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آن رخی که تاب او بد ماهوار ** شد به پیری همچو پشت سوسمار
- The countenance whose splendour was moon-like becomes with old age like the back of the Libyan lizard;
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وان سر و فرق گش شعشع شده ** وقت پیری ناخوش و اصلع شده
- And the fair head and crown (of the head) that once were radiant become ugly and bald at the time of eld;
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وان قد صف در نازان چون سنان ** گشته در پیری دو تا همچون کمان 970
- And the tall proud figure, piercing the ranks like a spear-point, in old age is bent double like a bow.
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رنگ لاله گشته رنگ زعفران ** زور شیرش گشته چون زهرهی زنان
- The colour of red anemone becomes the colour of saffron; his lion-like strength becomes as the courage of women.
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آنک مردی در بغل کردی به فن ** میبگیرندش بغل وقت شدن
- He that used to grip a man in his arms by skill (in wrestling), (now) they take hold of his arms (to support him) at the time of departure.
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این خود آثار غم و پژمردگیست ** هر یکی زینها رسول مردگیست
- Truly these are marks of pain and decay: every one of them is a messenger of death.
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تفسیر اسفل سافلین الا الذین آمنوا و عملوا الصالحات فلهم اجر غیر مومنون
- Commentary on “The lowest of the low, except those who have believed and wrought good works; for they shall have a reward that is not cut off.”
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لیک گر باشد طبیبش نور حق ** نیست از پیری و تب نقصان و دق
- But if his physician be the Light of God, there is no loss or crushing blow (that he will suffer) from old age and fever.
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سستی او هست چون سستی مست ** که اندر آن سستیش رشک رستمست 975
- His weakness is like the weakness of the intoxicated, for in his weakness he is the envy of a Rustam.
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گر بمیرد استخوانش غرق ذوق ** ذره ذرهش در شعاع نور شوق
- If he die, his bones are drowned in (spiritual) savour; every mote of him is (floating) in the beams of the light of love-desire.
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وآنک آنش نیست باغ بیثمر ** که خزانش میکند زیر و زبر
- And he who hath not that (Light) is an orchard without fruit, which the autumn brings to ruin.
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گل نماند خارها ماند سیاه ** زرد و بیمغز آمده چون تل کاه
- The roses remain not; (only) the black thorns remain: it becomes pale and pithless like a heap of straw.
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تا چه زلت کرد آن باغ ای خدا ** که ازو این حلهها گردد جدا
- O God, I wonder what fault did that orchard commit, that these (beautiful) robes should be stripped from it.
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خویشتن را دید و دید خویشتن ** زهر قتالست هین ای ممتحن 980
- “It paid regard to itself, and self-regard is a deadly poison. Beware, O thou who art put to the trial!”
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شاهدی کز عشق او عالم گریست ** عالمش میراند از خود جرم چیست
- The minion for love of whom the world wept—the world (now) is repulsing him from itself: what is (his) crime?
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جرم آنک زیور عاریه بست ** کرد دعوی کین حلل ملک منست
- “The crime is that he put on a borrowed adornment and pretended that these robes were his own property.
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واستانیم آن که تا داند یقین ** خرمن آن ماست خوبان دانهچین
- We take them back, in order that he may know for sure that the stack is Ours and the fair ones are (only) gleaners;
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تا بداند کان حلل عاریه بود ** پرتوی بود آن ز خورشید وجود
- That he may know that those robes were a loan: ’twas a ray from the Sun of Being.”
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آن جمال و قدرت و فضل و هنر ** ز آفتاب حسن کرد این سو سفر 985
- (All) that beauty and power and virtue and knowledge have journeyed hither from the Sun of Excellence.
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باز میگردند چون استارها ** نور آن خورشید ازین دیوارها
- They, the light of that Sun, turn back again, like the stars, from these (bodily) walls.
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پرتو خورشید شد وا جایگاه ** ماند هر دیوار تاریک و سیاه
- (When) the Sunbeam has gone home, every wall is left dark and black.
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آنک کرد او در رخ خوبانت دنگ ** نور خورشیدست از شیشهی سه رنگ
- That which made thee amazed at the faces of the fair is the Light of the Sun (reflected) from the three-coloured glass.
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شیشههای رنگ رنگ آن نور را ** مینمایند این چنین رنگین بما
- The glasses of diverse hue cause that Light to seem coloured like this to us.
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چون نماند شیشههای رنگرنگ ** نور بیرنگت کند آنگاه دنگ 990
- When the many-coloured glasses are no more, then the colourless Light makes thee amazed.
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خوی کن بیشیشه دیدن نور را ** تا چو شیشه بشکند نبود عمی
- Make it thy habit to behold the Light without the glass, in order that when the glass is shattered there may not be blindness (in thee).
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قانعی با دانش آموخته ** در چراغ غیر چشم افروخته
- Thou art content with knowledge learned (from others): thou hast lit thine eye at another's lamp.