Original content

English translation

That youth was in search for seven years, From the imagination of union, he had become like a phantom. The shadow of Truth is upon the head of the servant; In the end, the seeker is the finder. The Prophet said that when you knock on a door, In the end, a head will come out from that door. When you sit at the top of someone's street, In the end, you too will see someone's face. When you dig dirt from a well every day, In the end, you will reach pure water. Everyone knows this, if you do not believe it: Whatever you sow, you will one day reap. You struck stone against iron and fire did not leap forth? This does not happen, and if it does, it is an anomaly. He whose daily portion is not fortune and salvation, His intellect looks at nothing but anomalies. Saying, 'Such-and-such a person planted and did not harvest,' 'And that one brought a shell, and the shell had no pearl.' Balaam the son of Beor and the accursed Iblis, Their worship and religion brought them no profit. A hundred thousand prophets and wayfarers, Do not cross the mind of that suspicious one. He takes these two [exceptions] to bring darkness; Who puts adversity in his heart but this? Many a person who eats bread, his heart is gladdened by it; [Yet for another] it becomes his death and gets stuck in his throat. So you, O adverse one, go and don't eat bread either, Lest you fall like him into turmoil and evil. A hundred thousand people are eating bread, Finding strength and nourishing their souls. Where have you fallen upon that rarity? If you are not deprived and born a fool! This world is full of the sun and the light of the moon, He has dropped his head into a well: Saying, 'If it is true, then where is the light?' Lift your head from the well and look, O base one! The whole world, East and West, found that light; As long as you are in the well, it will not shine upon you. Let go of the well, go towards the palace and the vineyards; Argue less here with that unlucky stubbornness. Take heed, do not say, 'Look, so-and-so planted, And in such-and-such a year locusts ate his crop; So why should I work, since there is fear here? Why should I scatter this wheat from my hand?' And he who did not abandon planting and working, Will fill his barn, in spite of your blindness. Since he knocked on a door out of solace, In the end, he found a private space. He leaped out of fear of the night-watchman at night into an orchard; He found his friend like a candle and a lamp. He said that moment to the Maker of causes: 'O God, have mercy upon the watchman! Unrecognizably, You have made causes, From the door of hell, You have taken me to paradise. You made this matter a cause for that, So that I may not hold a single thorn in contempt.' In the breaking of a leg, God grants a wing; Even from the bottom of a well, He opens a door. Do not look at whether you are on a tree or in a well; Look at Me, for I am the key to the way. If you desire the rest of this conversation, O brother, seek it in the Fourth Book.