Sweet Things of the World and God’s Food
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 5, section 69 of 175: Explaining the banefulness of the fat and sweet things of the World and how they hinder one from (receiving) the Food of God (در بیان وخامت چرب و شیرین دنیا و مانع شدن او از طعام الله چنانک فرمود الجوع طعام الله). Below, each of its 17 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
Explaining the banefulness of the fat and sweet things of the World and how they hinder one from (receiving) the Food of God, as he (the Prophet) hath said “Hunger is the Food of God with which He revives the bodies of the true (witnesses to Him),” i.e. in hunger the Food of God is (forthcoming); and he hath said, “I pass the night with my Lord and He gives me food and drink”; and God hath said, “being provided for, rejoicing.” در بیان وخامت چرب و شیرین دنیا و مانع شدن او از طعام الله چنانک فرمود الجوع طعام الله یحیی به ابدان الصدیقین ای فی الجوع طعام الله و قوله ابیت عند ربی یطعمنی و یسقینی و قوله یرزقون فرحین
وا رهی زین روزی ریزه‌ی کثیف در فتی در لوت و در قوت شریف
(If) you are delivered from this provision of gross scraps, you will fall to (eating) dainty viands and noble food.
گر هزاران رطل لوتش می‌خوری می‌روی پاک و سبک هم‌چون پری
(Even) if you are eating a hundred pounds’ weight of His viands, you will depart pure and light as a peri;
که نه حبس باد و قولنجت کند چارمیخ معده آهنجت کند
For they will not make you a prisoner of (incapacitated by) wind and dysentery and crucify you with gripes.
گر خوری کم گرسنه مانی چو زاغ ور خوری پر گیرد آروغت دماغ
(In the case of material food) if you eat (too) little, you will remain hungry like the crow; and if you eat your fill, you will suffer from eructation.
کم خوری خوی بد و خشکی و دق پر خوری شد تخمه را تن مستحق
If you eat (too) little, (the result will be) ill-temper and anaemia and consumption; if you eat your fill, your body will incur (the penalty of) indigestion.
از طعام الله و قوت خوش‌گوار بر چنان دریا چو کشتی شو سوار
Through (partaking of) the Food of God and the easily digested (delicious) nutriment, ride like a ship on such a (spiritual) ocean.
باش در روزه شکیبا و مصر دم به دم قوت خدا را منتظر
Be patient and persistent in fasting: (be) always expecting the Food of God;
که آن خدای خوب‌کار بردبار هدیه‌ها را می‌دهد در انتظار
For God, who acts with goodness and is long-suffering, bestows (His) gifts (on them that are) in expectation.
انتظار نان ندارد مرد سیر که سبک آید وظیفه یا که دیر
The full-fed man does not wait expectantly for bread, (wondering) whether his allowance will come soon or late;
بی‌نوا هر دم همی گوید که کو در مجاعت منتظر در جست و جو
(But) the foodless man is always asking, “Where (is it)?” and expecting it hungrily and seeking and searching (for it).
چون نباشی منتظر ناید به تو آن نواله‌ی دولت هفتاد تو
Unless you are expectant, that bounty of manifold felicity will not come to you.
ای پدر الانتظار الانتظار از برای خوان بالا مردوار
(Practise) expectation, O father, expectation, like a (true) man, for the sake of the dishes from above.
هر گرسنه عاقبت قوتی بیافت آفتاب دولتی بر وی بتافت
Every hungry man obtained some food at last: the sun of (spiritual) fortune shone upon him.
ضیف با همت چو ز آشی کم خورد صاحب خوان آش بهتر آورد
When a magnanimous guest will not eat some (inferior) food, the host brings better food,
جز که صاحب خوان درویشی لیم ظن بد کم بر به رزاق کریم
Unless he be a poor host and a mean one. Do not think (so) ill of the generous Provider!
سر برآور هم‌چو کوهی ای سند تا نخستین نور خور بر تو زند
Lift up your head like a mountain, O man of authority, in order that the first rays of the Sun may strike upon you;
که آن سر کوه بلند مستقر هست خورشید سحر را منتظر
For the lofty firm-based mountain-peak is expecting the sun of dawn.
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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