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چون فرشته بود همچون دیو شد ** کان ملاحت اندر او عاریه بد
- She was like an angel, she became like a demon, for that loveliness in her was a borrowed (transient) thing.
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اندک اندک میستانند آن جمال ** اندک اندک خشک میگردد نهال
- Little by little they take away that beauty: little by little the sapling withers.
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رو نعمره ننکسه بخوان ** دل طلب کن دل منه بر استخوان 715
- Go, recite (the text) to whom so We grant length of days, him We cause to decline. Seek the heart (spirit), set not thy heart on bones;
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کان جمال دل جمال باقی است ** دولتش از آب حیوان ساقی است
- For that beauty of the heart is the lasting beauty: its fortune gives to drink of the Water of Life.
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خود هم او آب است و هم ساقی و مست ** هر سه یک شد چون طلسم تو شکست
- Truly it is both the water and the giver of drink and the drunken: all three become one when your talisman is shattered.
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آن یکی را تو ندانی از قیاس ** بندگی کن ژاژ کم خا ناشناس
- That oneness you cannot know by reasoning. Do service (to God) and refrain from foolish gabble, O undiscerning man!
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معنی تو صورت است و عاریت ** بر مناسب شادی و بر قافیت
- Your reality is the form and that which is borrowed: you rejoice in what is relative and (secondary like) rhyme.
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معنی آن باشد که بستاند ترا ** بینیاز از نقش گرداند ترا 720
- Reality is that which seizes (enraptures) you and makes you independent of form.
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معنی آن نبود که کور و کر کند ** مرد را بر نقش عاشقتر کند
- Reality is not that which makes blind and deaf and causes a man to be more in love with form.
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کور را قسمت خیال غم فزاست ** بهرهی چشم این خیالات فناست
- The portion of the blind is the fancy that increases pain; the share of the (spiritual) eye is these fancies (ideas) of dying to self (faná).
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حرف قرآن را ضریران معدناند ** خر نبینند و به پالان بر زنند
- The blind are a mine (full) of the letter of the Qur’án: they do not see the ass, and (only) cling to the pack-saddle.
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چون تو بینایی پی خر رو که جست ** چند پالان دوزی ای پالان پرست
- Since you have sight, go after the ass which has jumped (away from you): how long (will you persist in) stitching the saddle, O saddle-worshipper?
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خر چو هست آید یقین پالان ترا ** کم نگردد نان چو باشد جان ترا 725
- When the ass is there, the saddle will certainly be yours: bread does not fail when you have the (vital) spirit.
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پشت خر دکان و مال و مکسب است ** در قلبت مایهی صد قالب است
- (On) the back of the ass is shop and wealth and gain; the pearl of your heart is the stock (which provides wealth) for a hundred bodies.
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خر برهنه بر نشین ای بو الفضول ** خر برهنه نه که راکب شد رسول
- Mount the ass bare-backed, O busybody: did not the Prophet ride the ass bare-backed?
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النبی قد رکب معروریا ** و النبی قیل سافر ماشیا
- The Prophet rode (his beast) bare-backed; and the Prophet, it is said, journeyed on foot.
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شد خر نفس تو بر میخیش بند ** چند بگریزد ز کار و بار چند
- The ass, your fleshly soul, has gone off; tie it to a peg. How long will it run away from work and burden, how long?
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بار صبر و شکر او را بردنی است ** خواه در صد سال و خواهی سی و بیست 730
- It must bear the burden of patience and thanksgiving, whether for a hundred years or for thirty or twenty.
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هیچ وازر وزر غیری بر نداشت ** هیچ کس ندرود تا چیزی نکاشت
- None that is laden supported another's load; none reaped until he sowed something.
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طمع خام است آن مخور خام ای پسر ** خام خوردن علت آرد در بشر
- ’Tis a raw (absurd) hope; eat not what is raw, O son: eating raw brings illness to men.
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کان فلانی یافت گنجی ناگهان ** من همان خواهم نه کار و نه دکان
- (Do not say to yourself), “So-and-so suddenly found a treasure; I would like the same: neither work nor shop (for me)!”
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کار بخت است آن و آن هم نادر است ** کسب باید کرد تا تن قادر است
- That (discovery of treasure) is Fortune's doing (a piece of luck), and moreover it is rare: one must earn a living so long as the body is able.
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کسب کردن گنج را مانع کی است ** پا مکش از کار آن خود در پی است 735
- How does earning a livelihood prevent the (discovery of) treasure? Do not retire from work: that (treasure), indeed, is (following) behind (the work).
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تا نگردی تو گرفتار اگر ** که اگر این کردمی یا آن دگر
- See that you are not made captive by “if,” saying, “If I had done this or the other (thing),”
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کز اگر گفتن رسول با وفاق ** منع کرد و گفت آن هست از نفاق
- For the sincere Prophet forbade (people) to say “if,” and said, “That is from hypocrisy”;