(If) you seek it (the real “I”-hood), it will not become a seeker of you: (only) when you have died (to self) will that which you seek become your seeker.
زنده‌ای کی مرده‌شو شوید ترا ** طالبی کی مطلبت جوید ترا
(If) you are living, how should the corpse-washer wash you? (If) you are seeking, how should that which you seek go in search of you?
If the intellect could discern the (true) way in this question, Fakhr-i Rází would be an adept in religious mysteries;
لیک چون من لمن یذق لم یدر بود ** عقل و تخییلات او حیرت فزود 4145
But since he was (an example of the saying that) whoso has not tasted does not know, his intelligence and imaginations (only) increased his perplexity.
کی شود کشف از تفکر این انا ** آن انا مکشوف شد بعد از فنا
How should this “I” be revealed by thinking? That “I” is revealed (only) after passing away from self (faná).
می‌فتد این عقلها در افتقاد ** در مغا کی حلول و اتحاد
These intellects in their quest (of the real “I”) fall into the abyss of incarnation (hulúl) and ittihád.
ای ایاز گشته فانی ز اقتراب ** هم‌چو اختر در شعاع آفتاب
O Ayáz who hast passed away (from self) in union (with God) like the star in the beams of the sun—
بلک چون نطفه مبدل تو به تن ** نه از حلول و اتحادی مفتتن
Nay, (but rather) transmuted, like semen, into body—thou art not afflicted with hulúl and ittihád.
عفو کن ای عفو در صندوق تو ** سابق لطفی همه مسبوق تو 4150
“Forgive, O thou in whose coffer Forgiveness is (contained) and by whom all precedents of mercy are preceded.
من کی باشم که بگویم عفو کن ** ای تو سلطان و خلاصه‌ی امر کن
Who am I that I should say ‘Forgive,’ O thou who art the sovereign and quintessence of the command Be?