گشت ثابت پیش قاضی آن همه ** که نمودند از شکایت آن رمه
All the complaints which that flock (of prisoners) had set forth were proved to the Cadi.
گفت قاضی خیز از این زندان برو ** سوی خانهی مردهریگ خویش شو
The Cadi said (to him), “Get up and depart from this prison: go to the house which is your inherited property.”
گفت خان و مان من احسان تست ** همچو کافر جنتم زندان تست
He replied, “My house and home consist in thy beneficence; as (in the case of) an infidel, thy prison is my Paradise.
گر ز زندانم برانی تو به رد ** خود بمیرم من ز تقصیری و کد
If thou wilt drive me from the prison and turn me out, verily I shall die of destitution and beggary.”
همچو ابلیسی که میگفت ای سلام ** رب أنظرنی إلی یوم القیام630
(He pleaded) like the Devil, who was saying, “O Preserver, O my Lord, grant me a respite till the day of Resurrection;
کاندر این زندان دنیا من خوشم ** تا که دشمن زادگان را میکشم
For I am happy (to be) in the prison of this world, in order that I may be slaying the children of mine enemy,
هر که او را قوت ایمانی بود ** و ز برای زاد ره نانی بود
(And), if any one have some food of faith and a single loaf as provision for the journey (to the life hereafter),
میستانم گه به مکر و گه به ریو ** تا بر آرند از پشیمانی غریو
I may seize it, now by plot and now by guile, so that in repentance they may raise an outcry (of lamentation);
گه به درویشی کنم تهدیدشان ** گه به زلف و خال بندم دیدشان
(And in order that) sometimes I may threaten them with poverty, sometimes bind their eyes with (the spell of) tress and mole.”
قوت ایمانی در این زندان کم است ** وان که هست از قصد این سگ در خم است635
In this prison (the world) the food of faith is scarce, and that which exists is in (danger of being caught in) the noose (of destruction) through the attack of this cur.