روی زشت تست نه رخسار مرگ ** جان تو همچون درخت و مرگ برگ
’Tis your (own) ugly face, not the visage of Death: your spirit is like the tree, and death (is like) the leaf.
از تو رستست ار نکویست ار بدست ** ناخوش و خوش هر ضمیرت از خودست
It has grown from you, whether it is good or evil: every hidden thought of yours, foul or fair, is (born) from yourself.
گر بخاری خسته‌ای خود کشته‌ای ** ور حریر و قزدری خود رشته‌ای
If you are wounded by a thorn, you yourself have sown; and if you are (clad) in satin and silk, you yourself have spun.
دانک نبود فعل همرنگ جزا ** هیچ خدمت نیست همرنگ عطا3445
Know that the act is not of the same complexion as the requital: the service is nowise of the same complexion as the payment given (in return for it).
مزد مزدوران نمی‌ماند بکار ** کان عرض وین جوهرست و پایدار
The labourers' wage does not resemble the work, inasmuch as the latter is the accident, while the former is the substance and permanent.
آن همه سختی و زورست و عرق ** وین همه سیمست و زرست و طبق
The former is wholly hardship and effort and sweat, while the latter is wholly silver and gold and trays (of food).
گر ترا آید ز جایی تهمتی ** کرد مظلومت دعا در محنتی
If suspicion fall upon you from some quarter, (the reason is that) the person whom you wronged has invoked (God) against you in an affliction (which you have brought upon him).
تو همی‌گویی که من آزاده‌ام ** بر کسی من تهمتی ننهاده‌ام
You say, “I am free (from guilt): I have not laid suspicion on any one.”
تو گناهی کرده‌ای شکل دگر ** دانه کشتی دانه کی ماند به بر3450
(No; but) you have committed another form of sin; you sowed the seed: how should the seed resemble the fruit?
او زنا کرد و جزا صد چوب بود ** گوید او من کی زدم کس را بعود
He (the celibate) committed adultery, and the penalty was a hundred blows with the stick. “When,” says he, “did I strike any one with wood?”