Alas for the Servants of God
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 5, section 17 of 175: Explanation of “Alas for the servants (of God)! (تفسیر یا حسرة علی العباد). Below, each of its 16 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
Explanation of “Alas for the servants (of God)! تفسیر یا حسرة علی العباد
او همی گوید که از اشکال تو
غره گشتم دیر دیدم حال تو
It (the moth) says, “I was deceived by thy (outward) features and (too) late did I regard thy (inward) condition.”
شمع مرده باده رفته دلربا
غوطه خورد از ننگ کژبینی ما
The candle is extinguished, the wine is gone, and the Beloved has withdrawn himself from the disgrace of our squintness.
ظلت الارباح خسرا مغرما
نشتکی شکوی الی الله العمی
Thy profits have become a loss and penalty: thou complainest bitterly to God of thy blindness.
حبذا ارواح اخوان ثقات
مسلمات ممنات قانتات
How excellent are the spirits of brethren trustworthy, self-surrendering, believing, obeying!
هر کسی رویی به سویی برده‌اند
وان عزیزان رو به بی‌سو کرده‌اند
Every one (else) has turned his face in some direction, but those holy ones have turned towards that which transcends direction.
هر کبوتر می‌پرد در مذهبی
وین کبوتر جانب بی‌جانبی
Every (other) pigeon flies on some course, but this pigeon (flies) in a region where no region is.
ما نه مرغان هوا نه خانگی
دانه‌ی ما دانه‌ی بی‌دانگی
We are neither birds of the air nor domestic (fowls): our grain is the grain of grainlessness.
زان فراخ آمد چنین روزی ما
که دریدن شد قبادوزی ما
Our daily bread is so ample because our stitching the coat (of bodily existence) has become the tearing (of it to pieces).
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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