The wife showed (him) the sleeve of her chemise: the chemise was very coarse and dirty.
گفت از سختی تنم را می‌خورد ** کس کسی را کسوه زین سان آورد
“It is so rough,” said she, “it eats (wounds) my body: does any one get a garment of this kind for any one?”
گفت ای زن یک سالت می‌کنم ** مرد درویشم همین آمد فنم
He said, “O wife, I will ask you one question. I am a poor man: this is all I know (how to do).
این درشتست و غلیظ و ناپسند ** لیک بندیش ای زن اندیشه‌مند 1765
This (chemise) is rough and coarse and disagreeable, but think (well), O thoughtful (anxious) wife!
این درشت و زشت‌تر یا خود طلاق ** این ترا مکروه‌تر یا خود فراق
Is this (chemise) rougher and nastier, or divorce? Is this (chemise) more odious to you, or separation?”
هم‌چنان ای خواجه‌ی تشنیع زن ** از بلا و فقر و از رنج و محن
Even so, O Khwája who art reviling on account of affliction and poverty and distress and tribulations,
لا شک این ترک هوا تلخی‌دهست ** لیک از تلخی بعد حق بهست
No doubt this renunciation of sensuality gives bitter pain, but ’tis better than the bitterness of being far from God.
گر جهاد و صوم سختست و خشن ** لیک این بهتر ز بعد ممتحن
If fighting (against the flesh) and fasting are hard and rough, yet these are better than being far from Him who inflicts tribulation.
رنج کی ماند دمی که ذوالمنن ** گویدت چونی تو ای رنجور من 1770
How should pain endure for a single moment when the Giver of favours says to thee, “How art thou, O My sick one?”
ور نگوید کت نه آن فهم و فن است ** لیک آن ذوق تو پرسش کردنست
And (even) if He say (it) not, because thou hast not the understanding and knowledge (needed) for it, yet thy inward feeling (of supplication) is (equivalent to His) inquiring (after thee).