If Only This World Had No Death
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 5, section 70 of 175: Reply to the simpleton who has said that this world would be delightful if there were no death and that the possessions of the present life would (جواب آن مغفل کی گفته است کی خوش بودی این جهان اگر مرگ نبودی وخوش بودی ملک دنیا اگر زوالش). Below, each of its 12 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
Reply to the simpleton who has said that this world would be delightful if there were no death and that the possessions of the present life would be delightful if they were not fleeting, and (has uttered) other absurdities in the same style. جواب آن مغفل کی گفته است کی خوش بودی این جهان اگر مرگ نبودی وخوش بودی ملک دنیا اگر زوالش نبودی و علی هذه الوتیرة من الفشارات
آن یکی می‌گفت خوش بودی جهان گر نبودی پای مرگ اندر میان
A certain man was saying, “The world would be delightful, were it not for the intervention of death.”
آن دگر گفت ار نبودی مرگ هیچ که نیرزیدی جهان پیچ‌پیچ
The other said, “If there were no death, the tangled world would not be worth a straw.
خرمنی بودی به دشت افراشته مهمل و ناکوفته بگذاشته
It would be (like) a stack heaped up in the field and neglected and left unthreshed.
مرگ را تو زندگی پنداشتی تخم را در شوره خاکی کاشتی
You have supposed (what is really) death to be life: you have sown your seed in a barren soil.
عقل کاذب هست خود معکوس‌بین زندگی را مرگ بیند ای غبین
The false (discursive) reason, indeed, sees the reverse (of the truth): it sees life as death, O man of weak judgement.”
ای خدا بنمای تو هر چیز را آنچنان که هست در خدعه‌سرا
Do Thou, O God, show (unto us) everything as it really is in this house of illusion.
هیچ مرده نیست پر حسرت ز مرگ حسرتش آنست کش کم بود برگ
None that has died is filled with grief on account of death; his grief is caused by having too little provision (for the life hereafter);
ورنه از چاهی به صحرا اوفتاد در میان دولت و عیش و گشاد
Otherwise (he would not grieve, for) he has come from a dungeon into the open country amidst fortune and pleasure and delight;
زین مقام ماتم و ننگین مناخ نقل افتادش به صحرای فراخ
From this place of mourning and (this) narrow vale (of tribulation) he has been transported to the spacious plain.
مقعد صدقی نه ایوان دروغ باده‌ی خاصی نه مستیی ز دوغ
(’Tis) a seat of truth, not a palace of falsehood; a choice wine, not an intoxication with buttermilk.
مقعد صدق و جلیسش حق شده رسته زین آب و گل آتشکده
(’Tis) the seat of truth, and (there) God is beside him: he is delivered from this water and earth of the fire-temple.
ور نکردی زندگانی منیر یک دو دم ماندست مردانه بمیر
And if you have not (yet) led the illuminative life, one or two moments (still) remain: die (to self) like a man!
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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