It (the world) is an eye-bandage (a spell that blinds the eye): (it is) wide (in appearance), and (in reality) mighty narrow: its laughter is weeping, its glory is entirely shame.
جسم بند آمد فراخ وسخت تنگ ** خنده‌ی او گریه فخرش جمله ننگ
Comparison of this world, which is wide in appearance and narrow in reality, (to a bathroom), and comparison (of the next world) to sleep, which is the (means of) release from this narrowness.
تشبیه دنیا کی بظاهر فراخست و بمعنی تنگ و تشبیه خواب کی خلاص است ازین تنگی
(This world is) like a bath-room which is very hot, (so that) you are distressed and your soul is melted (with anguish).3545
همچو گرمابه که تفسیده بود ** تنگ آیی جانت پخسیده شود
Although the bath-room is broad and long, your soul is distressed and fatigued by the heat.
گرچه گرمابه عریضست و طویل ** زان تبش تنگ آیدت جان و کلیل
Your heart does not expand (you feel no relief) till you come out: what advantage, then, is the spaciousness of the room to you?
تا برون نایی بنگشاید دلت ** پس چه سود آمد فراخی منزلت
Or (it is) as though you should put on tight shoes, O misguided one, and go into a wide desert.
یا که کفش تنگ پوشی ای غوی ** در بیابان فراخی می‌روی
The spaciousness of the desert becomes narrow (distressing); that desert and plain becomes a prison to you.
آن فراخی بیابان تنگ گشت ** بر تو زندان آمد آن صحرا و دشت
Whoever sees you from afar says, “He blooms like a fresh anemone (he is cheerful and happy) in that desert”;3550
هر که دید او مر ترا از دور گفت ** کو در آن صحرا چو لاله تر شکفت
He does not know that you, like the wicked, are outwardly in the rose-garden, (while) your soul is in lamentation.
او نداند که تو همچون ظالمان ** از برون در گلشنی جان در فغان
Your sleep is to put those shoes off, for (then) your soul is free from the body for a while.
خواب تو آن کفش بیرون کردنست ** که زمانی جانت آزاد از تنست
To the saints, O reader, sleep is a kingdom, as (it was to) the Men of the Cave in this world.
اولیا را خواب ملکست ای فلان ** همچو آن اصحاب کهف اندر جهان
They (sleep and) dream, and no (physical) sleep is there; they go into nonexistence, and no (material) door (is there).
خواب می‌بینند و آنجا خواب نه ** در عدم در می‌روند و باب نه
“(The body is) a narrow house, and the soul within is cramped: He (God) ruined it in order that He might make a royal palace.3555
خانه‌ی تنگ و درون جان چنگ‌لوک ** کرد ویران تا کند قصر ملوک
I am cramped like the embryo in the womb: I have become nine months old: this migration has become urgent.
چنگ‌لوکم چون جنین اندر رحم ** نه‌مهه گشتم شد این نقلان مهم
Unless the throes of childbirth overtake my mother, (what should I do?): in this prison I am amidst the fire.
گر نباشد درد زه بر مادرم ** من درین زندان میان آذرم
My mother, namely, my nature (natural body), in consequence of its death-throes, is giving birth (to the spirit), to the end that the lamb (the spirit) may be released from the ewe,
مادر طبعم ز درد مرگ خویش ** می‌کند ره تا رهد بره ز میش
So that the lamb may graze in the green fields. Come, open thy womb, for this lamb has grown big.”
تا چرد آن بره در صحرای سبز ** هین رحم بگشا که گشت این بره گبز
If the pain of childbirth is grievous to the pregnant (woman), it is, for the embryo, the breaking of (its) prison.3560
درد زه گر رنج آبستان بود ** بر جنین اشکستن زندان بود
The pregnant woman weeps at childbirth, saying, “Where is the refuge?”—but the embryo laughs, saying, “Deliverance has appeared.”
حامله گریان ز زه کاین المناص ** و آن جنین خندان که پیش آمد خلاص
Whatever mothers (bodies) there are under the sky—mineral, animal, or vegetable—
هرچه زیر چرخ هستند امهات ** از جماد و از بهیمه وز نبات
They are heedless, every one, of another's pain, except those persons that are discerning and perfect.
هر یکی از درد غیری غافل اند ** جز کسانی که نبیه و کامل‌اند
How should the man with a bushy beard know of his own house that which the man with a few hairs on his chin knows of (other) people's houses?
آنچ کوسه داند از خانه‌ی کسان ** بلمه از خانه خودش کی داند آن
What the man of heart (the clairvoyant mystic) knows of your condition you do not know of your own condition, O uncle.3565
آنچ صاحب‌دل بداند حال تو ** تو ز حال خود ندانی ای عمو
Setting forth that whatever is (denoted by the terms) heedlessness and anxiety and indolence and darkness is all (derived) from the body, which belongs to the earth and the lower world.
بیان آنک هرچه غفلت و غم و کاهلی و تاریکیست همه از تنست کی ارضی است و سفلی
Heedlessness was (derived) from the body: when the body has become spirit, it inevitably beholds the mysteries (of the Unseen).
غفلت از تن بود چون تن روح شد ** بیند او اسرار را بی هیچ بد
When the earth is removed from the celestial atmosphere, there is neither night nor shade nor sunset.
چون زمین برخاست از جو فلک ** نه شب و نه سایه باشد نه دلک
Wherever shade and night or shadowy place exist, ’tis (caused) by the earth, not by the heavens and the moon.
هر کجا سایه‌ست و شب یا سایگه ** از زمین باشد نه از افلاک و مه