O Heart, How Long?
Jamiجامی
دلا تا کی درین کاخ مجازی
O heart, how long in this palace of illusion
کنی مانند طفلان خاک بازی؟
will you play in the dust like children?
تویی آن دست پرور مرغ گستاخ
You are that bold bird, reared by hand,
که بودت آشیان بیرون ازین کاخ
whose nest was outside this palace.
چرا ز آن آشیان بیگانه گشتی؟
Why have you become a stranger to that nest?
چو دونان جغد این ویرانه گشتی؟
Why have you become, like the base, an owl of this ruin?
بیفشان بال و پر ز آمیزش خاک
Shake your wings and feathers free of the earth that clings to them;
بپر تا کنگر ایوان افلاک!
fly up to the battlements of the palace of the heavens!
A note for readers
From the prologue of Yusuf and Zulaykha, where Jami turns from the praise of God to address his own heart. The soul as a bird exiled from its true home is an old image in Persian mystical poetry, and the owl, which haunts ruins, stands for the soul that is content with the world.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
یک عمر می‌توان سخن از زلف یار گفت
در بند آن مباش که مضمون نمانده است
One could speak for a lifetime of the beloved’s tresses;
do not fret that there are no themes left.
A Lifetime on the Beloved’s Tresses
بلبلی برگ گلی خوش رنگ در منقار داشت
و اندر آن برگ و نوا خوش ناله‌های زار داشت
A nightingale held in its beak a rose petal of lovely colour,
and with that petal and its song it made sweet, piteous laments.
A nightingale held a rose petal
ستاره ای بدرخشید و ماه مجلس شد
دل رمیده ما را رفیق و مونس شد
A star shone out and became the moon of the gathering,
became friend and companion to our startled heart.