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2
584-633

  • صد حکایت بشنود مدهوش حرص ** در نیاید نکته‏ای در گوش حرص‏
  • The man dazed by greed may hear a hundred stories, (but) not a single point comes into the ear of greed.

  • تعریف کردن منادیان قاضی مفلسی را گرد شهر
  • How the criers of the Cadi advertised an insolvent round the town.

  • بود شخصی مفلسی بی‏خان و مان ** مانده در زندان وبند بی‏امان‏ 585
  • There was an insolvent person without house or home, who remained in prison and pitiless bondage.

  • لقمه‏ی زندانیان خوردی گزاف ** بر دل خلق از طمع چون کوه قاف‏
  • He would unconscionably eat the rations of the prisoners; on account of (his) appetite he was (a burden) like Mount Qáf on the hearts of the people (in the gaol).

  • زهره نه کس را که لقمه‏ی نان خورد ** ز انکه آن لقمه‏ربا کاوش برد
  • No one had the pluck to eat a mouthful of bread, because that snatcher of portions would carry off his entire meal.

  • هر که دور از دعوت رحمان بود ** او گدا چشم است اگر سلطان بود
  • Any one who is far from the feast of the Merciful (God) has the eye of a (low) beggar, though he be a sultan.

  • مر مروت را نهاده زیر پا ** گشته زندان دوزخی ز آن نان ربا
  • He (the insolvent) had trodden virtue underfoot; the prison had become a hell on account of that robber of bread.

  • گر گریزی بر امید راحتی ** ز آن طرف هم پیشت آید آفتی‏ 590
  • If you flee in hope of some relief, on that side also a calamity comes to meet you.

  • هیچ کنجی بی‏دد و بی‏دام نیست ** جز به خلوت‏گاه حق آرام نیست‏
  • No corner is without wild beasts; there is no rest but in the place where you are alone with God.

  • کنج زندان جهان ناگزیر ** نیست بی‏پا مزد و بی‏دق الحصیر
  • The corner (narrow cell) of this world's inevitable prison is not exempt from the charges for visitors and (the cost of) housewarming.

  • و الله ار سوراخ موشی در روی ** مبتلای گربه چنگالی شوی‏
  • By God, if you go into a mouse-hole, you will be afflicted by some one who has the claws of a cat.

  • آدمی را فربهی هست از خیال ** گر خیالاتش بود صاحب جمال‏
  • Man has fatness from (thrives on) fancy, if his fancies are beautiful;

  • ور خیالاتش نماید ناخوشی ** می‏گدازد همچو موم از آتشی‏ 595
  • And if his fancies show anything unlovely he melts away as wax (is melted) by a fire.

  • در میان مار و کژدم گر ترا ** با خیالات خوشان دارد خدا
  • If amidst snakes and scorpions God keep you with the fancies of them that are (spiritually) fair,

  • مار و کژدم مر ترا مونس بود ** کان خیالت کیمیای مس بود
  • The snakes and scorpions will be friendly to you, because that fancy is the elixir which transmutes your copper (into gold).

  • صبر شیرین از خیال خوش شده ست ** کان خیالات فرج پیش آمده ست‏
  • Patience is sweetened by fair fancy, since (in that case) the fancies of relief (from pain) have come before (the mind).

  • آن فرج آید ز ایمان در ضمیر ** ضعف ایمان ناامیدی و زحیر
  • That relief comes into the heart from faith: weakness of faith is despair and torment.

  • صبر از ایمان بیابد سر کله ** حیث لا صبر فلا إیمان له‏ 600
  • Patience gains a crown from faith: where one hath no patience, he hath no faith.

  • گفت پیغمبر خداش ایمان نداد ** هر که را صبری نباشد در نهاد
  • The Prophet said, “God has not given faith to any one in whose nature there is no patience.”

  • آن یکی در چشم تو باشد چو مار ** هم وی اندر چشم آن دیگر نگار
  • That same one (who) in your eyes is like a snake is a picture (of beauty) in the eyes of another,

  • ز انکه در چشمت خیال کفر اوست ** و آن خیال مومنی در چشم دوست‏
  • Because in your eyes is the fancy of his being an infidel, while in the eyes of his friend is the fancy of his being a (true) believer;

  • کاندر این یک شخص هر دو فعل هست ** گاه ماهی باشد او و گاه شست‏
  • For both the effects (belief and unbelief) exist in this one person: now he is a fish and now a hook.

  • نیم او مومن بود نیمیش گبر ** نیم او حرص آوری نیمیش صبر 605
  • Half of him is believer, half of him infidel; half of him cupidity, half of him patience (and abstinence).

  • گفت یزدانت فمنکم مومن ** باز منکم کافر گبر کهن‏
  • Your God has said, “(Some) of you (are) believing”; (and) again, “(Some) of you (are) unbelieving” (as) an old fire-worshipper.

  • همچو گاوی نیمه‏ی چپش سیاه ** نیمه‏ی دیگر سپید همچو ماه‏
  • (He is) like an ox, his left half black, the other half white as the moon.

  • هر که این نیمه ببیند رد کند ** هر که آن نیمه ببیند کد کند
  • Whoever sees the former half spurns (him); whoever sees the latter half seeks (after him).

  • یوسف اندر چشم اخوان چون ستور ** هم وی اندر چشم یعقوبی چو حور
  • Joseph was like a beast of burden in the eyes of his brethren; at the same time in the eyes of a Jacob he was like a houri.

  • از خیال بد مر او را زشت دید ** چشم فرع و چشم اصلی ناپدید 610
  • Through evil fancy the (bodily) derivative eye and the original unseen eye (of the mind) regarded him (Joseph) as ugly.

  • چشم ظاهر سایه‏ی آن چشم دان ** هر چه آن بیند بگردد این بد آن‏
  • Know that the outward eye is the shadow of that (inward) eye: whatever that (inward) eye may see, this (outward) eye turns to that (eye).

  • تو مکانی اصل تو در لامکان ** این دکان بر بند و بگشا آن دکان‏
  • You are of where, (but) your origin is in Nowhere: shut up this shop and open that shop.

  • شش جهت مگریز زیرا در جهات ** ششدره است و ششدره مات است مات‏
  • Do not flee to the (world of the) six directions, because in directions there is the shashdara, and the shashdara is mate, mate.

  • شکایت کردن اهل زندان پیش وکیل قاضی از دست آن مفلس
  • How the prisoners laid a complaint of the insolvent's high-handedness before the agent of the Cadi.

  • با وکیل قاضی ادراک‏مند ** اهل زندان در شکایت آمدند
  • The prisoners came to complain to the Cadi's agent, (who was) possessed of discernment,

  • که سلام ما به قاضی بر کنون ** باز گو آزار ما زین مرد دون‏ 615
  • Saying, “Take now our salutations to the Cadi and relate (to him) the sufferings inflicted on us by this vile man;

  • کاندر این زندان بماند او مستمر ** یاوه تاز و طبل‏خوار است و مضر
  • For he has remained in this prison continuously, and he is an idle gad-about, a lickspittle, and a nuisance.

  • چون مگس حاضر شود در هر طعام ** از وقاحت بی‏صلا و بی‏سلام‏
  • Like a fly, he impudently appears at every meal without invitation and without salaam.

  • پیش او هیچ است لوت شصت کس ** کر کند خود را اگر گوییش بس‏
  • To him the food of sixty persons is nothing; he feigns himself deaf if you say to him, ‘Enough!’

  • مرد زندان را نیاید لقمه‏ای ** ور به صد حیلت گشاید طعمه‏ای‏
  • No morsel reaches the (ordinary) man in prison, or if by means of a hundred contrivances he discover some food,

  • در زمان پیش آید آن دوزخ گلو ** حجتش این که خدا گفتا کلوا 620
  • That hell-throat at once comes forward (with) this (as) his argument, that God has said, ‘Eat ye.’

  • زین چنین قحط سه ساله داد داد ** ظل مولانا ابد پاینده باد
  • Justice, justice against such a three years' famine! May the shadow of our lord endure for ever!

  • یا ز زندان تا رود این گاومیش ** یا وظیفه کن ز وقفی لقمه‏ایش‏
  • Either let this buffalo go from prison, or make him a regular allowance of food from a trust-fund.

  • ای ز تو خوش هم ذکور و هم اناث ** داد کن المستغاث المستغاث‏
  • O thou by whom both males and females are (made) happy, do justice! Thy help is invoked and besought.”

  • سوی قاضی شد وکیل با نمک ** گفت با قاضی شکایت یک به یک‏
  • The courteous agent went to the Cadi and related the complaint to him point by point.

  • خواند او را قاضی از زندان به پیش ** پس تفحص کرد از اعیان خویش‏ 625
  • The Cadi called him (the insolvent) from the prison into his presence, and (then) inquired (about him) from his own officers.

  • گشت ثابت پیش قاضی آن همه ** که نمودند از شکایت آن رمه‏
  • All the complaints which that flock (of prisoners) had set forth were proved to the Cadi.

  • گفت قاضی خیز از این زندان برو ** سوی خانه‏ی مرده‏ریگ خویش شو
  • The Cadi said (to him), “Get up and depart from this prison: go to the house which is your inherited property.”

  • گفت خان و مان من احسان تست ** همچو کافر جنتم زندان تست‏
  • He replied, “My house and home consist in thy beneficence; as (in the case of) an infidel, thy prison is my Paradise.

  • گر ز زندانم برانی تو به رد ** خود بمیرم من ز تقصیری و کد
  • If thou wilt drive me from the prison and turn me out, verily I shall die of destitution and beggary.”

  • همچو ابلیسی که می‏گفت ای سلام ** رب أنظرنی إلی یوم القیام‏ 630
  • (He pleaded) like the Devil, who was saying, “O Preserver, O my Lord, grant me a respite till the day of Resurrection;

  • کاندر این زندان دنیا من خوشم ** تا که دشمن زادگان را می‏کشم‏
  • For I am happy (to be) in the prison of this world, in order that I may be slaying the children of mine enemy,

  • هر که او را قوت ایمانی بود ** و ز برای زاد ره نانی بود
  • (And), if any one have some food of faith and a single loaf as provision for the journey (to the life hereafter),

  • می‏ستانم گه به مکر و گه به ریو ** تا بر آرند از پشیمانی غریو
  • I may seize it, now by plot and now by guile, so that in repentance they may raise an outcry (of lamentation);