Original content

English translation

After that, the other birds, one by one, Offered excuses, a clueless bunch. Each one also spoke an excuse out of ignorance; If they did not speak from the hall, they spoke from the doorway. If I recount to you every single excuse, Hold me excused, for it would take too long. Everyone had a feeble and lame excuse; How could such a person catch the Anqa (Simorgh)? Whoever seeks the Anqa from the soul, Must manfully withdraw their hand from life. Whoever lacks thirty seeds in their nest, Is unworthy of the Simorgh, unless they are mad. Since you do not have the capacity for a single seed, How can you share a forty-day retreat with the Simorgh? Since you are emptied by a single cup of wine, How can you drink a toast with a champion? Since you do not have the capacity and endurance for a speck, How can you seek a treasure from the sun? Since you drowned in a worthless drop, How can you go from the bottom of the sea to the crest? Since there is no scent of what it truly is, This is not the work for every unwashed face. When all the birds heard the situation, They all asked the hoopoe: "O you who have surpassed us in guiding the way, Who have culminated excellence and leadership! We are all a weak and feeble handful, Without feather or wing, with neither body nor power. When will we finally reach the exalted Simorgh? If any of us reaches him, it would be a marvel. What is our relation to him? Tell us again, For one cannot seek secrets blindly. If there were a relation between us and him, Each one would have an inclination towards him. He is Solomon, and we are beggar ants, Look where he is from, and where we are from. How can an ant bound in a well Reach the dust of the lofty Simorgh? When is kingship the work of a beggar? When is this within the arm's reach of someone like us?" The hoopoe then said: "O fruitless ones! When is love becoming of the faint-hearted? O beggars! How long this fruitlessness? Being a lover and being faint-hearted do not align. Whoever had their eye opened in love, Came dancing and risked their life. Know that when the Simorgh from the veil Revealed his face like the sun, He cast a hundred thousand shadows on his earth, Then he cast a glance upon his pure shadow. He scattered his own shadow over the world, And so many birds appeared at every moment. The form of the birds of the world, entirely, Is his shadow, know this, O artless one! Know this, because when you knew this first, You correctly traced your relation to that presence. You knew the Truth; see it, then exist! When you knew, do not reveal this secret. Whoever is submerged in acquiring the world, God forbid, if you say he is the Truth. If you became what I said, you are not the Truth, But you are permanently submerged in the Truth. When is a submerged man a believer in incarnation? When is this talk the business of a meddler? Since you knew whose shadow you are, You are free whether you died or lived. If the Simorgh never became manifest, There would never be a shadow-casting Simorgh. Again, if the Simorgh became hidden, No shadow would ever remain in the world. Whatever shadow appears here, First that thing appears there. If you do not have the eye to see the Simorgh, Your heart is not illuminated like a mirror. Since no one has the eye for that beauty, And it is impossible to have patience from his beauty, One could not play the game of love with his beauty, Out of the perfection of his grace, he made a mirror. The heart is that mirror, look within the heart, So you may see his face, look within the heart."