The beauty of the rose (gol) or mere mortal dust (gil)?

 To me, this 2^nd Hidden Word builds upon and continues from the 1^st of the exploration of being aware and vigilant about what our heart dwells upon, what occupies and concerns our mind.  Jesus was remembered to have said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21)  What we truly treasure determines the location of our heart, or—in Buddhist terms—our reality is determined by our thoughts.  In this Hidden Word, Bahá’u’lláh uses again the example of what is most befitting for a bird to summon the bird-of-the-human-heart to lift itself higher than that which is sociologically customary. He affirms that the best home for a bird is its “nest,” just as for the “hearts of men” (men in Persian/Arabic ‘ibád, which more literally translated would have been “worshippers” or “servants”) it is not “transient dust” (turáb-e-fání) but our “eternal nests” (ashyán-é-báqí).

Bahá’u’lláh poetically juxtaposes gil-há (“slough,” clay, mud, silt) of bu‘d (“heedlessness”/remoteness) with gol-há (roses, flowers, “glory”) of Qorb (nearness, “the divine presence”), and both words are spelled the same in Persian, being only separated by marking the short-vowel 'i' or 'o'- گُل or گِل.

 Whereas in the official English translation the cry-of-lamentation that “for a mere cupful” human beings “have turned away from the billowing seas of the Most High” is just contained within three words “Alas! How strange and pitiful,” in the Persian Bahá’u’lláh emphasizes the tragedy of this too common occurrence with five words (zehí [Alas!], ḥayrat [puzzlement!], ḥasrat [regret!], afsús [remorse!], darígh [sadly!])!  Also to note is that the much more desirable and worthy “billowing seas of the Most High,” what is translated as “Most High” (rafíq-é-á‘lá) may also be translated as “Supreme Companion,” “highest” or best “Friend.” Further to note is that what Shoghi Effendi translates as “most effulgent” is Abhá—also “Most Glorious”—and one form of what is in the Bahá’í Faith God's Greatest Name (Bahá or Abha). 

 

Shoghi Effendi’s elegant English Translation:

O SON OF SPIRIT!

The bird seeketh its nest; the nightingale the charm of the rose; whilst those birds, the hearts of men, content with transient dust, have strayed far from their eternal nest, and with eyes turned towards the slough of heedlessness are bereft of the glory of the divine presence. Alas! How strange and pitiful; for a mere cupful, they have turned away from the billowing seas of the Most High, and remained far from the most effulgent horizon.

(https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/hidden-words/3#775010913)

 

The original Persian:

ای پسر روح

هر طیری را نظر بر آشیانست و هر بلبلی را مقصود جمال گل مگر طیور افئدهٴ عباد که بتراب فانی قانع شده از آشیان باقی دور مانده‌اند و بگلهای بعد توجّه نموده از گلهای قرب محروم گشته‌اند زهی حیرت و حسرت و افسوس و دریغ که بابریقی از امواج رفیق اعلی گذشته‌اند و از افق ابهی دور مانده‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌اند

(https://www.bahai.org/fa/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/hidden-words/3#526274295 )