Back to the Merchant Who Went to India
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 1, section 91 of 171: Reverting to the tale of the merchant who went to trade (in India) (رجوع به حکایت خواجه‌‌ی تاجر). Below, each of its 22 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
Reverting to the tale of the merchant who went to trade (in India) رجوع به حکایت خواجه‌‌ی تاجر
بس دراز است این حدیث خواجه گو
تا چه شد احوال آن مرد نکو
This (discourse) is very long. Tell the story of the merchant, that we may see what happened to that good man.
خواجه اندر آتش و درد و حنین
صد پراکنده همی‌‌گفت این چنین
The merchant in fire (burning grief) and anguish and yearning was uttering a hundred distracted phrases like this,
گه تناقض گاه ناز و گه نیاز
گاه سودای حقیقت گه مجاز
Now self-contradiction, now disdain, now supplication, now passion for reality, now metaphor (unreality).
مرد غرقه گشته جانی می‌‌کند
دست را در هر گیاهی می‌‌زند
The drowning man suffers an agony of soul and clutches at every straw.
تا کدامش دست گیرد در خطر
دست و پایی می‌‌زند از بیم سر
For fear of (losing) his head (life), he flings about (both) hand and foot to see whether any one will take his hand (help him) in peril.
دوست دارد یار این آشفتگی
کوشش بی‌‌هوده به از خفتگی
The Friend loves this agitation: it is better to struggle vainly than to lie still.
آن که او شاه است او بی‌‌کار نیست
ناله از وی طرفه کاو بیمار نیست
He who is the King (of all) is not idle, (though) complaint from Him would be a marvel, for He is not ill.
بهر این فرمود رحمان ای پسر
کل يوم هو فی شأن ای پسر
For this reason said the Merciful (God), O son, “Every day He is (busy) in an affair,” O son.
اندر این ره می‌‌تراش و می‌‌خراش
تا دم آخر دمی فارغ مباش
In this Way be thou ever scraping and scratching (exerting thyself to the utmost): until thy last breath do not be unoccupied for a moment,
تا دم آخر دمی آخر بود
که عنایت با تو صاحب سر بود
So that thy last breath may be a last breath in which the (Divine) favour is thy bosom-friend.
هر چه می‌‌کوشند اگر مرد و زن است
گوش و چشم شاه جان بر روزن است
Whatsoever they strive (to do), whether man or woman, the ear and eye of the soul’s King are at the window.
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