Pharaoh Made Ill by People’s Reverence
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 3, section 59 of 185: How Pharaoh was made (spiritually) ill by vain imagination arising from the people's reverence (for him) (بیمار شدن فرعون هم به وهم از تعظیم خلقان). Below, each of its 7 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How Pharaoh was made (spiritually) ill by vain imagination arising from the people’s reverence (for him). بیمار شدن فرعون هم به وهم از تعظیم خلقان
سجده‌ی خلق از زن و از طفل و مرد زد دل فرعون را رنجور کرد
The people’s prostrating themselves women, children, and men smote the heart of Pharaoh and made him ill.
گفتن هریک خداوند و ملک آنچنان کردش ز وهمی منهتک
Every one’s calling him lord and king made him so tattered (infamous) from a vain imagination,
که به دعوی الهی شد دلیر اژدها گشت و نمی‌شد هیچ سیر
That he dared to pretend to divinity: he became a dragon and would never be sated.
عقل جزوی آفتش وهمست و ظن زانک در ظلمات شد او را وطن
Imagination and opinion are the bane of the particular (discursive) reason, because its dwelling-place is in the darkness.
بر زمین گر نیم گز راهی بود آدمی بی وهم آمن می‌رود
If there be a path half an ell wide on the ground, a man will walk safely without imagining;
بر سر دیوار عالی گر روی گر دو گز عرضش بود کژ می‌شوی
(But) if you walk on the top of a high wall, you will stagger even if its width be two ells;
بلک می‌افتی ز لرزه‌ی دل به وهم ترس وهمی را نکو بنگر بفهم
Nay, through (the force of) imagination and from trembling of heart, you will be (on the point of) falling. Consider well and understand the fear that is due to imagination.
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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