شحنگی و پادشاهی مقیم ** نه دو روزه و مستعارست و سقیم
The abiding (spiritual) magistracy and kingship is not (something) taken on loan for two days and ailing (perishable).
رستی از بیگار و کار خود کنی ** هم تو شاه و هم تو طبل خود زنی
(Possessing that) you are delivered from strife and can act for yourself: you are king and at the same time beating your own drum.
چون گلو تنگ آورد بر ما جهان ** خاک خوردی کاشکی حلق و دهان
When the World squeezes our throats tightly, would that our gullets and mouths had eaten (only) earth!
این دهان خود خاک‌خواری آمدست ** لیک خاکی را که آن رنگین شدست 4705
This mouth, indeed, has (always) been an eater of earth; but an earth that has been coloured.
این کباب و این شراب و این شکر ** خاک رنگینست و نقشین ای پسر
This roast-meat and this wine and this sugar are (merely) coloured and painted earth, O son.
چونک خوردی و شد آن لحم و پوست ** رنگ لحمش داد و این هم خاک کوست
When you have eaten or drunk (them) and they have become flesh and skin, He gives them the colour of flesh, but they are still the earth of (His) street.
هم ز خاکی بخیه بر گل می‌زند ** جمله را هم باز خاکی می‌کند
’Tis from a bit of earth that He stitches the (body of) clay, and then makes the whole (fabric) a bit of earth again.
هندو و قفچاق و رومی و حبش ** جمله یک رنگ‌اند اندر گور خوش
Hindús and Qifcháq (Turks) and Greeks and Abyssinians— all have quite the same colour in the grave.
تا بدانی کان همه رنگ و نگار ** جمله روپوشست و مکر و مستعار 4710
So you may know that all those colours and pictures are entirely a mask and deceit and borrowed (ephemeral).
رنگ باقی صبغة الله است و بس ** غیر آن بر بسته دان هم‌چون جرس
The only lasting colour is the dye of Allah: know that all the rest are tied (stuck) on (superficially) like a bell.