Human Honesty

They were outdoors in some sort of fake 
spiritual state, the hypocrite
and his friend, the mayor.

It was midnight, and raining.
A wolf appeared on the edge of the hill.
The mayor let fly an arrow that felled the wolf, 
who moaned and farted
and died.

The hypocrite yelled, “You've killed my donkey. 
I know my donkey's farts as well as I know 
water from wine."
                           "Not so. I shot a wolf.
Go and see. It's too dark to tell anything
from here,"
                 "Among twenty farts from twenty animals, 
I would know the wind from my young donkey. 
Some things I know perfectly."
                                             "You impostor!
In the rain, at midnight, at fifty yards, 
you can distinguish one fart from another! 
You didn't even recognize me today,
and we've known each other for ten years!

You're just pretending with this God-drunkenness too, 
so I guess you'll be excused for other forgetfulnesses, 
as a child is, or someone truly dissolved in that joy. 
You're not. You're too proud of your ‘dervishhood,' 
and your cries of 'selfless surrender.'
                                                      'O, both worlds
are here! I can't tell which is which!
My donkey's farts prove the sensitivity of my state!' "

This is the way hypocrisy gets exposed.
Anyone who claims, "I am the keeper of the doorway," 
will be tested by the adepts,
                                          as when some fellow claims
to be a tailor, but when the king throws down
a piece of satin and says,
                                      "Make me a vest,"
he has no idea what to do.
                                        The wine God loves
is human honesty.
                           That hypocrite had been drinking 
buttermilk. He was saying, “Leave me alone 
in my bewilderment. I don't know a hatchet 
from a key. I am Junnaiyd. I am Bestami!" 
Spiritual sloth and spiritual greed 
will not stay hidden.

If you pretend to be Hallaj
and with that fake burning 
set fire to your friends,
don't think that you're a lover.

You're crazy and numb.
You're drinking our blood, 
and you have no experience 
of the nearness.