The Vizier Refuses His Disciples
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 1, section 26 of 171: How the vizier refused the request of the disciples (دفع گفتن وزیر مریدان را). Below, each of its 26 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How the vizier refused the request of the disciples. دفع گفتن وزیر مریدان را
گفت هان ای سخرگان گفت‌‌وگو
وعظ و گفتار زبان و گوش جو
He said: “Beware, O ye enslaved by words and talk, ye who seek admonition and discourse (conveyed) by the tongue and (through the) ear.
پنبه اندر گوش حس دون کنید
بند حس از چشم خود بیرون کنید
Put cotton-wool in the ear of the low (physical) sense, take off the bandage of (that) sense from your eyes!
پنبه‌‌ی آن گوش سر گوش سر است
تا نگردد این کر آن باطن کر است
The ear of the head is the cotton-wool of the ear of the conscience: until the former becomes deaf, that inward (ear) is deaf.
بی‌‌حس و بی‌‌گوش و بی‌‌فکرت شوید
تا خطاب ارجعی را بشنوید
Become without sense and without ear and without thought, that ye may hear the call (of God to the soul), ‘Return!’”
تا به گفت‌‌وگوی بیداری دری
تو ز گفت خواب بویی کی بری
So long as thou art (engaged) in the conversation of wakefulness, how wilt thou catch any scent of the conversation of sleep?
سیر بیرونی است قول و فعل ما
سیر باطن هست بالای سما
Our speech and action is the exterior journey: the interior journey is above the sky.
حس خشکی دید کز خشکی بزاد
عیسی جان پای بر دریا نهاد
The (physical) sense saw (only) dryness, because it was born of dryness (earth): the Jesus of the spirit set foot on the sea.
سیر جسم خشک بر خشکی فتاد
سیر جان پا در دل دریا نهاد
The journey of the dry body befell on dry land, (but) the journey of the spirit set foot (took place) in the heart of the sea.
چون که عمر اندر ره خشکی گذشت
گاه کوه و گاه صحرا گاه دشت
Since thy life has passed in travelling on land, now mountain, now river, now desert,
آب حیوان از کجا خواهی تو یافت
موج دریا را کجا خواهی شکافت
Whence wilt thou gain the Water of Life? Where wilt thou cleave the waves of the Sea?
موج خاکی وهم و فهم و فکر ماست
موج آبی محو و سکر است و فناست
The waves of earth are our imagination and understanding and thought; the waves of water are (mystical) self-effacement and intoxication and death (faná).
تا در این سکری از آن سکری تو دور
تا از این مستی از آن جامی تو دور
Whilst thou art in this (sensual) intoxication, thou art far from that (mystical) intoxication; whilst thou art drunken with this, thou art blind to that cup.
گفت‌‌وگوی ظاهر آمد چون غبار
مدتی خاموش خو کن هوش دار
Outward speech and talk is as dust: do thou for a time make a habit of silence. Take heed!
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