Know that the regard of the base is like that servant; ’tis better to have nobody (as your friend) than (to accept) the flattery of nobodies (worthless people).
در زمین مردمان خانه مکن ** کار خود کن کار بیگانه مکن
Do not make your home in (other) men's land: do your own work, don't do the work of a stranger.
کیست بیگانه تن خاکی تو ** کز برای اوست غمناکی تو
Who is the stranger? Your earthen body, for the sake of which is (all) your sorrow.
تا تو تن را چرب و شیرین میدهی ** جوهر خود را نبینی فربهی265
So long as you are giving your body greasy (rich) and sweet (food), you will not see fatness in your (spiritual) essence.
گر میان مشک تن را جا شود ** روز مردن گند او پیدا شود
If the body be set in the midst of musk, (yet) on the day of death its stench will become manifest.
مشک را بر تن مزن بر دل بمال ** مشک چه بود نام پاک ذو الجلال
Do not put musk on your body, rub it on your heart. What is musk? The holy name of the Glorious (God).
آن منافق مشک بر تن مینهد ** روح را در قعر گلخن مینهد
The hypocrite puts musk on his body and puts his spirit at the bottom of the ash-pit.
بر زبان نام حق و در جان او ** گندها از فکر بیایمان او
On his tongue the name of God, and in his soul stenches (arising) from his infidel thought.
ذکر با او همچو سبزه گلخن است ** بر سر مبرز گلست و سوسن است270
In relation to him praise of God is (like) the herbage of the ash-pit: it is roses and lilies (growing) upon a dunghill.
آن نبات آن جا یقین عاریت است ** جای آن گل مجلس است و عشرت است
Those plants are certainly there on loan (and belong to somewhere else); the proper place for those flowers is the symposium and (the scene of) festivity.