The Physicians Fail and the King Prays
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 1, section 3 of 171: How it became manifest that the physicians were unable to cure the handmaiden, and how the king turned his face towards God and dreamed of a holy man (عجز حکیمان از معالجه کنیزک و روی آوردن پادشاه به درگاه اله). Below, each of its 46 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How it became manifest that the physicians were unable to cure the handmaiden, and how the king turned his face towards God and dreamed of a holy man. عجز حکیمان از معالجه کنیزک و روی آوردن پادشاه به درگاه اله
شه چو عجز آن حکیمان را بدید
پا برهنه جانب مسجد دوید
When the king saw the powerlessness of those physicians, he ran bare-footed to the mosque.
رفت در مسجد سوی محراب شد
سجده‌گاه از اشک شه پر آب شد
He entered the mosque and advanced to the mihráb (to pray): the prayer-carpet was bathed in the king’s tears.
چون به خویش آمد ز غرقاب فنا
خوش زبان بگشاد در مدح و دعا
On coming to himself out of the flood of ecstasy (faná) he loosed his tongue in goodly praise and laud,
کای کمینه بخششت ملک جهان
من چه گویم چون تو می‌دانی نهان
Saying, “O Thou whose least gift is the empire of the world, what shall I say, in as much as Thou knowest the hidden thing?
ای همیشه حاجت ما را پناه
بار دیگر ما غلط کردیم راه
O Thou with whom we always take refuge in our need, once again we have missed the way.
لیک گفتی گرچه می‌دانم سرت
زود هم پیدا کنش بر ظاهرت
But Thou hast said, ‘Albeit I know thy secret, nevertheless declare it forthwith in thine outward act.’”
چون برآورد از میان جان خروش
اندر آمد بحر بخشایش به جوش
When from the depths of his soul he raised a cry (of supplication), the sea of Bounty began to surge.
درمیان گریه خوابش در ربود
دید در خواب او که پیری رو نمود
Slumber overtook him in the midst of weeping: he dreamed that an old man appeared
گفت ای شه مژده حاجاتت رواست
گر غریبی آیدت فردا ز ماست
And said, “Good tidings, O king! Thy prayers are granted. If to-morrow a stranger come for thee, he is from me.
چونک آید او حکیمی حاذقست
صادقش دان کو امین و صادقست
When he comes, he is a skilled physician: deem him veracious, for he is trusty and true.
در علاجش سحر مطلق را ببین
در مزاجش قدرت حق را ببین
In his remedy behold absolute magic, in his temperament behold the might of God!”
چون رسید آن وعده‌گاه و روز شد
آفتاب از شرق اخترسوز شد
When the promised hour arrived and day broke and the sun, (rising) from the east, began to burn the stars,
بود اندر منظره شه منتظر
تا ببیند آنچ بنمودند سر
The king was in the belvedere, expecting to see that which had been shown mysteriously.
دید شخصی فاضلی پر مایه‌ای
آفتابی درمیان سایه‌ای
He saw a person excellent and worshipful, a sun amidst a shadow,
می‌رسید از دور مانند هلال
نیست بود و هست بر شکل خیال
Coming from afar, like the new moon (in slenderness and radiance): he was nonexistent, though existent in the form of phantasy.
نیست‌وش باشد خیال اندر روان
تو جهانی بر خیالی بین روان
In the spirit phantasy is as naught, (yet) behold a world (turning) on a phantasy!
بر خیالی صلحشان و جنگشان
وز خیالی فخرشان و ننگشان
Their peace and their war (turn) on a phantasy, and their pride and their shame spring from a phantasy;
آن خیالاتی که دام اولیاست
عکس مه‌رویان بستان خداست
(But) those phantasies which ensnare the saints are the reflexion of the fair ones of the garden of God.
آن خیالی که شه اندر خواب دید
در رخ مهمان همی آمد پدید
In the countenance of the stranger-guest was appearing that phantasy which the king beheld in his dream.
شه به جای حاجبان فا پیش رفت
پیش آن مهمان غیب خویش رفت
The king himself, instead of the chamberlains, went forward to meet his guest from the Invisible.
هر دو بحری آشنا آموخته
هر دو جان بی دوختن بر دوخته
Both were seamen who had learned to swim, the souls of both were knit together without sewing.
گفت معشوقم تو بودستی نه آن
لیک کار از کار خیزد در جهان
The king said, “Thou wert my Beloved (in reality), not she; but in this world deed issues from deed.
ای مرا تو مصطفی من چو عمر
از برای خدمتت بندم کمر
O thou who art to me (as) Mustafá (Mohammed), while I am like unto ‘Umar I will gird my loins to do thee service.”
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