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6
121-145

  • صدرشان در وقت دعوی هم‌چو شرق  ** صبرشان در وقت تقوی هم‌چو برق 
  • In the hour of pretension their breasts are (glowing) like the orient sun, (but) in the hour of pious devotion their endurance is (brief) as the lightning.

  • عالمی اندر هنرها خودنما  ** هم‌چو عالم بی‌وفا وقت وفا 
  • A learned man who shows self-conceit in (displaying) his talents is faithless as the world at the time for keeping faith.

  • وقت خودبینی نگنجد در جهان  ** در گلو و معده گم گشته چو نان 
  • At the time when he regards himself (with pride) he is not contained in the world: he has become lost in the gullet and belly, like bread.

  • این همه اوصافشان نیکو شود  ** بد نماند چونک نیکوجو شود 
  • (Yet) all these (evil) qualities of theirs may become good: evil does not remain when it turns to seeking good.

  • گر منی گنده بود هم‌چون منی  ** چون به جان پیوست یابد روشنی  125
  • If egoism is foul-smelling like semen, (yet) when it attains unto the spirit (spirituality) it gains light.

  • هر جمادی که کند رو در نبات  ** از درخت بخت او روید حیات 
  • Every mineral that sets its face towards (aspires to evolve into) the plant (the vegetative state)—life grows from the tree of its fortune.

  • هر نباتی کان به جان رو آورد  ** خضروار از چشمه‌ی حیوان خورد 
  • Every plant that turns its face towards the (animal) spirit drinks, like Khizr, from the Fountain of Life.

  • باز جان چون رو سوی جانان نهد  ** رخت را در عمر بی‌پایان نهد 
  • Once more, when the (animal) spirit sets its face towards the (Divine) Beloved, it lays down its baggage (and passes) into the life without end.

  • سال سایل از مرغی کی بر سر ربض شهری نشسته باشد سر او فاضل‌ترست و عزیزتر و شریف‌تر و مکرم‌تر یا دم او و جواب دادن واعظ سایل را به قدر فهم او 
  • How an inquirer asked (a preacher) about a bird that was supposed to have settled on the wall of a city—“Is its head more excellent and estimable and noble and honourable or its tail?”—and how the preacher gave him a reply suited to the measure of his understanding.

  • واعظی را گفت روزی سایلی  ** کای تو منبر را سنی‌تر قایلی 
  • One day an inquirer said to a preacher, “O thou who art the pulpit's most eminent expounder,

  • یک سالستم بگو ای ذو لباب  ** اندرین مجلس سالم را جواب  130
  • I have a question to ask. Answer my question in this assembly-place, O possessor of the marrow (of wisdom).

  • بر سر بارو یکی مرغی نشست  ** از سر و از دم کدامینش بهست 
  • A bird has settled on the city-wall: which is better—its head or its tail?”

  • گفت اگر رویش به شهر و دم به ده  ** روی او از دم او می‌دان که به 
  • He replied, “If its face is to the town and its tail to the country, know that its face is better than its tail;

  • ور سوی شهرست دم رویش به ده  ** خاک آن دم باش و از رویش بجه 
  • But if its tail is towards the town and its face to the country, be the dust on that tail and spring away from its face.”

  • مرغ با پر می‌پرد تا آشیان  ** پر مردم همتست ای مردمان 
  • A bird flies to its nest by means of wings: the wings of Man are aspiration, O people.

  • عاشقی که آلوده شد در خیر و شر  ** خیر و شر منگر تو در همت نگر  135
  • (In the case of) the lover who is soiled with good and evil, do not regard the good and evil; (only) regard the aspiration.

  • باز اگر باشد سپید و بی‌نظیر  ** چونک صیدش موش باشد شد حقیر 
  • If a falcon be white and beyond compare, (yet) it becomes despicable when it hunts a mouse;

  • ور بود چغدی و میل او به شاه  ** او سر بازست منگر در کلاه 
  • And if there be an owl that has desire for the king, it is (noble as) the falcon's head: do not regard the hood.

  • آدمی بر قد یک طشت خمیر  ** بر فزود از آسمان و از اثیر 
  • Man, no bigger than a kneading-trough (scooped in a log), has surpassed (in glory) the heavens and the aether (the empyrean).

  • هیچ کرمنا شنید این آسمان  ** که شنید این آدمی پر غمان 
  • Did this heaven ever hear (the words) We have honoured which this sorrowful Man heard (from God)?

  • بر زمین و چرخ عرضه کرد کس  ** خوبی و عقل و عبارات و هوس  140
  • Did any one offer to earth and sky (his) beauty and reason and eloquence and fond affection?

  • جلوه کردی هیچ تو بر آسمان  ** خوبی روی و اصابت در گمان 
  • Didst thou ever display to heaven thy beauty of countenance and thy sureness of judgement in (matters of) opinion?

  • پیش صورتهای حمام ای ولد  ** عرضه کردی هیچ سیم‌اندام خود 
  • Didst thou ever, O son, offer thy silvery limbs to the pictured forms in the bath-house?

  • بگذری زان نقشهای هم‌چو حور  ** جلوه آری با عجوز نیم‌کور 
  • (No); thou leavest those houri-like figures and displayest thyself to a half-blind old woman.

  • در عجوزه چیست که ایشان را نبود  ** که ترا زان نقشها با خود ربود 
  • What is there in the old woman that was not in them, so that she rapt thee away from those figures (and attracted thee) to herself?

  • تو نگویی من بگویم در بیان  ** عقل و حس و درک و تدبیرست و جان  145
  • (If) thou wilt not say (what it is), I will tell (thee) plainly: ’tis reason and sense and perception and consideration and soul.