گام در صحرای دل باید نهاد ** زانک در صحرای گل نبود گشاد
You must set foot on the plain of the heart (spirit), because in the plain of (the body’s) clay there is no opening ( for spiritual progress).
ایمن آبادست دل ای دوستان ** چشمه‌ها و گلستان در گلستان515
The heart is the abode of security, O friends; (it has) fountains and rose-gardens within rose-gardens.
عج الی القلب و سر یا ساریه ** فیه اشجار و عین جاریه
Turn towards the heart and journey on, O night-travellers: therein are trees and (many) a flowing spring.
ده مرو ده مرد را احمق کند ** عقل را بی نور و بی رونق کند
Do not go to the country: the country makes a fool of a man, it makes the intellect void of light and splendour.
قول پیغامبر شنو ای مجتبی ** گور عقل آمد وطن در روستا
O chosen one, hear the Prophet’s saying: “To dwell in the country is the grave of the intellect.”
هر که را در رستا بود روزی و شام ** تا بماهی عقل او نبود تمام
If any one stay in the country a single day and evening, his intellect will not be fully restored for a month.
تا بماهی احمقی با او بود ** از حشیش ده جز اینها چه درود520
For a (whole) month foolishness will abide with him: what but these things should he reap from the parched herbage of the country?
وانک ماهی باشد اندر روستا ** روزگاری باشدش جهل و عمی
And he that stays a month in the country, ignorance and blindness will be his (lot) for a long time.
ده چه باشد شیخ واصل ناشده ** دست در تقلید و حجت در زده
What is “the country”? The Shaykh that has not been united (with god), but has become addicted to conventionality and argument.
پیش شهر عقل کلی این حواس ** چون خران چشم‌بسته در خراس
Compared with the town, (which is) Universal Reason, these senses (of ours) are like asses (going round and round) in an ass-mill with their eyes bandaged.