Broken Vows and the Fellows of the Sabbath
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 5, section 106 of 175: Explaining that the violation of a covenant and (vow of) repentance is the cause of affliction (در بیان آنک نقض عهد و توبه موجب بلا بود بلک موجب مسخ است چنانک در حق اصحاب سبت و در حق). Below, each of its 9 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
Explaining that the violation of a covenant and (vow of) repentance is the cause of affliction; nay, it is the cause of metamorphosis, as in the case of the “Fellows of the Sabbath” and in the case of the “Fellows (who disbelieved in the miracle) of the Table of Jesus,” for (God hath said), “And He turned them into apes and swine.” And in this community there is (only) metamorphosis of the spirit, but at the Resurrection the form of the spirit will be given to the body. در بیان آنک نقض عهد و توبه موجب بلا بود بلک موجب مسخ است چنانک در حق اصحاب سبت و در حق اصحاب مایده‌ی عیسی و جعل منهم القردة و الخنازیر و اندرین امت مسخ دل باشد و به قیامت تن را صورت دل دهند نعوذ بالله
نقض میثاق و شکست توبه‌ها موجب لعنت شود در انتها
To violate a pact and break vows of repentance becomes the cause of accursedness in the end.
نقض توبه و عهد آن اصحاب سبت موجب مسخ آمد و اهلاک و مقت
The violation of vows of repentance by the “Fellows of the Sabbath” became the cause of their metamorphosis and destruction and abomination.
پس خدا آن قوم را بوزینه کرد چونک عهد حق شکستند از نبرد
Therefore God turned those people into apes, since they rebelliously broke their covenant with God.
اندرین امت نبد مسخ بدن لیک مسخ دل بود ای بوالفطن
In this community there has never been metamorphosis of the body, but there is metamorphosis of the spirit, O man endowed with perception.
چون دل بوزینه گردد آن دلش از دل بوزینه شد خوار آن گلش
When his spirit becomes the ape-spirit, his clay (body) is debased by the ape-spirit.
گر هنر بودی دلش را ز اختبار خوار کی بودی ز صورت آن حمار
How should the ass be debased by his (bodily) form, if his spirit had possessed the virtue (that is derived) from (rational) experience?
آن سگ اصحاب خوش بد سیرتش هیچ بودش منقصت زان صورتش
The dog of the Companions (of the Cave) had a goodly character: was he any the worse on account of his (bodily) form?
مسخ ظاهر بود اهل سبت را تا ببیند خلق ظاهر کبت را
The “Fellows of the Sabbath” suffered outward metamorphosis, in order that the people might behold outwardly their ignominious fall.
از ره سر صد هزاران دگر گشته از توبه شکستن خوک و خر
Through breaking (vows of) repentance a hundred thousand others have become hogs and asses inwardly.
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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