The Burden of Being a Cadi
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 2, section 69 of 113: How a cadi complained of the calamity of (holding) the office of cadi, and how his deputy answered him (شکایت قاضی از آفت قضا و جواب گفتن نایب او را). Below, each of its 24 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How a cadi complained of the calamity of (holding) the office of cadi, and how his deputy answered him.شکایت قاضی از آفت قضا و جواب گفتن نایب او را
قاضیی بنشاندند او میگریست
گفت نایب قاضیا گریه ز چیست
They installed a cadi, (and meanwhile) he wept. The deputy said, ‘O cadi, what are you weeping for?
این نه وقت گریه و فریاد تست
وقت شادی و مبارک باد تست
This is not the time for you to weep and lament: it is the time for you to rejoice and receive felicitations.’
گفت اه چون حکم راند بیدلی
در میان آن دو عالم جاهلی
‘Ah,’ said he, ‘how shall a man without insight pronounce judgement an ignorant man (decide) between two who know?
آن دو خصم از واقعهی خود واقفند
قاضی مسکین چه داند ز آن دو بند
Those two adversaries are acquainted with their own case: what should the poor cadi know of those two tangles?
جاهل است و غافل است از حالشان
چون رود در خونشان و مالشان
He is ignorant and unaware of their (real) state: how should he proceed (to give judgment) concerning their lives and property?’
گفت خصمان عالمند و علتی
جاهلی تو لیک شمع ملتی
He (the deputy) said, ‘The litigants know (the truth of their case) and (nevertheless) are unsound (prejudiced); you are ignorant (of the facts), but you are the luminary of the whole body (of Moslems),
ز انکه تو علت نداری در میان
آن فراغت هست نور دیدهگان
Because you have no prejudice to interfere (with your discernment), and that freedom (from prejudice) is light to the eyes;
و آن دو عالم را غرضشان کور کرد
علمشان را علت اندر گور کرد
While those two who know are blinded by their self-interest: prejudice has put their knowledge into the grave.
جهل را بیعلتی عالم کند
علم را علت کژ و ظالم کند
Unprejudicedness makes ignorance wise; prejudice makes knowledge perverse and iniquitous.
تا تو رشوت نستدی بینندهای
چون طمع کردی ضریر و بندهای
So long as you accept no bribe, you are seeing; when you act covetously, you are blind and enslaved.’
از هوا من خوی را واکردهام
لقمههای شهوتی کم خوردهام
I have turned my nature away from vain desire: I have not eaten delicious morsels.
چاشنی گیر دلم شد با فروغ
راست را داند حقیقت از دروغ
My heart, which tastes (and distinguishes), has become bright (like a clear mirror): it really knows truth from falsehood.
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