ و عصا ظاهر شود
وز جمادات دگر مخبر شود
The obedience (to God) of stone and rod is made manifest and gives information concerning the other lifeless things,
که ز یزدان آگهیم و طایعیم
ما همه نی اتفاقی ضایعیم
That (they say), “We are cognisant of God and obedient (to Him): we all are (bearing witness to His wisdom) not by chance and in vain.
هم‌چو آب نیل دانی وقت غرق
کو میان هر دو امت کرد فرق
As (for example) the water of the Nile: thou knowest that at the time of drowning it made a distinction between the two peoples;
چون زمین دانیش دانا وقت خسف
در حق قارون که قهرش کرد و نسف
(And) as the earth: thou knowest it to be possessed of knowledge, at the time of (its) sinking, in regard to Qárún whom He subdued and swept away;
چون قمر که امر بشنید و شتافت
پس دو نیمه گشت بر چرخ و شکافت
(And) as the moon, which heard the (Divine) command and hastened (to obey) and then became two halves in the sky and split;
چون درخت و سنگ کاندر هر مقام
مصطفی را کرده ظاهرالسلام
(And) as the trees and stones which everywhere overtly made the salaam to Mustafá (Mohammed).
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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