قرنها بگذشت و این قرن نویست ** ماه آن ماهست آب آن آب نیست 3175
Generations have passed away, and this is a new generation: the moon is the same moon, the water is not the same water.
عدل آن عدلست و فضل آن فضل هم ** لیک مستبدل شد آن قرن و امم
The justice is the same justice, and the learning is the same learning too; but those generations and peoples have been changed (supplanted by others).
قرنها بر قرنها رفت ای همام ** وین معانی بر قرار و بر دوام
Generations on generations have gone, O sire, but these Ideas (Divine attributes) are permanent and everlasting.
آن مبدل شد درین جو چند بار ** عکس ماه و عکس اختر بر قرار
The water in this channel has been changed many times: the reflexion of the moon and of the stars remains unaltered.
پس بنااش نیست بر آب روان ** بلک بر اقطار عرض آسمان
Therefore its foundation is not in the running water; nay, but in the regions of the breadth (wide expanse) of Heaven.
این صفتها چون نجوم معنویست ** دانک بر چرخ معانی مستویست 3180
These attributes are like Ideal stars: know that they are stablished in the sphere of the Ideas (Realities).
خوب‌رویان آینه‌ی خوبی او ** عشق ایشان عکس مطلوبی او
The beauteous are the mirror of His beauty: love for them is the reflexion of the desire of which He is the (real) object.
هم به اصل خود رود این خد و خال ** دایما در آب کی ماند خیال
This cheek and mole goes (back) to the Source thereof: how should a phantom continue in the water for ever?
جمله تصویرات عکس آب جوست ** چون بمالی چشم خود خود جمله اوست
The whole sum of pictured forms (phenomena) is a (mere) reflexion in the water of the river: when you rub your eye, (you will perceive that) all of them are really He.
باز عقلش گفت بگذار این حول ** خل دوشابست و دوشابست خل
Again, his (the debtor's) reason said (to him), “Abandon this seeing double: vinegar is grape-syrup and grape-syrup is vinegar.