The Answer to the Difficulty
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 2, section 105 of 113: The answer to the difficulty (جواب اشکال). Below, each of its 26 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
The answer to the difficulty. جواب اشکال
این بداند کان که اهل خاطر است
غایب آفاق او را حاضر است
Let him (the objector) know that to one who receives ideas (from God) all that is absent in the world is present.
پیش مریم حاضر آید در نظر
مادر یحیی که دور است از بصر
To Mary, the mother of Yahyá would appear present, though she was far from her (bodily) sight.
دیدهها بسته ببیند دوست را
چون مشبک کرده باشد پوست را
One may see a friend (even) with eyes shut, when one has made the skin (the bodily envelope) a lattice (to let in spiritual ideas).
ور ندیدش نه از برون نز اندرون
از حکایت گیر معنی ای زبون
And if she saw her neither from without nor from within, take the (essential) meaning of the story, O imbecile!
نه چنان کافسانهها بشنیده بود
همچو شین بر نقش آن چسبیده بود
Not like him who had heard (some) fables, and like sh stuck to the (literal) shape of them,
تا همیگفت آن کلیله بیزبان
چون سخن نوشد ز دمنه بیبیان
So that he would say, “How should Kalíla, having no language, hear words from Dimna who had no power of expression?
ور بدانستند لحن همدگر
فهم آن چون کرد بینطقی بشر
And (even) if they knew each other’s accents, how should man understand it (their talk), (since it was) without any articulation?
در میان شیر و گاو آن دمنه چون
شد رسول و خواند بر هر دو فسون
How did Dimna become a messenger between the lion and the ox, and cajole them both with his palaver?
چون وزیر شیر شد گاو نبیل
چون ز عکس ماه ترسان گشت پیل
How did the noble ox become the vizier of the lion? How was the elephant terrified by the reflection of the moon?
این کلیله و دمنه جمله افتری است
ور نه کی با زاغ لکلک را مری است
This Kalíla and Dimna is entirely fiction, or else how has the stork a quarrel with the crow?”
ای برادر قصه چون پیمانهای است
معنی اندر وی مثال دانهای است
O brother, the story is like a measure: the real meaning in it resembles grain (in the measure).
دانهی معنی بگیرد مرد عقل
ننگرد پیمانه را گر گشت نقل
The man of intelligence will take the grain of meaning: he will not pay any regard to the measure, (even) if it is removed (altogether).
ماجرای بلبل و گل گوش دار
گر چه گفتی نیست آن جا آشکار
Listen to what passes between the rose and the nightingale, though in that case there is no overt speech.
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