آن دو اشتر نیست آن یک اشتر است ** تنگ آمد لفظ معنی بس پر است
That (subject of my discourse) is not two camels; it is a single camel. Verbal expression is confined, the meaning (to be expressed) is very full.
لفظ در معنی همیشه نارسان ** ز آن پیمبر گفت قد کل لسان
The expression always fails to reach the meaning; hence the Prophet said, “(Whoso knows God), his tongue falters.”
نطق اصطرلاب باشد در حساب ** چه قدر داند ز چرخ و آفتاب
Speech is (like) an astrolabe in (its) reckoning: how much does it know of the sky and the sun?—
خاصه چرخی کاین فلک زو پرهای است ** آفتاب از آفتابش ذرهای است3015
Especially, of that Sky whereof this heaven is (no more than) a blade of straw; (that Sky) of whose Sun the (terrestrial) sun is (but) a mote?
بیان آن که در هر نفسی فتنهی مسجد ضرار است
Showing that there is in every soul the mischief of the Mosque of Opposition.
چون پدید آمد که آن مسجد نبود ** خانهی حیلت بد و دام جهود
When it appeared that that was not a mosque, (but) was a house of intrigue and a trap laid by the Jews,
پس نبی فرمود کان را بر کنید ** مطرحهی خاشاک و خاکستر کنید
The Prophet then gave the command (and said), “Rase it and make it a dumping-place for rubbish and ashes.”
صاحب مسجد چو مسجد قلب بود ** دانهها بر دام ریزی نیست جود
The founder of the Mosque was false, like the Mosque (itself): ‘tis not munificence if you sprinkle grain upon a snare.
گوشت کاندر شست تو ماهی رباست ** آن چنان لقمه نه بخشش نه سخاست
The meat that catches the fish on the hook––such a morsel is neither bounty nor generosity.
مسجد اهل قبا کان بد جماد ** آن چه کفو او نبد راهش نداد3020
The Mosque of the people of Qubá, which was inanimate––he (the Prophet) did not admit to (equality with) it that which was not its equal.
در جمادات این چنین حیفی نرفت ** زد در آن ناکفو امیر داد نفت
(Even) in the case of lifeless things such a wrong did not come to pass: the lord of justice (Mohammed) set fire to that unequal (and incongruous Mosque).