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.
حق قیامت را لقب ز آن روز کرد ** روز بنماید جمال سرخ و زرد
Hence God bestowed the title of “Day” on the Resurrection, (for) day displays the beauty of red and yellow.
پس حقیقت روز سر اولیاست ** روز پیش ماهشان چون سایههاست
In reality, then, day is the inmost consciousness of the saints, (though) beside their moon day is (dim) as shadows.
عکس راز مرد حق دانید روز ** عکس ستاریش شام چشم دوز
Know that day is the reflexion of the mystery (the illumined consciousness) of the man of God, while eye-sealing night is the reflexion of his occultation.
ز آن سبب فرمود یزدان و الضحی ** و الضحی نور ضمیر مصطفی295
For that reason God said, By the morn: by the morn is (refers to) the light of the hidden mind of Mustafá (Mohammed).
قول دیگر کین ضحی را خواست دوست ** هم برای آنکه این هم عکس اوست
The other view, that the Beloved (God) meant this morn (in the literal sense), is (held) just for the reason that this too is the reflexion of him;
ور نه بر فانی قسم گفتن خطاست ** خود فنا چه لایق گفت خداست
Else it is wrong to swear by a transient thing: how indeed is transiency proper to the speech of God?
لا أحب الآفلین گفت آن خلیل ** کی فنا خواهد از این رب جلیل
That Friend (of God) said, “I love not them that set”: how should the glorious Lord mean transiency by this (oath)?
باز و اللیل است ستاری او ** و آن تن خاکی زنگاری او
Again, and by the night is (refers to) his occultation and his earthen rust-dark body.
آفتابش چون بر آمد ز آن فلک ** با شب تن گفت هین ما ودعک300
When his sun rose from that sky, it said to the night of the body, “Lo, He hath not forsaken thee.”
وصل پیدا گشت از عین بلا ** ز آن حلاوت شد عبارت ما قلی
Union was made manifest out of the essence of affliction: that sweetness (of union) was expressed by (the words) He hath not hated (thee).
هر عبارت خود نشان حالتی است ** حال چون دست و عبارت آلتی است
In fact, every expression is the symbol of a state: the state is as a hand, while the expression is a tool.
آلت زرگر به دست کفشگر ** همچو دانهی کشت کرده ریگ در
The goldsmith's tool in the hand of a shoemaker is like a seed sown in sand;
و آلت اسکاف پیش برزگر ** پیش سگ کاه استخوان در پیش خر
And the cobbler's tool (put) before the husbandman is (as) straw before a dog (or) bones before an ass.
بود انا الحق در لب منصور نور ** بود انا الله در لب فرعون زور305
“I am God” on the lips of Mansúr was the light (of truth); “I am Allah” on the lips of Pharaoh was a lie.