Solomon’s Guidance to Bilqis’s People
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 4, section 34 of 137: The rest of the story of the people of Sabá (بقیه‌ی قصه‌ی اهل سبا و نصیحت و ارشاد سلیمان علیه‌السلام آل بلقیس را هر یکی را اندر خور). Below, each of its 28 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
The rest of the story of the people of Sabá, and of the admonition and guidance given by Solomon, on whom be peace, to the kinsfolk of Bilqís—to every one (the particular guidance) suitable to his religious and spiritual difficulties; and how he caught (decoyed) each sort of conceptional bird with the whistle and bait proper for that sort of bird. بقیه‌ی قصه‌ی اهل سبا و نصیحت و ارشاد سلیمان علیه‌السلام آل بلقیس را هر یکی را اندر خور خود و مشکلات دین و دل او و صید کردن هر جنس مرغ ضمیری به صفیر آن جنس مرغ و طعمه‌ی او
قصه گویم از سبا مشتاق‌وار
چون صبا آمد به سوی لاله‌زار
I will tell the story of Sabá in lover’s style. When the Zephyr came towards the tulip-field,
لاقت الاشباح یوم وصلها
عادت الاولاد صوب اصلها
The bodies met (experienced) the day of their union (with the spirits which dwell in them)’: the children turned again in the direction of their home.
امة العشق الخفی فی الامم
مثل جود حوله لوم السقم
Amongst the communities the community of secret Love is like a liberality surrounded by the meanness of (spiritual) distemper.
ذلة الارواح من اشباحها
عزة الاشباح من ارواحها
The baseness of spirits is (derived) from their bodies; the nobility of bodies is (derived) from their spirits.
ایها العشاق السقیا لکم
انتم الباقون و البقیالکم
O lovers, the draught (of Love) is given to you. Ye are the everlasting: everlastingness is bestowed on you.
ایها السالون قوموا واعشقوا
ذاک ریح یوسف فاستنشقوا
O ye that are forgetful, arise and love! That is the wind of Joseph: smell (its perfume)!
منطق‌الطیر سلیمانی بیا
بانگ هر مرغی که آید می‌سرا
Come, O (master of the) bird-speech of Solomon, sing the song of every bird that comes.
چون به مرغانت فرستادست حق
لحن هر مرغی بدادستت سبق
Since God hath sent thee to the birds, He hath instructed thee in the note of every bird.
مرغ جبری را زبان جبر گو
مرغ پر اشکسته را از صبر گو
To the necessitarian bird speak the language of necessitarianism ; to the bird whose wings are broken speak of patience (quietism).
مرغ صابر را تو خوش دار و معاف
مرغ عنقا را بخوان اوصاف قاف
Keep the patient bird happy and free from harm; to the bird (resembling the) ‘Anqá recite the descriptions of (Mount) Qáf.
مر کبوتر را حذر فرما ز باز
باز را از حلم گو و احتراز
Bid the pigeon beware of the falcon; to the falcon speak of forbearance and being on its guard (against acting unjustly).
وان خفاشی را که ماند او بی‌نوا
می‌کنش با نور جفت و آشنا
And as for the bat that is left destitute (of spiritual illumination), make it to consort and to be familiar with the Light.
کبک جنگی را بیاموزان تو صلح
مر خروسان را نما اشراط صبح
Cause the warlike partridge to learn peace; to the cocks display the signs of dawn.
هم‌چنان می‌رو ز هدهد تا عقاب
ره نما والله اعلم بالصواب
Even so proceed from the hoopoe to the eagle, and show the way. And God best knoweth the right course.
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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