-
این سبب همچون طبیب است و علیل ** این سبب همچون چراغ است و فتیل 1845
- These causes are (linked together) like the physician and the sick: these causes are like the lamp and the wick.
-
شب چراغت را فتیل نو بتاب ** پاک دان زینها چراغ آفتاب
- Twist a new wick for your night-lamp, (but) know that the lamp of the sun transcends these things.
-
رو تو کهگل ساز بهر سقف خان ** سقف گردون را ز کهگل پاک دان
- Go you and make plaster for the roof of your house, (but) know that the roof of the sky is undefiled by plaster.
-
اه که چون دل دار ما غم سوز شد ** خلوت شب در گذشت و روز شد
- Alas that, after our Sweetheart had burned (utterly destroyed) our pain, the night-time of being alone (with Him) passed away and became day!
-
جز به شب جلوه نباشد ماه را ** جز به درد دل مجو دل خواه را
- Except at night there is no unveiling of the moon: except through heartache do not seek your heart's desire.
-
ترک عیسی کرده خر پروردهای ** لاجرم چون خر برون پردهای 1850
- Forsaking Jesus, you have fostered the ass: of necessity, like the ass, you are outside of the curtain.
-
طالع عیسی است علم و معرفت ** طالع خر نیست ای تو خر صفت
- Knowledge and gnosis are the fortune of Jesus; they are not the fortune of the ass, O you asinine one!
-
نالهی خر بشنوی رحم آیدت ** پس ندانی خر خری فرمایدت
- You listen to the moaning of the ass, and pity comes over you; then you know not (that) the ass commands you to be asinine.
-
رحم بر عیسی کن و بر خر مکن ** طبع را بر عقل خود سرور مکن
- Have pity on Jesus and have no pity on the ass: do not make the (carnal) nature lord over your intellect.
-
طبع را هل تا بگرید زار زار ** تو از او بستان و وام جان گزار
- Let the (carnal) nature weep sore and bitterly: do you take from it and pay the debt of the (rational) soul.
-
سالها خربنده بودی بس بود ** ز انکه خربنده ز خر واپس بود 1855
- For years you have been the ass's slave. It is enough, for the ass's slave is behind (even) the ass.
-
ز اخروهن مرادش نفس تست ** کاو به آخر باید و عقلت نخست
- The thing meant by (the Prophet's words) “put them (the women) behind” is your fleshly soul; for it must be last, and your intellect (must be) first.
-
هم مزاج خر شده ست این عقل پست ** فکرش این که چون علف آرم بدست
- This base intellect has become of the same temperament as the ass: its (only) thought is how it shall get hold of fodder.
-
آن خر عیسی مزاج دل گرفت ** در مقام عاقلان منزل گرفت
- The ass of Jesus took (to itself) the temperament of the (rational) spirit: it took its abode in the place of the intelligent,
-
ز انکه غالب عقل بود و خر ضعیف ** از سوار زفت گردد خر نحیف
- Because (in Jesus) intellect was ruling, and the ass (was) weak —the ass is made lean by a strong rider—
-
و ز ضعیفی عقل تو ای خر بها ** این خر پژمرده گشته ست اژدها 1860
- While from the weakness of your intellect, O you who have (no more than) the value of an ass, this worn-out ass has become a dragon.
-
گر ز عیسی گشتهای رنجور دل ** هم از او صحت رسد او را مهل
- If through Jesus (the spiritual guide) you have become heart-sick, (yet) health too comes from him: do not leave him.
-
چونی ای عیسای عیسی دم ز رنج ** که نبود اندر جهان بیمار گنج
- How art thou as to affliction, O thou Jesus who hast the (healing) breath of Jesus? For there never was in the world a treasure without a snake.
-
چونی ای عیسی ز دیدار جهود ** چونی ای یوسف ز مکار حسود
- How art thou, O Jesus, at the sight of the Jews? How art thou, O Joseph, in respect of the envious plotter?
-
تو شب و روز از پی این قوم غمر ** چون شب و روزی مدد بخشای عمر
- Night and day for the sake of this foolish people thou, like night and day, art a replenisher of life.
-
چونی از صفراییان بیهنر ** چه هنر زاید ز صفرا درد سر 1865
- How art thou in regard to those bilious ones who are without excellence? What excellence is born from bile? Headache.
-
تو همان کن که کند خورشید شرق ** ما نفاق و حیله و دزدی و زرق
- Do thou the same thing as the sun of the east does: we are hypocrisy and craft and thieving and dissimulation.
-
تو عسل ما سرکه در دنیا و دین ** دفع این صفرا بود سرکنگبین
- Thou art honey, we are vinegar in (the affairs of) this world and in religion; the (means of) removing this bile is oxymel.
-
سرکه افزودیم ما قوم زحیر ** تو عسل بفزا کرم را وامگیر
- We folk who suffer from colic have added more and more vinegar; do thou add more and more honey, withhold not thy bounty.
-
این سزید از ما چنان آمد ز ما ** ریگ اندر چشم چه فزاید عما
- This was meet in us; such (acts naturally) issued from us: what is increased by sand in the eye? Blindness.
-
آن سزد از تو أیا کحل عزیز ** که بیابد از تو هر ناچیز چیز 1870
- (But) ’tis meet in thee, O precious collyrium, that every nothing should gain from thee something.
-
ز آتش این ظالمانت دل کباب ** از تو جمله اهد قومی بد خطاب
- Thy heart is roasted by the fire of these unrighteous men, (yet) all thy appeal (to God) has been, “Guide my people!”
-
کان عودی در تو گر آتش زنند ** این جهان از عطر و ریحان آگنند
- Thou art a mine of aloes-wood: if they set thee afire, they will fill this world with otto of roses and sweet basil.
-
تو نه آن عودی کز آتش کم شود ** تو نه آن روحی که اسیر غم شود
- Thou art not that aloes-wood that is minished by the fire: thou art not that spirit that is made captive by grief.
-
عود سوزد کان عود از سوز دور ** باد کی حمله برد بر اصل نور
- Aloes-wood burns, (but) the mine of aloes-wood is far from burning: how should the wind (of evil words) assail the source of (spiritual) light?
-
ای ز تو مر آسمانها را صفا ** ای جفای تو نکوتر از وفا 1875
- Oh, ’tis from thee the heavens have (their) purity; oh, thy unkindness is better than kindness,
-
ز انکه از عاقل جفایی گر رود ** از وفای جاهلان آن به بود
- Because if an unkindness come from the wise it is better than the kindness of the ignorant.
-
گفت پیغمبر عداوت از خرد ** بهتر از مهری که از جاهل رسد
- The Prophet said, “Enmity (proceeding) from wisdom is better than the love that comes from a fool.”
-
رنجانیدن امیری خفتهای را که مار در دهانش رفته بود
- How an Amír harassed a sleeping man into whose mouth a snake had gone.
-
عاقلی بر اسب میآمد سوار ** در دهان خفتهای میرفت مار
- A wise man was riding along (at the moment when) a snake was going into the mouth of a man asleep.
-
آن سوار آن را بدید و میشتافت ** تا رماند مار را فرصت نیافت
- The rider saw that, and was hurrying to scare away the snake, (but) he got no chance (of doing so).
-
چون که از عقلش فراوان بد مدد ** چند دبوسی قوی بر خفته زد 1880
- Since he had an abundant supply of intelligence, he struck the sleeper several powerful blows with a mace.
-
برد او را زخم آن دبوس سخت ** زو گریزان تا به زیر یک درخت
- The strokes of the hard mace drove him in flight from him (the rider) to beneath a tree.
-
سیب پوسیده بسی بد ریخته ** گفت از این خور ای به درد آویخته
- There were many rotten apples which had dropped (from the tree): he said, “Eat of these, O you in the grip of pain!”
-
سیب چندان مر و را در خورد داد ** کز دهانش باز بیرون میفتاد
- He gave him so many apples to eat that they were falling out of his mouth again.
-
بانگ میزد کای امیر آخر چرا ** قصد من کردی تو نادیده جفا
- He was crying, “O Amír, pray, why have you set on me when you have not suffered injury?
-
گر ترا ز اصل است با جانم ستیز ** تیغ زن یک بارگی خونم بریز 1885
- If you have an inveterate and mortal feud with me, strike with your sword and shed my blood at once.
-
شوم ساعت که شدم بر تو پدید ** ای خنک آن را که روی تو ندید
- Ill-omened (was) the hour I came into your sight: oh, happy he that never saw your face!
-
بیجنایت بیگنه بیبیش و کم ** ملحدان جایز ندارند این ستم
- Without guilt, without sin, without (having done) anything great or small—(even) the heretics hold not such oppression allowable.
-
میجهد خون از دهانم با سخن ** ای خدا آخر مکافاتش تو کن
- Blood gushes from my mouth together with (my) words. O God, I beseech Thee, give him the retribution (which he deserves)!”
-
هر زمان میگفت او نفرین نو ** اوش میزد کاندر این صحرا بدو
- Every instant he was uttering a new curse, (while) he (the rider) kept beating him and saying, “Run in this plain.”
-
زخم دبوس و سوار همچو باد ** میدوید و باز در رو میفتاد 1890
- Blows of the mace, and the rider (swift) as the wind! He (therefore) went on running and (now and) again falling on his face.
-
ممتلی و خوابناک و سست بد ** پا و رویش صد هزاران زخم شد
- He was full-fed and sleepy and fatigued: his feet and face became (covered with) a hundred thousand wounds.
-
تا شبانگه میکشید و میگشاد ** تا ز صفرا قی شدن بر وی فتاد
- Till nightfall he (the rider) drove (him) to and fro, until vomiting caused by bile overtook him.
-
زو بر آمد خوردهها زشت و نکو ** مار با آن خورده بیرون جست از او
- All the things he had eaten, bad or good, came up from him: the snake shot forth from him along with what he had eaten.
-
چون بدید از خود برون آن مار را ** سجده آورد آن نکو کردار را
- When he saw the snake outside of him, he fell on his knees before that beneficent man.