بس وصیت کرد و تخم وعظ کاشت ** چون زمین‌شان شوره بد سودی نداشت 1530
He (the father) gave many injunctions (to his sons) and sowed the seed of exhortation, (but) as their soil was nitrous (barren), ’twas of no avail.
گرچه ناصح را بود صد داعیه ** پند را اذنی بباید واعیه
Although the admonisher have a hundred appeals, counsel demands a retentive ear.
تو به صد تلطیف پندش می‌دهی ** او ز پندت می‌کند پهلو تهی
You counsel him (the heedless man) with a hundred courtesies, and he turns aside from your counsel.
یک کس نامستمع ز استیز و رد ** صد کس گوینده را عاجز کند
A single person who obstinately refuses to listen will baffle a hundred (eloquent) speakers.
ز انبیا ناصح‌تر و خوش لهجه‌تر ** کی بود کی گرفت دمشان در حجر
Who should be more persuasive in counselling and sweeter-tongued than the prophets, whose words made an impression (even) on stones?
زانچ کوه و سنگ درکار آمدند ** می‌نشد بدبخت را بگشاده بند 1535
(Yet) the bonds of the ill-fated (infidel) were not being loosed by that whereby mountain and stone were moved.
آنچنان دلها که بدشان ما و من ** نعتشان شدت بل اشد قسوة
Such hearts as had egoism were described (in the words of the Qur’án) nay, harder (than stone).
بیان آنک عطای حق و قدرت موقوف قابلیت نیست هم‌چون داد خلقان کی آن را قابلیت باید زیرا عطا قدیم است و قابلیت حادث عطا صفت حق است و قابلیت صفت مخلوق و قدیم موقوف حادث نباشد و اگر نه حدوث محال باشد
Explaining that the bounty of God and of the (Divine) Omnipotence is not dependent on receptivity, as human bounty is; for in the latter case receptivity is necessary. (In the former case it is not) because (the Divine) bounty is eternal, whereas receptivity is temporal. Bounty is an attribute of the Creator, while receptivity is an attribute of the creature; and the eternal cannot depend on the temporal, otherwise temporality (origination in time) would be absurd.
چاره‌ی آن دل عطای مبدلیست ** داد او را قابلیت شرط نیست
The remedy for such a heart is the gift bestowed by a Transmuter: receptivity is not a necessary condition for His bounty.
بلک شرط قابلیت داد اوست ** داد لب و قابلیت هست پوست
Nay, His bounty is the necessary condition for receptivity: Bounty is the kernel, and receptivity the husk.
اینک موسی را عصا ثعبان شود ** هم‌چو خورشیدی کفش رخشان شود
The change of Moses' rod into a serpent and the shining of his hand like a (resplendent) sun,