آن نظر که بنگرد این جر و مد ** او ز نحسی سوی سعدی نقب زد
The gaze (of him) that surveys this ebb and flow pierces from the inauspicious influence to the auspicious.
ز آن همیگرداندت حالی به حال ** ضد به ضد پیدا کنان در انتقال
He (God) continually turns you from one state (of feeling) to another, manifesting opposite by means of opposite in the change,
تا که خوفت زاید از ذات الشمال ** لذت ذات الیمین یرجی الرجال
For the purpose that fear of the left hand side may bring to birth in you the delight of “He causes the (blessed) men to hope for the right hand side,”
تا دو پر باشی که مرغ یک پره ** عاجز آید از پریدن ای سره
So that you may have two wings (fear and hope); for the bird that has (only) one wing is unable to fly, O excellent (reader).
یا رها کن تا نیایم در کلام ** یا بده دستور تا گویم تمام1555
(O God), either let me not come to speech (at all), or give me leave to tell (the whole) to the end.
ور نه این خواهی نه آن فرمان تراست ** کس چه داند مر ترا مقصد کجاست
But if Thou willest neither this nor that, ’tis Thine to command: how should any one know what Thou intendest?
جان ابراهیم باید تا به نور ** بیند اندر نار فردوس و قصور
One must needs have the spirit of Abraham to see in the fire Paradise and its palaces by the light (of mystic knowledge);
پایه پایه بر رود بر ماه و خور ** تا نماند همچو حلقه بند در
And mount step by step above the moon and the sun, lest he remain like the door-ring fastened on the door;
چون خلیل از آسمان هفتمین ** بگذرد که لا أحب الآفلین
And, like the Friend, pass beyond the Seventh Heaven, saying, “I love not them that set.”
این جهان تن غلط انداز شد ** جز مر آن را کاو ز شهوت باز شد1560
This bodily world is deceptive, save to him that has escaped from lust.
تتمهی حسد آن حشم بر آن غلام خاص
Conclusion of (the story) how the (other) retainers envied the favourite slave.