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پس چرا از ابلهی پیش تو کور ** تن سلیمان است و اندیشه چو مور
- Then why in your foolishness, O blind one, does the body seem to you a Solomon, and thought (only) as an ant?
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مینماید پیش چشمت که بزرگ ** هست اندیشه چو موش و کوه گرگ
- To your eye the mountain appears great: (to you) thought is like a mouse, and the mountain (like) a wolf.
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عالم اندر چشم تو هول و عظیم ** ز ابر و رعد و چرخ داری لرز و بیم
- The (material) world in your eyes is awful and sublime: you tremble and are frightened at the clouds and the thunder and the sky,
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وز جهان فکرتی ای کم ز خر ** ایمن و غافل چو سنگ بیخبر 1040
- While in regard to the world of thought, O less (lower) than the ass, you are secure and indifferent as a witless stone,
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ز انکه نقشی وز خرد بیبهرهای ** آدمی خو نیستی خر کرهای
- Because you are a (mere) shape and have no portion of intelligence; you are not of human nature, you are an ass's colt.
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سایه را تو شخص میبینی ز جهل ** شخص از آن شد نزد تو بازی و سهل
- From ignorance you deem the shadow to be the substance: hence to you the substance has become a plaything and of slight account.
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باش تا روزی که آن فکر و خیال ** بر گشاید بیحجابی پر و بال
- Wait till the Day when that thought and phantasy unfolds its wings and pinions without any veil (encumbrance).
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کوهها بینی شده چون پشم نرم ** نیست گشته این زمین سرد و گرم
- You will see that the mountains have become soft as wool, (and that) this Earth of hot and cold has become naught;
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نه سما بینی نه اختر نه وجود ** جز خدای واحد حی ودود 1045
- You will see neither the sky nor the stars nor (any) existence but God, the One, the Living, the Loving.
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یک فسانه راست آمد یا دروغ ** تا دهد مر راستیها را فروغ
- Here is a tale, (be it) true or false, to illustrate (these) truths.
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حسد کردن حشم بر غلام خاص
- How the (King's) retainers envied the favourite slave.
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پادشاهی بندهای را از کرم ** بر گزیده بود بر جمله حشم
- A King had, of his grace, preferred a certain slave above all his retinue.
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جامگی او وظیفهی چل امیر ** ده یک قدرش ندیدی صد وزیر
- His allowance was the stipend of forty Amírs; a hundred Viziers would not see (receive) a tenth of its amount.
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از کمال طالع و اقبال و بخت ** او ایازی بود و شه محمود وقت
- Through the perfection of (his) natal star and prosperity and fortune he was an Ayáz, while the King was the Mahmúd of the time.
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روح او با روح شه در اصل خویش ** پیش از این تن بوده هم پیوند و خویش 1050
- His spirit in its origin, before (the creation of) this body, was near-related and akin to the King's spirit.
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کار آن دارد که پیش از تن بده ست ** بگذر از اینها که نو حادث شده ست
- (Only) that matters which has existed before the body; leave (behind you) these things which have newly sprung into being.
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کار عارف راست کاو نه احول است ** چشم او بر کشتهای اول است
- That which matters belongs to the knower (of God), for he is not squinting: his eye is (fixed) upon the things first sown.
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آن چه گندم کاشتندش و آن چه جو ** چشم او آن جاست روز و شب گرو
- That which was sown as wheat (good) or as barley (relatively evil)—day and night his eye is fastened on that place (where it was sown).
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آنچ آبست است شب جز آن نزاد ** حیلهها و مکرها باد است باد
- Night gave birth to nothing but what she was pregnant withal: designs and plots are wind, (empty) wind.
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کی کند دل خوش به حیلتهای گش ** آن که بیند حیلهی حق بر سرش 1055
- How should he please his heart with fair designs who sees the design of God (prevailing) over them?
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او درون دام دامی مینهد ** جان تو نه این جهد نه آن جهد
- He is within the snare (of God) and is laying a snare: by your life, neither that (snare) will escape (destruction) nor will this (man).
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گر بروید ور بریزد صد گیاه ** عاقبت بر روید آن کشتهی اله
- Though (in the meanwhile) a hundred herbs grow and fade, there will grow up at last that which God has sown.
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کشت نو کارید بر کشت نخست ** این دوم فانی است و آن اول درست
- He (the cunning man) sowed new seed over the first seed; (but) this second (seed) is passing away, and (only) the first is sound (and enduring).
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تخم اول کامل و بگزیده است ** تخم ثانی فاسد و پوسیده است
- The first seed is perfect and choice; the second seed is corrupt and rotten.
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افکن این تدبیر خود را پیش دوست ** گر چه تدبیرت هم از تدبیر اوست 1060
- Cast away this contrivance of yours before the Beloved— though your contrivance indeed is of His contriving.
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کار آن دارد که حق افراشته ست ** آخر آن روید که اول کاشته ست
- That which God has raised (and that alone) has use: what He has at first sown at last grows.
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هر چه کاری از برای او بکار ** چون اسیر دوستی ای دوستدار
- Whatever you sow, sow for His sake, inasmuch as you are the Beloved's captive, O lover.
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گرد نفس دزد و کار او مپیچ ** هر چه آن نه کار حق هیچ است هیچ
- Do not hang about the thievish fleshly soul and its work: whatsoever is not God's work is naught, naught.
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پیش از آن که روز دین پیدا شود ** نزد مالک دزد شب رسوا شود
- (Sow the good seed) ere the Day of Resurrection shall appear and the night-thief be shamed before Him whose is the Kingdom,
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رخت دزدیده به تدبیر و فنش ** مانده روز داوری بر گردنش 1065
- With the goods stolen by his contrivance and craft (still) remaining on his neck at the Day of Judgement.
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صد هزاران عقل با هم بر جهند ** تا به غیر دام او دامی نهند
- Hundreds of thousands of minds may jump together (conspire) to lay a snare other than His snare;
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دام خود را سختتر یابند و بس ** کی نماید قوتی با باد خس
- (But) they only find their snare more grievous (to themselves), (for) how can straws show any power (of resistance) against the wind?
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گر تو گویی فایدهی هستی چه بود ** در سؤالت فایده هست ای عنود
- If you say, “What was the profit of (our created) being?” (I reply), “There is profit in your question, O contumacious one.
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گر ندارد این سؤالت فایده ** چه شنویم این را عبث بیعایده
- If this question of yours has no profit, why should we listen to it in vain and fruitlessly?
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ور سؤالت را بسی فاییدههاست ** پس جهان بیفایده آخر چراست 1070
- And if there are many profits in your question, then why, pray, is the world unprofitable?
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ور جهان از یک جهت بیفایده ست ** از جهتهای دگر پر عایده ست
- And (again), if from one standpoint the world is unprofitable, from other standpoints it is advantageous.
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فایدهی تو گر مرا فاییده نیست ** مر ترا چون فایده ست از وی مه ایست
- If your profit is no profit to me, (yet) since it is a profit to you, do not withdraw from it.”
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حسن یوسف عالمی را فایده ** گر چه بر اخوان عبث بد زایده
- The beauty of Joseph profited a (whole) world (of people), though to his brethren it was a vain superfluity.
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لحن داودی چنان محبوب بود ** لیک بر محروم بانگ چوب بود
- The melodies of David were so dear (to the faithful), but to the interdicted (unbeliever) they were (no more than) the noise of wood.
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آب نیل از آب حیوان بد فزون ** لیک بر محروم و منکر بود خون 1075
- The water of the Nile was superior to the Water of Life, but to the interdicted and unbelieving it was blood.
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هست بر مومن شهیدی زندگی ** بر منافق مردن است و ژندگی
- To the true believer martyrdom is life; to the hypocrite it is death and corruption.
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چیست در عالم بگو یک نعمتی ** که نه محرومند از وی امتی
- Tell (me), what single blessing is there in the world, from which some group of people is not excluded?
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گاو و خر را فایده چه در شکر ** هست هر جان را یکی قوتی دگر
- What profit have the ox and the ass in sugar? Every soul has a different food;
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لیک گر آن قوت بر وی عارضی است ** پس نصیحت کردن او را رایضی است
- But if that food is accidental to it (and not according to its real nature), then admonition is the (proper) correction for it.
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چون کسی کاو از مرض گل داشت دوست ** گر چه پندارد که آن خود قوت اوست 1080
- As (in the case of) one who from disease has become fond of (eating) clay— though he may suppose that that (clay) is indeed his (natural) food,
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قوت اصلی را فرامش کرده است ** روی در قوت مرض آورده است
- He has (in reality) forgotten his original food and has betaken himself to the food of disease.
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نوش را بگذاشته سم خورده است ** قوت علت همچو چوبش کرده است
- Having given up honey, he has eaten poison; he has made the food of disease (to be his nourishment) as (though it were) fat.
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قوت اصلی بشر نور خداست ** قوت حیوانی مر او را ناسزاست
- Man's original food is the Light of God: animal food is improper for him;
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لیک از علت در این افتاد دل ** که خورد او روز و شب زین آب و گل
- But, in consequence of disease, his mind has fallen into this (delusion), that day and night he should eat of this water and clay.
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روی زرد و پای سست و دل سبک ** کو غذای و السما ذات الحبک 1085
- (He is) pale-faced, weak-footed, faint-hearted—where is the food of by Heaven which hath (starry) tracks?
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آن غذای خاصگان دولت است ** خوردن آن بیگلو و آلت است
- That is the food of the chosen ones of the (Divine) sovereignty; the eating thereof is (done) without throat or instrument.