شب پدید آید چو گنج رحمتی ** تا رهند ازحرص خود یکساعتی
Night appears, like a treasure of mercy, that they may be delivered from their greed for a short while.
چونک قبضی آیدت ای راه‌رو ** آن صلاح تست آتش دل مشو
When a feeling of (spiritual) contraction comes over you, O traveller, ’tis (for) your good: do not become afire (with grief) in your heart,
زآنک در خرجی در آن بسط و گشاد ** خرج را دخلی بباید زاعتداد3735
For in that (contrary state of) expansion and delight you are spending: the expenditure (of enthusiasm) requires an income of (painful) preparation (to balance it).
گر هماره فصل تابستان بدی ** سوزش خورشید در بستان شدی
If it were always the season of summer, the blazing heat of the sun would penetrate the garden
منبتش را سوختی از بیخ و بن ** که دگر تازه نگشتی آن کهن
And burn up from root and bottom the soil whence its plants grow, so that the old (withered) ones would never again become fresh.
گر ترش‌رویست آن دی مشفق است ** صیف خندانست اما محرقست
If December is sour-faced, (yet) it is kind; summer is laughing, but (none the less) it is burning (destroying).
چونک قبض آید تو در وی بسط بین ** تازه باش و چین میفکن در جبین
When (spiritual) contraction comes, behold expansion therein: be fresh (cheerful) and do not let wrinkles fall on your brow.
کودکان خندان و دانایان ترش ** غم جگر را باشد و شادی ز شش3740
Children are laughing, and sages are sour: sorrow appertains to the liver, and joy arises from the lungs.
چشم کودک همچو خر در آخرست ** چشم عاقل در حساب آخرست
The eye of the child, like (that of) the ass, is (fixed) on the stall; the eye of the wise man is (engaged) in reckoning the end.
او در آخر چرب می‌بیند علف ** وین ز قصاب آخرش بیند تلف
He (the child) sees the rich fodder in the stall, while this (wise man) sees his ultimate end to be death by (the hand of) the Butcher.