درس گوید شب به شب تدریج را ** در تانی بر دهد تفریج را 1210
Night by night it gives a lesson in gradualness, and with deliberation it produces relief (for itself).
در تانی گوید ای عجول خام ** پایه‌پایه بر توان رفتن به بام
With deliberation it says, “O hasty fool, (only) step by step can one mount to the roof.”
دیگ را تدریج و استادانه جوش ** کار ناید قلیه‌ی دیوانه جوش
Let the cooking-pot boil gradually, as a skilful (cook) does: the stew boiled in a mad hurry is of no use.
حق نه قادر بود بر خلق فلک ** در یکی لحظه به کن بی‌هیچ شک
Was not God able to create heaven in one moment by (the word) “Be”? Without any doubt (He was).
پس چرا شش روز آن را درکشید ** کل یوم الف عام ای مستفید
Why, then, O seeker of instruction, did He extend (the time) for it to six days, every day (being as long as) a thousand years?
خلقت طفل از چه اندر نه مه‌است ** زانک تدریج از شعار آن شه‌است 1215
Wherefore is the creation of a child (completed) in nine months? Because gradualness is a characteristic of (the action of) that King.
خلقت آدم چرا چل صبح بود ** اندر آن گل اندک‌اندک می‌فزود
Why was (the time occupied in) the creation of Adam forty mornings? (Because) He (God) was adding (perfections) to that clay little by little,
نه چو تو ای خام که اکنون تاختی ** طفلی و خود را تو شیخی ساختی
Not like you, O foolish one, who have rushed forward just now: you are a child, and you have made yourself out to be an Elder.
بر دویدی چون کدو فوق همه ** کو ترا پای جهاد و ملحمه
You have run up, like a gourd, to the top of all, (but) where is the (spiritual) warfare and combat to sustain you?
تکیه کردی بر درختان و جدار ** بر شدی ای اقرعک هم قرع‌وار
You have rested on trees and walls for support: you have climbed up like a pumpkin, O little baldhead.
اول ار شد مرکبت سرو سهی ** لیک آخر خشک و بی‌مغزی تهی 1220
If at first you mounted on a tall cypress, yet in the end you are dry and pulpless and empty.
رنگ سبزت زرد شد ای قرع زود ** زانک از گلگونه بود اصلی نبود
Your green (fresh) colour soon turned yellow (faded), O pumpkin, for it was derived from rouge, it was not original.
داستان آن عجوزه کی روی زشت خویشتن را جندره و گلگونه می‌ساخت و ساخته نمی‌شد و پذیرا نمی‌آمد
Story of the old woman who used to depilate and rouge her ugly face, though it could never be put right and become pleasing.
بود کمپیری نودساله کلان ** پر تشنج روی و رنگش زعفران
There was a decrepit old woman aged ninety years, her face covered with wrinkles and her complexion (yellow as) saffron.
چون سر سفره رخ او توی توی ** لیک در وی بود مانده عشق شوی
Her face was in folds like the surface of a traveller's food-wallet, but there remained in her the passionate desire for a husband.
ریخت دندانهاش و مو چون شیر شد ** قد کمان و هر حسش تغییر شد
Her teeth had dropped out and her hair had become (white) as milk: her figure was (bent) like a bow, and every sense in her was decayed.
عشق شوی و شهوت و حرصش تمام ** عشق صید و پاره‌پاره گشته دام 1225
Her passion for a husband and her lust and desire were (there) in full (force): the passion for snaring (was there), though the trap had fallen to pieces.
مرغ بی‌هنگام و راه بی‌رهی ** آتشی پر در بن دیگ تهی
(She was like) a cock that crows at the wrong time, a road that leads nowhere, a big fire beneath an empty kettle;
عاشق میدان و اسپ و پای نی ** عاشق زمر و لب و سرنای نی
(Like one who is) exceedingly fond of the race-course, but has no horse and no means of running; (or) exceedingly fond of piping, but having neither lip nor pipe.
حرص در پیری جهودان را مباد ** ای شقیی که خداش این حرص داد
May (even) Jews have no (such) cupidity in (their) old age! Oh, (how) miserable is he on whom God hath bestowed this cupidity!
ریخت دندانهای سگ چون پیر شد ** ترک مردم کرد و سرگین‌گیر شد
A dog's teeth drop out when it grows old: it leaves people (alone) and takes to (eating) dung;
این سگان شصت ساله را نگر ** هر دمی دندان سگشان تیزتر 1230
(But) look at these sexagenarian dogs! Their dog-teeth get sharper at every moment.
پیر سگ را ریخت پشم از پوستین ** این سگان پیر اطلس‌پوش بین
The hairs drop from the fur of an old dog; (but) see these old (human) dogs clad in satin!
عشقشان و حرصشان در فرج و زر ** دم به دم چون نسل سگ بین بیشتر
See how their passionate desire and greed for women and gold, like the progeny of dogs, is increasing continually!
این چنین عمری که مایه‌ی دوزخ است ** مر قصابان غضب را مسلخ است
Such a life as this, which is Hell's stock-in-trade, is a shambles for the butchers (executioners) of (the Divine) Wrath;
چون بگویندش که عمر تو دراز ** می‌شود دلخوش دهانش از خنده باز
(Yet) when people say to him, “May your life be long!” he is delighted and opens his mouth in laughter.