The spiritual minstrel is the bosom-friend of those intoxicated (with God): he is the dessert and food and strength of the drunken.
مطرب جان مونس مستان بود ** نقل و قوت و قوت مست آن بود
The minstrel led them on to intoxication; then again, he (the intoxicated one) quaffed intoxication from the song of the minstrel.645
مطرب ایشان را سوی مستی کشید ** باز مستی از دم مطرب چشید
That one (the mystic) fetches God's wine (to drink) because of that (spiritual) minstrel, while this one (the sensualist) imbibes the bodily wine from this (sensual) minstrel.
آن شراب حق بدان مطرب برد ** وین شراب تن ازین مطرب چرد
Though both (minstrels) have one name in discourse, yet there is a vast difference between this Hasan and that Hasan.
هر دو گر یک نام دارد در سخن ** لیک شتان این حسن تا آن حسن
There is a verbal resemblance in enunciation, but what (real) relation has heaven (ásmán) to a rope (rísmán)?
اشتباهی هست لفظی در بیان ** لیک خود کو آسمان تا ریسمان
The participation of a word (in several meanings) is always obstructive (to the understanding): the participation of the infidel with the true believer is in the body (alone).
اشتراک لفظ دایم ره‌زنست ** اشتراک گبر و مؤمن در تنست
Bodies are like pots with the lids on: look and see what is in each pot.650
جسمها چون کوزه‌های بسته‌سر ** تا که در هر کوزه چه بود آن نگر
The pot of that body is filled with the Water of Life; the pot of this body is filled with the poison of death.
کوزه‌ی آن تن پر از آب حیات ** کوزه‌ی این تن پر از زهر ممات
If you keep your eye fixed on its contents, you are a (spiritual) king; but if you regard its vessel, you are misguided.
گر به مظروفش نظر داری شهی ** ور به ظرفش بنگری تو گم‌رهی
Know that words resemble this body and that their inward meaning resembles the soul.
لفظ را ماننده‌ی این جسم دان ** معنیش را در درون مانند جان