But once they’re filled they finally start to drop,
Truth’s sea is hidden, land is on display,
1120
Our forms are waves, or just the ocean spray.
Whatever means form uses to come near
By that same means waves toss it far from here,
Until the Giver of the Truths they know,
Until the arrows learn who’s fired the bow.
The foolish think their horses have no worth
And force them to race all across the earth:
Each places little value on his horse
Though rapidly it bears him on the course,
Such that a foolish, simple-minded twit
1125
Will even ask, ‘Has anyone seen it—
Who stole my horse and where is he now hiding?’
‘Dear fellow, what is that on which you’re riding!’
‘This is a horse, I know, but where’s that one?’
‘Wake up famed knight, your brain has been undone!’
The soul seems lost although it’s so close by:
Your bladder’s full although your lips are dry.
How can you see bright colours with your sight
When you’ve not even learned to see the light?
With colours you completely lost your mind,
1130
Their glare became the veil which made you blind.
Did you not see when colours fade at night
That they are all dependent on the light?
Without light, colour disappears from view,
The same applies for inner colours too,
While outward light the sun and stars may shine
The source of inner light is the Divine:
Vision’s light comes from light inside your heart,
This inner light’s required for it to start.
Your heart’s light’s source is naught but God’s own light
1135
Safe from the reach of sense and reason’s blight.
No colours can be seen at night unlit,
For light, the darkness is the opposite:
You must see light to see the colours too,
The opposite of light has proved it’s true,
As God created hardship and distress
So through them you would learn of happiness:
All hidden things by opposites are known,
Since He has none, God’s hidden on His own.
Man can discern all colours once there’s light,
1140
Each as distinct as black skin next to white:
You know of light thanks to its opposite,
Things show their opposite through lack of it.
No opposite for God’s light can exist
Through which it might be known—this is the gist,
Our eyes can’t see Him, even with our pleas,
Moses’s mountain proves to us He sees;*
Like lions from thought’s jungle, forms have come,
In this way, thought’s where speech and sound come from;
Though speech and sound have thus emerged from thought
1145
You have no clue where that sea should be sought,
But since you’ve seen the wave of speech is fine
You know its source, that sea, must be divine.
From knowledge when there first arose thought’s wave
Through His speech then a form to you it gave:
This form was born of speech, then died again,
The waves drew back like cattle to their pen.
From formlessness comes form originally,
And We return to Him* continually!
Each moment you must die and then return,
1150
‘The world is but a moment’, you’ll soon learn;
Our thought’s an arrow He’s shot from the sky,
Can it rise up again to Him on high?
Each breath the world’s renewed, though we can’t tell,
While it’s renewed, the world persists as well:
Life’s constantly renewed just like the stream,
A single mass in form though it might seem,
Its swift flow makes it seem continuous
Like sparklers twirling round—it’s marvellous!
For if you spin a lit torch round and round
1155
Its flame looks like a circle that is sound;
A stretch of time appears thus through sheer pace—
Speed in creation covers time like space,
But scholars can’t perceive beyond the looks—
Even Hosam, who’s read the loftiest books.
The hare reaches the lion
The lion in a rage first lost his patience,
Then saw the hare approaching in the distance,
Running, bold, unafraid, self-confident,
Angry, outraged and fierce in temperament—
Meekness would be in vain, the hare’d worked out,
1160
While bravery wouldn’t make the lion doubt.
The hare came nearer to the lion’s den
And heard it roar, ‘Here comes that wretch again!
I’ve torn apart the limbs of elephants
And boxed the ears of lions during hunts—
Who does this half-wit hare think that he’s found
To wrestle with and pin down on the ground?
Continue with your heedless sleep no more,
Listen, you ass-eared beast,* to my deep roar!’
The hare’s apology
The hare cried, ‘Please hear my apology,
1165
I pray that your forgiveness pardons me!’
‘What kind of explanation do you bring
As you approach the presence of the king?
For such bad timing we’ll chop off your head,
No cheap excuses do we let be said.’
A lame excuse is worse than the misdeed,
It ruins all you might have earned, take heed!
‘Hare, your excuse is bound to be absurd,
I don’t have donkeys’ ears to hear a word!’
‘This worthless wretch, king, count as someone true
1170
For tyranny’s what held me back from you,
My noble lord, show mercy please today—
Don’t drive from here a slave who lost his way!
That ocean which fills up each river-bed
Bears all the flotsam happily on its head:
By being kind seas don’t end up with less,
They don’t decrease in spite of their largesse.’
He said, ‘I’m generous when the time is right,
I tailor cloth to fit each person’s height.’
The hare said, ‘If I don’t deserve your grace
1175
Before your snake-like wrath I’ll turn my face:
Since breakfast I’ve been on my way to you,
A fellow traveller made the journey too—
The other beasts sent out another hare
To come with me, it’s safer as a pair—
But then a lion stopped us in our tracks:
It pounced on us and gave us heart attacks!
“We are the slaves of a great king,” I warned,
“At court our disappearance would be mourned.”
He said, “Which king makes you now feel no shame
1180
Before me to recall another’s name?
You and your king I’ll tear apart like clay
If you two hares should try to run away!”
I pleaded, “Let me see my king again
To tell him where we’ve been—I’ll come back then!”
He said, “But leave your friend as guarantee,
Or you will be the sacrifice for me!”
Although we begged him, we could not succeed,
My friend was tied up, so that I’d be freed;
My captive friend was tw
ice as fat as me
1185
And twice as fine in grace and dignity.
That lion’s blocked the road since this event,
This is what happened after I was sent.
Abandon hope of more allowances,
The truth tastes bitter, but that’s how it is:
If you need daily meals unblock the way—
Come and drive off that shameless wretch today!’
The lion answers the hare and sets off with him
The lion said, ‘By God, we must rush there
If what you say is true, then show me where
So I can deal the likes of him their due,
1190
But if you’re lying I’ll deal it to you!’
The hare led like a guide who has a map,
Taking the lion straight into his trap,
Towards a well which previously the hare
Had cleverly converted to a snare.
The pair soon reached the well they’d headed for,
The hare’s effect like water under straw:*
Water transports a blade from place to place,
But can it move a mountain from its base?
His guile’s trap was the lion’s noose, my friend,
1195
The clever hare made tyranny thus end,
As Moses killed the Pharaoh through the Nile
With his huge army and the rank and file,
Just like the gnat with half a wing which split
The skull of Nimrod,* disregarding it;
Watch those who listened to their enemies,
Hear what befell those plagued by jealousies,
For Pharaoh heeded what Haman conveyed,*
As Nimrod heard the devil and obeyed—
If foes should chat with you just like a mate
1200
Look for the trap that comes with every bait!
For sugar he gives poison, so beware,
He treats you cruelly, though he seems to care.
When destiny strikes, you just see the ends
And not the means, nor enemies from friends,
Since you’re like this, confess to God your shame,
Begin to mourn and fast, and praise His name!
‘Knower of hidden things’, plead all the while,
‘Don’t crush us with the rock of evil guile!’
The lion’s maker, though we’re a disgrace
1205
Don’t let it jump out from its hiding-place!
Don’t make fire and sweet water look the same,
Nor change to water’s form a burning flame!
Your wrath’s wine can intoxicate each brain,
Let non-existents thus existence gain!
What’s drunkenness? To keep your eyes shut tight
So stones appear like jewels in your sight,
It’s changing every sense round for the good
So tamarisk should smell like sandalwood.
The story of the Hoopoe and Solomon, explaining that when destiny is fulfilled open eyes are shut
Solomon’s tent was put up by his men
1210
And all his birds came back to him again,
He spoke their tongue and knew them personally
So one by one they flew there eagerly.
The birds stopped twittering inside his tent,
Than brothers they became more eloquent:
Sharing a language is a bond so deep,
With foreigners we’re prisoners in their keep,
Some Turks and Indians though might speak the same
While fellow Turks are strangers but in name—
The tongue of intimacy is set apart,
1215
Beyond mere words, it’s being one at heart;
By verbal and non-verbal intimations
Our hearts give thousands of interpretations.
The birds talked of their secrets as plain facts
About their skills, their knowledge, and their acts:
They shared them, one by one, with Solomon,
To gain his gifts they talked up what they’d done!
Not out of self-assertion or sheer pride
But so he’d let them sit with him inside:
To gain his freedom back once he is caught
1220
The prisoner shows his skills till he is bought,
But if the buyer sickens him with shame
He’ll claim he’s ill, unstable, deaf, and lame!
The hoopoe first explained his worthiness
By speaking of his skills and thoughtfulness:
‘Although this talent seems inferior
To speak concisely is superior.’
Solomon said, ‘By all means, go ahead!’
‘When from the zenith I look down,’ she said,
The Masnavi, Book One: Bk. 1 (Oxford World's Classics) Page 15