Know that the regard of the base is like that servant; ’tis better to have nobody (as your friend) than (to accept) the flattery of nobodies (worthless people).
در زمین مردمان خانه مکن ** کار خود کن کار بیگانه مکن
Do not make your home in (other) men's land: do your own work, don't do the work of a stranger.
کیست بیگانه تن خاکی تو ** کز برای اوست غمناکی تو
Who is the stranger? Your earthen body, for the sake of which is (all) your sorrow.
تا تو تن را چرب و شیرین میدهی ** جوهر خود را نبینی فربهی265
So long as you are giving your body greasy (rich) and sweet (food), you will not see fatness in your (spiritual) essence.
گر میان مشک تن را جا شود ** روز مردن گند او پیدا شود
If the body be set in the midst of musk, (yet) on the day of death its stench will become manifest.
مشک را بر تن مزن بر دل بمال ** مشک چه بود نام پاک ذو الجلال
Do not put musk on your body, rub it on your heart. What is musk? The holy name of the Glorious (God).
آن منافق مشک بر تن مینهد ** روح را در قعر گلخن مینهد
The hypocrite puts musk on his body and puts his spirit at the bottom of the ash-pit.
بر زبان نام حق و در جان او ** گندها از فکر بیایمان او
On his tongue the name of God, and in his soul stenches (arising) from his infidel thought.
ذکر با او همچو سبزه گلخن است ** بر سر مبرز گلست و سوسن است270
In relation to him praise of God is (like) the herbage of the ash-pit: it is roses and lilies (growing) upon a dunghill.
آن نبات آن جا یقین عاریت است ** جای آن گل مجلس است و عشرت است
Those plants are certainly there on loan (and belong to somewhere else); the proper place for those flowers is the symposium and (the scene of) festivity.
طیبات آید به سوی طیبین ** للخبیثین الخبیثات است هین
The good women come to the good men; there is (also the text) to the wicked men the wicked women. Mark!
کین مدار آنها که از کین گمرهند ** گورشان پهلوی کین داران نهند
Do not bear malice: they that are led astray by malice, their graves are placed beside the malicious.
اصل کینه دوزخ است و کین تو ** جزو آن کل است و خصم دین تو
The origin of malice is Hell, and your malice is a part of that whole and is the enemy of your religion.
چون تو جزو دوزخی پس هوش دار ** جزو سوی کل خود گیرد قرار275
Since you are a part of Hell, take care! The part gravitates towards its whole.
تلخ با تلخان یقین ملحق شود ** کی دم باطل قرین حق شود
He that is bitter will assuredly be attached to those who are bitter: how should vain breath (false words) be joined with the truth?
ای برادر تو همان اندیشهای ** ما بقی تو استخوان و ریشهای
O brother, you are that same thought (of yours); as for the rest (of you), you are (only) bone and fibre.
گر گل است اندیشهی تو گلشنی ** ور بود خاری تو هیمهی گلخنی
If your thought is a rose, you are a rose-garden; and if it is a thorn, you are fuel for the bath-stove.
گر گلابی، بر سر و جیبت زنند ** ور تو چون بولی برونت افکنند
If you are rose-water, you are sprinkled on head and bosom; and if you are (stinking) like urine, you are cast out.
طبلهها در پیش عطاران ببین ** جنس را با جنس خود کرده قرین280
Look at the trays in front of druggists—each kind put beside its own kind,
جنسها با جنسها آمیخته ** زین تجانس زینتی انگیخته
Things of each sort mixed with things of the same sort, and a certain elegance produced by this homogeneity;
گر در آمیزند عود و شکرش ** بر گزیند یک یک از یکدیگرش
If his (the druggist's) aloes-wood and sugar get mixed, he picks them out from each other, piece by piece.
طبلهها بشکست و جانها ریختند ** نیک و بد در همدگر آمیختند
The trays were broken and the souls were spilled: good and evil ones were mingled with each other.
حق فرستاد انبیا را با ورق ** تا گزید این دانه‌ها را بر طبق
God sent the prophets with scrolls (of Revelation), that He might pick out (and sort) these grains on the dish.
پیش از ایشان ما همه یکسان بدیم ** کس ندانستی که ما نیک و بدیم285
Before the, (the prophets) we were all alike, none knew whether we were good or bad.
قلب و نیکو در جهان بودی روان ** چون همه شب بود و ما چون شب روان
False coin and fine (both) were current in the world, since all was night, and we were as night-travellers,
تا بر آمد آفتاب انبیا ** گفت ای غش دور شو صافی بیا
Until the sun of the prophets rose and said, “Begone, O alloy! Come, O thou that art pure!”
چشم داند فرق کردن رنگ را ** چشم داند لعل را و سنگ را
The eye can distinguish colours, the eye knows ruby and (common) stone.
چشم داند گوهر و خاشاک را ** چشم را ز آن میخلد خاشاکها
The eye knows the jewel and the rubbish; hence bits of rubbish sting the eye.
دشمن روزند این قلابکان ** عاشق روزند آن زرهای کان290
These vile counterfeiters are enemies of day, those pieces of gold from the mine are lovers of day,
ز آن که روز است آینهی تعریف او ** تا ببیند اشرفی تشریف او
Because day is the mirror that makes it (the fine gold) known, so that the ashrafí (the coin of sterling gold) may see (receive) its (day's) gift of honour.