Known by the Perversion of Their Speech
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 3, section 24 of 185: Explanation of (the text), And thou wilt surely know them in the perversion of their speech (تفسیر ولتعرفنهم فی لحن القول). Below, each of its 7 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
Explanation of (the text), And thou wilt surely know them in the perversion of their speech. تفسیر ولتعرفنهم فی لحن القول
گفت یزدان مر نبی را در مساق یک نشانی سهل‌تر ز اهل نفاق
God said to the Prophet in the course (of the Qur’án), “One sign of the hypocritical is easier (to perceive than other signs):
گر منافق زفت باشد نغز و هول وا شناسی مر ورا در لحن و قول
Though the hypocrite be big, handsome, and terrible, thou wilt recognise him in his perverse enunciation and speech.”
چون سفالین کوزه‌ها را می‌خری امتحانی می‌کنی ای مشتری
When you are buying earthenware pots, you make a trial, O purchaser.
می‌زنی دستی بر آن کوزه چرا تا شناسی از طنین اشکسته را
You give the pot a tap with your hand: why? In order that you may know the cracked one by the sound (which it makes).
بانگ اشکسته دگرگون می‌بود بانگ چاووشست پیشش می‌رود
The voice of the cracked one is different; the voice is a cháwúsh (beadle): it goes in front of it (the pot).
بانگ می‌آید که تعریفش کند همچو مصدر فعل تصریفش کند
The voice comes in order to make it known: it determines (the character of) it, as the verb (determines the form of) the masdar (verbal noun).
چون حدیث امتحان رویی نمود یادم آمد قصه‌ی هاروت زود
When the subject of (Divine) probation cropped up, the story of Hárút at once came into my memory.
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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