How the poor stranger was informed

How the poor stranger was informed of the Inspector’s death and begged God to pardon him for having relied upon a created being and having rested his hopes upon the bounty of a created being; and how he remembered the blessings he had received from God, and turned to God and repented of his sin: “then those who disbelieve equal (Him with others).” باخبر شدن آن غریب از وفات آن محتسب و استغفار او از اعتماد بر مخلوق و تعویل بر عطای مخلوق و یاد نعمتهای حق کردنش و انابت به حق از جرم خود ثم الذین کفروا بربهم یعدلون

چون به هوش آمد بگفت ای کردگار مجرمم بودم به خلق اومیدوار
When he came to his senses, he said, “O Maker, I am a sinner: I was setting my hopes on (Thy) creatures.
گرچه خواجه بس سخاوت کرده بود هیچ آن کفو عطای تو نبود
Though the Khwája had shown great generosity, (yet) that was never a match for Thy bounty.
او کله بخشید و تو سر پر خرد او قبا بخشید و تو بالا و قد
He gave the cap, but Thou the head filled with intelligence; he gave the coat, but Thou the tall figure and stature (of its wearer).
او زرم داد و تو دست زرشمار او ستورم داد و تو عقل سوار
He gave me gold, but Thou the hand that counts gold; he gave me the beast for riding, but Thou the mind that rides it.
خواجه شمعم دادو تو چشم قریر خواجه نقلم داد و تو طعمه‌پذیر
The Khwája gave me the candle, but Thou the cool (bright and cheerful) eye; the Khwája gave me the dessert, but Thou the food-receiving (stomach).
او وظیفه داد و تو عمر و حیات وعده‌اش زر وعده‌ی تو طیبات
He gave me the stipend, but Thou life and animate existence; his promise was gold, but Thy promise the pure things (of the spirit).
او وثاقم داد و تو چرخ و زمین در وثاقت او و صد چون او سمین
He gave me a house, but Thou the sky and the earth: in Thy house he and a hundred like him (grow) fat.
زر از آن تست زر او نافرید نان از آن تست نان از تش رسید
Gold is Thine: he did not create gold. Bread is Thine: bread came to him from Thee.
آن سخا و رحم هم تو دادیش کز سخاوت می‌فزودی شادیش
Thou also gavest him generosity and pity, and his joy was increased by (showing) that generosity.
من مرورا قبله‌ی خود ساختم قبله‌ساز اصل را انداختم
I made him my qibla (object of desire): I let the original qibla-Maker fall (into neglect).”
ما کجا بودیم کان دیان دین عقل می‌کارید اندر آب و طین
Where were we when the Judge of Judgement (Day) was sowing reason in the water and clay (of Adam)?
چون همی کرد از عدم گردون پدید وین بساط خاک را می‌گسترید
Since (’twas for us that) He was producing the sky from non-existence and spreading this carpet of earth,
ز اختران می‌ساخت او مصباح‌ها وز طبایع قفل با مفتاح‌ها
And making lamps of the stars, and of the (four) natural properties a lock together with the keys (to open it).
ای بسا بنیادها پنهان و فاش مضمر این سقف کرد و این فراش
Oh, how many structures hidden (from sight) and plain to see has He enclosed in this roof (heaven) and this carpet (earth)!
آدم اصطرلاب اوصاف علوست وصف آدم مظهر آیات اوست
Adam is the astrolabe of the attributes of (Divine) Sublimity: the nature of Adam is the theatre for His revelations.
هرچه در وی می‌نماید عکس اوست هم‌چو عکس ماه اندر آب جوست
Whatever appears in him (Adam) is the reflexion of Him, just as the moon is reflected in the water of the river.
بر صطرلابش نقوش عنکبوت بهر اوصاف ازل دارد ثبوت
The figures (cut) on the “spider” (uppermost tablet) on his astrolabe are there for the sake of (typifying) the Eternal Attributes,
تا ز چرخ غیب وز خورشید روح عنکبوتش درس گوید از شروح
In order that its “spider” may give lessons in exposition of the sky of the Unseen and the sun of the Spirit.
عنکبوت و این صطرلاب رشاد بی‌منجم در کف عام اوفتاد
Without a (spiritual) astronomer (to explain their significance), the “spider” and this astrolabe which guides aright fall (uselessly) into the hands of the vulgar.
انبیا را داد حق تنجیم این غیب را چشمی بباید غیب‌بین
God bestowed (knowledge of) this (spiritual) astronomy on the prophets: for (the mysteries of) the Unseen an eye that observes the Unseen is necessary.
در چه دنیا فتادند این قرون عکس خود را دید هر یک چه درون
These (worldly) generations fell into the well of the present world: every one saw in the well his own reflexion.
از برون دان آنچ در چاهت نمود ورنه آن شیری که در چه شد فرود
Know that what appears to you in the well is (really) from outside; else you are (like) the lion that plunged into the well (and was drowned). 
برد خرگوشیش از ره کای فلان در تگ چاهست آن شیر ژیان
A hare led him astray, saying, “O such-and-such, this furious lion (thy rival) is at the bottom of the well.
در رو اندر چاه کین از وی بکش چون ازو غالب‌تری سر بر کنش
Go into the well and wreak vengeance on him: tear off his head, since thou art mightier than he.”
آن مقلد سخره‌ی خرگوش شد از خیال خویشتن پر جوش شد
That (blind) follower of authority was subjugated by the hare: he was filled with boiling (fury) by his own fancy.
او نگفت این نقش داد آب نیست این به جز تقلیب آن قلاب نیست
He did not say, “This image is not produced by the water: this is not (produced) by anything except the changing activity of the (Divine) Changer.”
تو هم از دشمن چو کینی می‌کشی ای زبون شش غلط در هر ششی
So when you, O slave to the six (directions), wreak vengeance on your enemy you are in error concerning all the six.
آن عداوت اندرو عکس حقست کز صفات قهر آنجا مشتقست
That enmity in him (your enemy) is reflected from God, for it is derived from the (Divine) attributes of Wrath (which are manifested) there;
وآن گنه در وی ز جنس جرم تست باید آن خو را ز طبع خویش شست
And that sin in him is homogeneous with your sin: you must wash that (evil) disposition out of your own nature.
خلق زشتت اندرو رویت نمود که ترا او صفحه‌ی آیینه بود
Your evil character showed itself to you in him because he was (like) the surface of a mirror to you.
چونک قبح خویش دیدی ای حسن اندر آیینه بر آیینه مزن
When you have seen your ugliness in the mirror, O Hasan, do not strike (a blow) at the mirror!
می‌زند بر آب استاره‌ی سنی خاک تو بر عکس اختر می‌زنی
A lofty star is reflected in the water, and you cast earth on the star’s reflexion,
کین ستاره‌ی نحس در آب آمدست تا کند او سعد ما را زیردست
Saying, “This unlucky star has come into the water to overthrow my good luck.”
خاک استیلا بریزی بر سرش چونک پنداری ز شبهه اخترش
You pour upon it the earth of subjection, because on account of the resemblance you deem it to be the star (itself).
عکس پنهان گشت و اندر غیب راند تو گمان بردی که آن اختر نماند
(When) the reflexion becomes hidden (from sight) and disappears, you think that the star is no more;
آن ستاره‌ی نحس هست اندر سما هم بدان سو بایدش کردن دوا
(But) the unlucky star is in the sky: ’tis in that quarter it must be cured (of its ill-luck);
بلک باید دل سوی بی‌سوی بست نحس این سو عکس نحس بی‌سو است
Nay, you must fix your heart on that which is quarterless (illimitable); the ill-luck in this quarter is (only) the reflexion of the ill-luck in the realm where no quarters exist.
داد داد حق شناس و بخششش عکس آن دادست اندر پنج و شش
Know that (all) gifts are the gift of God and are His bounty: ’tis the reflexion of those gifts that appears in (the world of) the five (senses) and the six (directions).
گر بود داد خسان افزون ز ریگ تو بمیری وآن بماند مردریگ
Though the gifts of the base (worldlings) be more (in number) than the sands, (yet) you will die and they will be left behind as an inheritance.
عکس آخر چند پاید در نظر اصل بینی پیشه کن ای کژنگر
After all, how long does a reflexion remain in view? Make a practice of contemplating the origin (of the reflexion), O you who look awry.
حق چو بخشش کرد بر اهل نیاز با عطا بخشیدشان عمر دراز
When God bestows bounty on those who supplicate Him in their need, together with His gift He bestows on them a long life.
خالدین شد نعمت و منعم علیه محیی الموتاست فاجتازوا الیه
(Both) the benefit and the beneficiary are made enduring for ever. ’Tis He that brings the dead to life, so repair unto Him.
داد حق با تو در آمیزد چو جان آنچنان که آن تو باشی و تو آن
The gifts of God are mingled with you like the spirit, in such wise that you are they and they are you.
گر نماند اشتهای نان و آب بدهدت بی این دو قوت مستطاب
If you have no more appetite for bread and water, He will give you goodly nourishment without these twain.
فربهی گر رفت حق در لاغری فربهی پنهانت بخشد آن سری
If your fatness is gone, God will give you from yonder a (spiritual) fatness concealed in (bodily) leanness.
چون پری را قوت از بو می‌دهد هر ملک را قوت جان او می‌دهد
Since He gives the peri nourishment from scent and gives every angel nourishment from spirit,
جان چه باشد که تو سازی زو سند حق به عشق خویش زنده‌ت می‌کند
What is the (animal) soul that you should make a support of (should rely upon) it? God will make you living by His love.
زو حیات عشق خواه و جان مخواه تو ازو آن رزق خواه و نان مخواه
Ask of Him the life of love and do not ask for the (animal) soul: ask of Him that (spiritual) provision and do not ask for bread.
خلق را چون آب دان صاف و زلال اندر آن تابان صفات ذوالجلال
Know that (the world of) created beings is like pure and limpid water in which the attributes of the Almighty are shining.
علمشان و عدلشان و لطفشان چون ستاره‌ی چرخ در آب روان
Their knowledge and their justice and their clemency are like a star of heaven (reflected) in running water.
پادشاهان مظهر شاهی حق فاضلان مرآت آگاهی حق
Kings are the theatre for the manifestation of God’s kingship; the learned (divines) are the mirrors for God’s wisdom.
قرنها بگذشت و این قرن نویست ماه آن ماهست آب آن آب نیست
Generations have passed away, and this is a new generation: the moon is the same moon, the water is not the same water.
عدل آن عدلست و فضل آن فضل هم لیک مستبدل شد آن قرن و امم
The justice is the same justice, and the learning is the same learning too; but those generations and peoples have been changed (supplanted by others).
قرنها بر قرنها رفت ای همام وین معانی بر قرار و بر دوام
Generations on generations have gone, O sire, but these Ideas (Divine attributes) are permanent and everlasting.
آن مبدل شد درین جو چند بار عکس ماه و عکس اختر بر قرار
The water in this channel has been changed many times: the reflexion of the moon and of the stars remains unaltered.
پس بنااش نیست بر آب روان بلک بر اقطار عرض آسمان
Therefore its foundation is not in the running water; nay, but in the regions of the breadth (wide expanse) of Heaven.
این صفتها چون نجوم معنویست دانک بر چرخ معانی مستویست
These attributes are like Ideal stars: know that they are stablished in the sphere of the Ideas (Realities).
خوب‌رویان آینه‌ی خوبی او عشق ایشان عکس مطلوبی او
The beauteous are the mirror of His beauty: love for them is the reflexion of the desire of which He is the (real) object.
هم به اصل خود رود این خد و خال دایما در آب کی ماند خیال
This cheek and mole goes (back) to the Source thereof: how should a phantom continue in the water for ever?
جمله تصویرات عکس آب جوست چون بمالی چشم خود خود جمله اوست
The whole sum of pictured forms (phenomena) is a (mere) reflexion in the water of the river: when you rub your eye, (you will perceive that) all of them are really He.
باز عقلش گفت بگذار این حول خل دوشابست و دوشابست خل
Again, his (the debtor’s) reason said (to him), “Abandon this seeing double: vinegar is grape-syrup and grape-syrup is vinegar. 
خواجه را چون غیر گفتی از قصور شرم‌دار ای احول از شاه غیور
Since, from defect (of vision), you have called the Khwája ‘other’ (than God), be ashamed (contrite) before the jealous King, O man of double sight.
خواجه را که در گذشتست از اثیر جنس این موشان تاریکی مگیر
Do not suppose the Khwája, who has passed beyond the aether (the ninth celestial sphere), to be homogeneous with these mice of darkness.
خواجه‌ی جان بین مبین جسم گران مغز بین او را مبینش استخوان
Regard the Khwája as spirit, do not regard him as gross body: regard him as marrow, do not regard him as bone.
خواجه را از چشم ابلیس لعین منگر و نسبت مکن او را به طین
Do not look at the Khwája with the eye of Iblís the accursed, and do not relate him (refer his origin) to clay.
همره خورشید را شب‌پر مخوان آنک او مسجود شد ساجد مدان
Do not call the fellow-traveller of the Sun ‘a bat’: do not call him who was worshipped (by the angels) a worshipper (of the material).
عکس‌ها را ماند این و عکس نیست در مثال عکس حق بنمودنیست
This (Khwája) resembles the (other) reflexions; but (in reality) ’tis not a reflexion, ’tis the appearance of God in the likeness of a reflexion.
آفتابی دید او جامد نماند روغن گل روغن کنجد نماند
He beheld a Sun and remained frozen no more: the oil of roses was no longer (mingled with) oil of sesame.
چون مبدل گشته‌اند ابدال حق نیستند از خلق بر گردان ورق
Since the Abdál (Lieutenants) of God have been transmuted, they are not (to be reckoned) among created beings: turn over a (new) leaf!
قبله‌ی وحدانیت دو چون بود خاک مسجود ملایک چون شود
How should the qibla (object of worship), namely, the (Divine) Unity, be two? How should earth be worshipped by the angels?
چون درین جو دیدعکس سیب مرد دامنش را دید آن پر سیب کرد
When a man sees the reflexion of apples in this river, and the sight of them fills his skirt with (real) apples,
آنچ در جو دید کی باشد خیال چونک شد از دیدنش پر صد جوال
How should that which he saw in the river be a phantom, when a hundred sacks have been filled by his vision?
تن مبین و آن مکن کان بکم و صم کذبوا بالحق لما جائهم
Do not regard the body, and do not act like those dumb and deaf men (who) disbelieved in the Truth when it came to them.
ما رمیت اذ رمیت احمد بدست دیدن او دیدن خالق شدست
The Khwája is (the God-man of whom God said) Thou didst not throw when thou threwest: to see him is to see the Creator.
خدمت او خدمت حق کردنست روز دیدن دیدن این روزنست
To serve him is to serve God: to see this window is to see the Daylight;
خاصه این روزن درخشان از خودست نی ودیعه‌ی آفتاب و فرقدست
Especially (as) this window is resplendent of itself: nothing (no light) is deposited (therein) by the sun and the Farqad (stars).
هم از آن خورشید زد بر روزنی لیک از راه و سوی معهود نی
From that (Divine) Sun, too, (beams) strike upon a window, but not in the ordinary way and direction.
در میان شمس و این روزن رهی هست روزنها نشد زو آگهی
Between the Sun and this window there is a way; (but) the (other) windows are not acquainted with it,
تا اگر ابری بر آید چرخ‌پوش اندرین روزن بود نورش به جوش
So that, if a cloud arise and cover the sky, in this window its (the Sun’s) light will (still) be coruscating.
غیر راه این هوا و شش جهت در میان روزن و خور مالفت
There is familiarity between the window and the Sun, otherwise than (by) the way of this atmosphere and the six directions.
مدحت و تسبیح او تسبیح حق میوه می‌روید ز عین این طبق
To praise and glorify him (the Perfect Man) is to glorify God: the fruit is growing out of the essential nature of this tray.
سیب روید زین سبد خوش لخت لخت عیب نبود گر نهی نامش درخت
Apples grow from this basket in fine variety: ’tis no harm if you bestow on it the name ‘tree.’
این سبد را تو درخت سیب خوان که میان هر دو راه آمد نهان
Call this basket ‘the Apple-tree,’ for between the two there is a hidden way.
آنچ روید از درخت بارور زین سبد روید همان نوع از ثمر
That which grows from the fruit-bearing Tree the same kind of fruit grows from this basket.
پس سبد را تو درخت بخت بین زیر سایه‌ی این سبد خوش می‌نشین
Therefore regard the basket as the Tree of Fortune and sit happily under the shade (protection) of this basket.
نان چو اطلاق آورد ای مهربان نان چرا می‌گوییش محموده خوان
When bread produces looseness (acts as a laxative), why call it bread, O kindly man? Call it scammony.
خاک ره چون چشم روشن کرد و جان خاک او را سرمه بین و سرمه دان
When the dust on the road illumines the eye and the spirit, regard its dust as collyrium and know that it is collyrium.
چون ز روی این زمین تابد شروق من چرا بالا کنم رو در عیوق
When the sunrise shines forth from the face of this earth, why should I lift up my face to (the star) ‘Ayyúq?
شد فنا هستش مخوان ای چشم‌شوخ در چنین جو خشک کی ماند کلوخ
He (the Khwája) is naughted: do not call him existent, O bold-eyed (impudent) man! How should the sod remain dry in a River like this?
پیش این خورشید کی تابد هلال با چنان رستم چه باشد زور زال
How should the new-moon shine in the presence of this Sun? What is the strength of a decrepit old woman (zál) against such a Rustam?
طالبست و غالبست آن کردگار تا ز هستی‌ها بر آرد او دمار
The (only real) Agent is seeking and prevailing (over all), to the end that He may utterly destroy (all unreal) existences.
دو مگو و دو مدان و دو مخوان بنده را در خواجه‌ی خود محو دان
Do not say ‘two,’ do not know ‘two,’ and do not call ‘two’: deem the slave to be effaced in his master.
خواجه هم در نور خواجه‌آفرین فانیست و مرده و مات و دفین
The Khwája likewise is naughted and dead and checkmated and buried in the Khwája’s Creator.
چون جدا بینی ز حق این خواجه را گم کنی هم متن و هم دیباجه را
When you regard this Khwája as separate from God, you lose both the text and the preface.
چشم و دل را هین گذاره کن ز طین این یکی قبله‌ست دو قبله مبین
Hark, let your (inward) eye and your heart pass beyond (transcend) the (bodily) clay! This is One Qibla (object of worship): do not see two qiblas.
چون دو دیدی ماندی از هر دو طرف آتشی در خف فتاد و رفت خف
When you see two you remain deprived of both sides (aspects of the One): a flame falls on the touchwood, and the touchwood is gone.”

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