از نماز و صوم و صد بیچارگی ** قوت ذوق آید برد یک بارگی
(If) from prayer and fasting and a hundred helplessnesses (utter self-abnegations) the food of spiritual feeling come (to any one), he (the Devil) at once carries it off.
أستعیذ الله من شیطانه ** قد هلکنا آه من طغیانه
I seek refuge with God from His Satan: we have perished, alas, through his overweening disobedience.
یک سگ است و در هزاران میرود ** هر که در وی رفت او او میشود
He is (but) one cur, and he goes into thousands (of people): into whomsoever he goes, he (that person) becomes he (Satan).
هر که سردت کرد میدان کاو در اوست ** دیو پنهان گشته اندر زیر پوست
Whoever makes you cold (damps your spiritual ardour) know that he (Satan) is in him: the Devil has become hidden beneath his skin.
چون نیابد صورت آید در خیال ** تا کشاند آن خیالت در وبال640
When he finds no (bodily) form, he comes into (your) fancy, in order that that fancy may lead you into woe:
گه خیال فرجه و گاهی دکان ** گه خیال علم و گاهی خان و مان
Now the fancy of recreation, now of the shop; now the fancy of knowledge, and now of house and home.
هان بگو لاحولها اندر زمان ** از زبان تنها نه بلک از عین جان
Beware! say at once “God help me!” again and again, not with tongue alone but from your very soul.
تتمه قصه مفلس
The end of the story of the insolvent.
گفت قاضی مفلسی را وانما ** گفت اینک اهل زندانت گوا
The Cadi said, “Show plainly that you are insolvent.” “Here are the prisoners,” he replied, “as thy witnesses.”
گفت ایشان متهم باشند چون ** میگریزند از تو میگریند خون
“They,” said the Cadi, “are suspect, because they are fleeing from you and weeping blood (on account of your ill-treatment of them);
از تو میخواهند هم تا وارهند ** زین غرض باطل گواهی میدهند645
Also, they are suing to be delivered from you: by reason of this self-interest the testimony they give is worthless.”
جمله اهل محکمه گفتند ما ** هم بر ادبار و بر افلاسش گوا
All the people belonging to the court of justice said, “We bear witness both to his (moral) degeneracy and his insolvency.”
هر که را پرسید قاضی حال او ** گفت مولا دست ازین مفلس بشو
Every one whom the Cadi questioned about his condition said, “My lord, wash thy hands of this insolvent.”
گفت قاضی کش بگردانید فاش ** گرد شهر این مفلس است و بس قلاش
The Cadi said, “March him round the city for all to see, (and cry), ‘This man is an insolvent and a great rogue.’
کو به کو او را مناداها زنید ** طبل افلاسش عیان هر جا زنید
Make proclamations concerning him, street by street; beat the drum (as an advertisement) of his insolvency everywhere in open view.
هیچ کس نسیه بنفروشد بدو ** قرض ندهد هیچ کس او را تسو650
Let no one sell to him on credit, let no one lend him a farthing.
هر که دعوی آردش اینجا به فن ** بیش زندانش نخواهم کرد من
Whosoever may bring here a claim against him for fraud, I will not put him in prison any more.
پیش من افلاس او ثابت شده است ** نقد و کالا نیستش چیزی به دست
His insolvency has been proven to me: he has nothing in his possession, (neither) money nor goods.”
آدمی در حبس دنیا ز آن بود ** تا بود کافلاس او ثابت شود
Man is in the prison of this world in order that peradventure his insolvency may be proven.
مفلسی دیو را یزدان ما ** هم منادی کرد در قرآن ما
Our God has also proclaimed in our Qur’án the insolvency of the Devil,
کاو دغا و مفلس است و بد سخن ** هیچ با او شرکت و سودا مکن655
Saying, “He is a swindler and insolvent and liar: do not make any partnership or do any trade with him.”
ور کنی او را بهانه آوری ** مفلس است او صرفه از وی کی بری
And if you do so (and) bring (vain) pretexts to him, he is insolvent: how will you get profit from him?
حاضر آوردند چون فتنه فروخت ** اشتر کردی که هیزم میفروخت
When the trouble started, they brought on the scene the camel of a Kurd who sold firewood.
کرد بیچاره بسی فریاد کرد ** هم موکل را به دانگی شاد کرد
The helpless Kurd made a great outcry; he also gladdened the officer (appointed to seize the camel) with (the gift of) a dáng;
اشترش بردند از هنگام چاشت ** تا شب و افغان او سودی نداشت
(But) they took away his camel from the time of forenoon until nightfall, and his lamentation was of no use.
بر شتر بنشست آن قحط گران ** صاحب اشتر پی اشتر دوان660
Upon the camel sat that sore famine (the insolvent), while the owner of the camel was running at its heels.