Rumi's Masnavi - If you eat (too) little, (the result will be) ill-temper and anaemia and consumption; if you eat your fill, your body will incur (the penalty of) indigestion.

کم خوری خوی بد و خشکی و دق ** پر خوری شد تخمه را تن مستحق
If you eat (too) little, (the result will be) ill-temper and anaemia and consumption; if you eat your fill, your body will incur (the penalty of) indigestion.

از طعام الله و قوت خوش‌گوار ** بر چنان دریا چو کشتی شو سوار
Through (partaking of) the Food of God and the easily digested (delicious) nutriment, ride like a ship on such a (spiritual) ocean.

که آن خدای خوب‌کار بردبار ** هدیه‌ها را می‌دهد در انتظار 1750
For God, who acts with goodness and is long-suffering, bestows (His) gifts (on them that are) in expectation.

انتظار نان ندارد مرد سیر ** که سبک آید وظیفه یا که دیر
The full-fed man does not wait expectantly for bread, (wondering) whether his allowance will come soon or late;

بی‌نوا هر دم همی گوید که کو ** در مجاعت منتظر در جست و جو
(But) the foodless man is always asking, “Where (is it)?” and expecting it hungrily and seeking and searching (for it).

چون نباشی منتظر ناید به تو ** آن نواله‌ی دولت هفتاد تو
Unless you are expectant, that bounty of manifold felicity will not come to you.

ای پدر الانتظار الانتظار ** از برای خوان بالا مردوار
(Practise) expectation, O father, expectation, like a (true) man, for the sake of the dishes from above.

هر گرسنه عاقبت قوتی بیافت ** آفتاب دولتی بر وی بتافت 1755
Every hungry man obtained some food at last: the sun of (spiritual) fortune shone upon him.

ضیف با همت چو ز آشی کم خورد ** صاحب خوان آش بهتر آورد
When a magnanimous guest will not eat some (inferior) food, the host brings better food,

جز که صاحب خوان درویشی لیم ** ظن بد کم بر به رزاق کریم
Unless he be a poor host and a mean one. Do not think (so) ill of the generous Provider!

سر برآور هم‌چو کوهی ای سند ** تا نخستین نور خور بر تو زند
Lift up your head like a mountain, O man of authority, in order that the first rays of the Sun may strike upon you;

جواب آن مغفل کی گفته است کی خوش بودی این جهان اگر مرگ نبودی وخوش بودی ملک دنیا اگر زوالش نبودی و علی هذه الوتیرة من الفشارات
Reply to the simpleton who has said that this world would be delightful if there were no death and that the possessions of the present life would be delightful if they were not fleeting, and (has uttered) other absurdities in the same style.

آن یکی می‌گفت خوش بودی جهان ** گر نبودی پای مرگ اندر میان 1760
A certain man was saying, “The world would be delightful, were it not for the intervention of death.”

آن دگر گفت ار نبودی مرگ هیچ ** که نیرزیدی جهان پیچ‌پیچ
The other said, “If there were no death, the tangled world would not be worth a straw.

خرمنی بودی به دشت افراشته ** مهمل و ناکوفته بگذاشته
It would be (like) a stack heaped up in the field and neglected and left unthreshed.

مرگ را تو زندگی پنداشتی ** تخم را در شوره خاکی کاشتی
You have supposed (what is really) death to be life: you have sown your seed in a barren soil.

عقل کاذب هست خود معکوس‌بین ** زندگی را مرگ بیند ای غبین
The false (discursive) reason, indeed, sees the reverse (of the truth): it sees life as death, O man of weak judgement.”

ای خدا بنمای تو هر چیز را ** آنچنان که هست در خدعه‌سرا 1765
Do Thou, O God, show (unto us) everything as it really is in this house of illusion.

هیچ مرده نیست پر حسرت ز مرگ ** حسرتش آنست کش کم بود برگ
None that has died is filled with grief on account of death; his grief is caused by having too little provision (for the life hereafter);

ورنه از چاهی به صحرا اوفتاد ** در میان دولت و عیش و گشاد
Otherwise (he would not grieve, for) he has come from a dungeon into the open country amidst fortune and pleasure and delight;

زین مقام ماتم و ننگین مناخ ** نقل افتادش به صحرای فراخ
From this place of mourning and (this) narrow vale (of tribulation) he has been transported to the spacious plain.

مقعد صدقی نه ایوان دروغ ** باده‌ی خاصی نه مستیی ز دوغ
(’Tis) a seat of truth, not a palace of falsehood; a choice wine, not an intoxication with buttermilk.

مقعد صدق و جلیسش حق شده ** رسته زین آب و گل آتشکده 1770
(’Tis) the seat of truth, and (there) God is beside him: he is delivered from this water and earth of the fire-temple.

ور نکردی زندگانی منیر ** یک دو دم ماندست مردانه بمیر
And if you have not (yet) led the illuminative life, one or two moments (still) remain: die (to self) like a man!

فیما یرجی من رحمة الله تعالی معطی النعم قبل استحقاقها و هو الذی ینزل الغیث من بعد ما قنطوا و رب بعد یورث قربا و رب معصیة میمونة و رب سعادة تاتی من حیث یرجی النقم لیعلم ان الله یبدل سیاتهم حسنات
Concerning what may be hoped for from the mercy of God most High, who bestows His favours before they have been deserved— and He it is who sends down the rain after they have despaired. And many an estrangement produces intimacy (as its result), and there is many a blessed sin, and many a happiness that comes in a case where penalties are expected, in order that it may be known that God changes their evil deeds to good.