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تخم اول کامل و بگزیده است ** تخم ثانی فاسد و پوسیده است
- The first seed is perfect and choice; the second seed is corrupt and rotten.
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افکن این تدبیر خود را پیش دوست ** گر چه تدبیرت هم از تدبیر اوست 1060
- Cast away this contrivance of yours before the Beloved— though your contrivance indeed is of His contriving.
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کار آن دارد که حق افراشته ست ** آخر آن روید که اول کاشته ست
- That which God has raised (and that alone) has use: what He has at first sown at last grows.
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هر چه کاری از برای او بکار ** چون اسیر دوستی ای دوستدار
- Whatever you sow, sow for His sake, inasmuch as you are the Beloved's captive, O lover.
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گرد نفس دزد و کار او مپیچ ** هر چه آن نه کار حق هیچ است هیچ
- Do not hang about the thievish fleshly soul and its work: whatsoever is not God's work is naught, naught.
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پیش از آن که روز دین پیدا شود ** نزد مالک دزد شب رسوا شود
- (Sow the good seed) ere the Day of Resurrection shall appear and the night-thief be shamed before Him whose is the Kingdom,
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رخت دزدیده به تدبیر و فنش ** مانده روز داوری بر گردنش 1065
- With the goods stolen by his contrivance and craft (still) remaining on his neck at the Day of Judgement.
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صد هزاران عقل با هم بر جهند ** تا به غیر دام او دامی نهند
- Hundreds of thousands of minds may jump together (conspire) to lay a snare other than His snare;
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دام خود را سختتر یابند و بس ** کی نماید قوتی با باد خس
- (But) they only find their snare more grievous (to themselves), (for) how can straws show any power (of resistance) against the wind?
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گر تو گویی فایدهی هستی چه بود ** در سؤالت فایده هست ای عنود
- If you say, “What was the profit of (our created) being?” (I reply), “There is profit in your question, O contumacious one.
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گر ندارد این سؤالت فایده ** چه شنویم این را عبث بیعایده
- If this question of yours has no profit, why should we listen to it in vain and fruitlessly?
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ور سؤالت را بسی فاییدههاست ** پس جهان بیفایده آخر چراست 1070
- And if there are many profits in your question, then why, pray, is the world unprofitable?
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ور جهان از یک جهت بیفایده ست ** از جهتهای دگر پر عایده ست
- And (again), if from one standpoint the world is unprofitable, from other standpoints it is advantageous.
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فایدهی تو گر مرا فاییده نیست ** مر ترا چون فایده ست از وی مه ایست
- If your profit is no profit to me, (yet) since it is a profit to you, do not withdraw from it.”
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حسن یوسف عالمی را فایده ** گر چه بر اخوان عبث بد زایده
- The beauty of Joseph profited a (whole) world (of people), though to his brethren it was a vain superfluity.
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لحن داودی چنان محبوب بود ** لیک بر محروم بانگ چوب بود
- The melodies of David were so dear (to the faithful), but to the interdicted (unbeliever) they were (no more than) the noise of wood.
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آب نیل از آب حیوان بد فزون ** لیک بر محروم و منکر بود خون 1075
- The water of the Nile was superior to the Water of Life, but to the interdicted and unbelieving it was blood.
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هست بر مومن شهیدی زندگی ** بر منافق مردن است و ژندگی
- To the true believer martyrdom is life; to the hypocrite it is death and corruption.
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چیست در عالم بگو یک نعمتی ** که نه محرومند از وی امتی
- Tell (me), what single blessing is there in the world, from which some group of people is not excluded?
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گاو و خر را فایده چه در شکر ** هست هر جان را یکی قوتی دگر
- What profit have the ox and the ass in sugar? Every soul has a different food;
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لیک گر آن قوت بر وی عارضی است ** پس نصیحت کردن او را رایضی است
- But if that food is accidental to it (and not according to its real nature), then admonition is the (proper) correction for it.
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چون کسی کاو از مرض گل داشت دوست ** گر چه پندارد که آن خود قوت اوست 1080
- As (in the case of) one who from disease has become fond of (eating) clay— though he may suppose that that (clay) is indeed his (natural) food,
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قوت اصلی را فرامش کرده است ** روی در قوت مرض آورده است
- He has (in reality) forgotten his original food and has betaken himself to the food of disease.
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نوش را بگذاشته سم خورده است ** قوت علت همچو چوبش کرده است
- Having given up honey, he has eaten poison; he has made the food of disease (to be his nourishment) as (though it were) fat.
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قوت اصلی بشر نور خداست ** قوت حیوانی مر او را ناسزاست
- Man's original food is the Light of God: animal food is improper for him;