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تاسهی تو شد نشان آن کشش ** بر تو بیکاری بود چون جان کنش
- The sign of that pulling is your anguish: to be inactive is to you like the death-agony.
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این جهان و آن جهان زاید ابد ** هر سبب مادر اثر از وی ولد 1000
- This world and that world are for ever giving birth: every cause is a mother, the effect is the child (born) from it.
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چون اثر زایید آن هم شد سبب ** تا بزاید او اثرهای عجب
- When the effect was born, that too became a cause, so that it might give birth to wondrous effects.
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این سببها نسل بر نسل است لیک ** دیدهای باید منور نیک نیک
- These causes are generation on generation, but it needs a very well illumined eye (to see all the links in their chain).”
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شاه با او در سخن اینجا رسید ** یا بدید از وی نشانی یا ندید
- The King, in conversation with him, arrived at this point: he either saw or did not see a sign.
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گر بدید آن شاه جویا دور نیست ** لیک ما را ذکر آن دستور نیست
- If that searching King saw (such a sign), ’tis not strange; but we are not permitted to mention it.
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چون ز گرمابه بیامد آن غلام ** سوی خویشش خواند آن شاه و همام 1005
- When that (other) slave came from the warm bath, that King and lofty personage called him to his presence,
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گفت صحا لک نعیم دایم ** بس لطیفی و ظریف و خوب رو
- (And) said, “Health (to you)! Lasting happiness be yours! You are very fine and elegant and good-looking.
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ای دریغا گر نبودی در تو آن ** که همیگوید برای تو فلان
- Oh, alas! If there were not in you that which so-and-so says about you,
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شاد گشتی هر که رویت دیدهیی ** دیدنت ملک جهان ارزیدیی
- Whoever beheld your face would become glad; the sight of you would be worth the empire of the world.”
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گفت رمزی ز آن بگو ای پادشاه ** کز برای من بگفت آن دین تباه
- He said, “O King, utter some hint of what that miscreant said about me.”
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گفت اول وصف دو روییت کرد ** کاشکارا تو دوایی خفیه درد 1010
- The King said, “In the first place he described you as double-faced, saying that you are ostensibly a remedy (but) secretly a disease.”
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خبث یارش را چو از شه گوش کرد ** در زمان دریای خشمش جوش کرد
- When he heard from the King the malice of his companion, at once the sea of his anger surged up.
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کف بر آورد آن غلام و سرخ گشت ** تا که موج هجو او از حد گذشت
- That slave foamed and reddened, so that the billows of his vituperation exceeded (all) bounds.
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کاو ز اول دم که با من یار بود ** همچو سگ در قحط بس گه خوار بود
- He said, “From the first moment that he was associated with me, he was a great eater of dung, like a dog in (time of) famine.”
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چون دمادم کرد هجوش چون جرس ** دست بر لب زد شهنشاهش که بس
- As he satirised him in succession (without intermission), like a bell, the King put his hand on his (the slave's) lips, saying, “Enough!”
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گفت دانستم ترا از وی بدان ** از تو جان گنده ست و از یارت دهان 1015
- He said, “I know you from him by that (which you have spoken): in you the spirit is foul, and in your companion (only) the mouth.
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پس نشین ای گنده جان از دور تو ** تا امیر او باشد و مأمور تو
- Therefore do you sit far off, O foul-spirited one, that he may be the commander and you under his command.”
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در حدیث آمد که تسبیح از ریا ** همچو سبزهی گولخن دان ای کیا
- It is (said) in the Hadíth (Traditions of the Prophet): “Know, sire, that glorification (of God) from hypocrisy is like the verdure on a midden.”
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پس بدان که صورت خوب و نکو ** با خصال بد نیرزد یک تسو
- Know, then, that a fair and goodly form with bad qualities (within) is not worth a farthing;
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ور بود صورت حقیر و ناپذیر ** چون بود خلقش نکو در پاش میر
- And though the form be despicable and unpleasing, (yet) when his (that person's) disposition is good, die at his feet!
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صورت ظاهر فنا گردد بدان ** عالم معنی بماند جاودان 1020
- Know that the outward form passes away, (but) the world of reality remains for ever.
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چند بازی عشق با نقش سبو ** بگذر از نقش سبو رو آب جو
- How long will you play at loving the shape of the jug? Leave the shape of the jug; go, seek the water.
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صورتش دیدی ز معنی غافلی ** از صدف دری گزین گر عاقلی
- You have seen its (outward) form, you are unaware of the reality; pick out from the shell a pearl, if you are wise.
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این صدفهای قوالب در جهان ** گر چه جمله زندهاند از بحر جان
- These shells of bodies in the world, though they all are living by (grace of) the Sea of Soul—