The commentators side by side

الاكمه الاعمى يواد بالعمى من بطن أمه وقيل عام كمه علىء زن فرح عمى

Al-akmah is the blind [person] born blind from his mother's womb; and it is said: [it is] general. Kamiha, on the pattern of fariḥa: he was blind.

﴿ولو جليت سرا﴾

الضمير راجع الى المدامة المذكورة والمعنى فى ذلك انكشاف الحقيقة الوجودية الجامعة وقوله اكه هو العبد الغافل المحجوب بنفسه عن معرفة تجليات ربه

The pronoun refers to the aforementioned wine. The meaning of this is the unveiling of the all-comprehensive existential ḥaqīqa (reality). His word akmah is the heedless servant, veiled by himself from knowing the tajalliyāt (self-disclosures) of his Lord.

﴿سرا﴾

أى لو جليت هذه المدامة فى السر لا فى الجهر على أعمى قد ولد كذلك صار بصيرا و زال عنه ذلك الوصف ثم أعقب ذلك بقوله ومن راووقها اعلم أن الراووق المصفاة والباطية تسمع الصم يعنى أن الاصم الذى لا يسمع لو أصغى الى صوتها وهى تسكب فى الراووق لتصفى لعاد اليه سمعه وثاب اليه تفعه وفى هذا البيت زيادة على الابيات الاخر لان فيه ارجاع حاستين الى الاذن والعين وهما السمع ونور العين وفى التعبير بالصم مبالغة لاقتضائه أن الجماعة الذين فقدوا اسماعهم يعودون اليها بمجرد الاصغاء الى صوت المدامة عند نز ولها الى الراووق وان أردت اجراء الثانى على غط الاول يكون المراد من الصم الافراد

I.e. if this wine were unveiled in secret, not openly, to a blind man born so, he would become seeing and that attribute would leave him. Then he followed that with his words "and from its strainer". Know that the rāwūq is the strainer, and the bāṭiya [the large wine-bowl]. "The deaf hear": i.e. the deaf one who does not hear, if he listened to its sound as it is poured into the strainer to be clarified, his hearing would return to him and its benefit would come back to him. In this verse there is something beyond the other verses, because in it two faculties are restored, to the ear and the eye, namely hearing and the light of the eye. In the expression al-ṣumm (the deaf, plural) there is hyperbole, because it implies that the group who have lost their hearing regain it merely by listening to the sound of the wine as it descends into the strainer. If you wish to make the second run on the pattern of the first, what is meant by al-ṣumm is the individuals.

﴿غدا﴾

اشار به الى انشقاق فجر السالك بعد ظلمة ليلته بالفتح الربانى والمدد الرحمانى

By it he alluded to the breaking of the dawn of the sālik (wayfarer) after the darkness of his night, through the lordly fatḥ (opening) and the merciful madad (succor).

﴿ومن راووقها﴾

يشير بالراووق الى العقل الذى للانسان الكامل فانه لايهجم على الادراك وصاحبه لايدرك به وانما يدرك بنور ربه ثم يعرض ما ادركه بنور ربه على عقله وعقله يصفى ذلك من كدر الاغيار ودنس الاثار فهو الراووق وهو القاروق

By the strainer he alludes to the intellect of the perfect human being; for it does not rush upon perception, and its possessor does not perceive by it; he perceives only by the light of his Lord, then presents what he has perceived by the light of his Lord to his intellect, and his intellect clarifies it of the turbidity of the aghyār (others) and the defilement of traces. So it is the strainer, and it is the qārūq […].

﴿تسمع الصم﴾

يكنى بالصم ع ن الغافلين الذين لا يسمعون الحق لاشتغالهم بالباطل وب يسمع عن كونهم يسمعون من راووقها الذى هو العقل النورانى ولا يقدر أحد ان يسمع كلام أهل الله تعالى المارفين بربهم الا اذا سمعه من عارف بربه فاذا سمعه من غير العارف أو تلقاه من الكتاب وفهمه بعقله الظلمانى فذلك بكلام أهل الله العارفين به وانما هو كلام نفسه اه

By the deaf he alludes to the heedless who do not hear the truth because of their occupation with falsehood, and by "hear" to their hearing from its strainer, which is the luminous intellect. No one is able to hear the speech of the people of God Most High who know their Lord except if he hears it from one who knows his Lord. If he hears it from one who is not a knower, or receives it from the book and understands it with his dark intellect, then that [is not] the speech of the people of God who know Him; it is only the speech of his own soul.