The Hare Answers the Beasts
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 1, section 53 of 171: How the hare answered the beasts (جواب گفتن خرگوش نخجیران را). Below, each of its 10 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How the hare answered the beasts جواب گفتن خرگوش نخجیران را
گفت ای یاران مرا مهلت دهید
تا به مکرم از بلا بیرون جهید
“O friends,” said he, “grant me a respite, that by my cunning ye may escape from calamity,
تا امان یابد به مکرم جانتان
ماند این میراث فرزندانتان
That by my cunning your lives may be saved and this (safety) remain as a heritage to your children.”
هر پیمبر امتان را در جهان
همچنین تا مخلصی می‌‌خواندشان
After this manner every prophet in the world used to call the peoples to a place of deliverance,
کز فلک راه برون شو دیده بود
در نظر چون مردمک پیچیده بود
For he has seen the way to escape from the celestial sphere (the world of Time), (though) in (their) sight he was contracted (despicable) like the pupil of the eye.
مردمش چون مردمک دیدند خرد
در بزرگی مردمک کس ره نبرد
Men regarded him as small like the pupil: none attained to (understanding of) the (real) greatness (worth) of the pupil.
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi)
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