چون ز چاهی می‌کنی هر روز خاک ** عاقبت اندر رسی در آب پاک
When, every day, you keep digging the earth from a pit, at last you will arrive at the pure water.
جمله دانند این اگر تو نگروی ** هر چه می‌کاریش روزی بدروی4785
(Even) if you may not believe (it), all know this, (that) one day you will reap whatsoever you are sowing.
سنگ بر آهن زدی آتش نجست ** این نباشد ور بباشد نادرست
You struck the stone (flint) against the iron (steel): the fire did not flash out! This may not be; or if it be (so), ’tis rare.
آنک روزی نیستش بخت و نجات ** ننگرد عقلش مگر در نادرات
He to whom felicity and salvation are not apportioned (by God)—his mind regards naught but the rarities.
کان فلان کس کشت کرد و بر نداشت ** و آن صدف برد و صدف گوهر نداشت
(He says) that such and such a one sowed seed and had no crop, while that (other) one bore away an oyster-shell (from the sea), and the shell had no pearl (within it).
بلعم باعور و ابلیس لعین ** سود نامدشان عبادتها و دین
(He says that in the cases of) Bal‘am son of Bá‘úr and the accursed Iblís, their acts of worship and their religion availed them not.
صد هزاران انبیا و ره‌روان ** ناید اندر خاطر آن بدگمان4790
The hundreds of thousands of prophets and travellers on the Way do not come into the mind of that evil-thinking man.
این دو را گیرد که تاریکی دهد ** در دلش ادبار جز این کی نهد
He takes these two (examples) which produce (spiritual) darkness: how should (his) ill fate put aught but this in his heart?
بس کسا که نان خورد دلشاد او ** مرگ او گردد بگیرد در گلو
Oh, there is many a one that eats bread with a glad heart, and it becomes the death of him: it sticks in his gullet.
پس تو ای ادبار رو هم نان مخور ** تا نیفتی همچو او در شور و شر
Go, then, O ill-fated man, do not eat bread at all, lest thou fall like him into bale and woe!
صد هزاران خلق نانها می‌خورند ** زور می‌یابند و جان می‌پرورند
Hundreds of thousands of folk are eating loaves of bread and gaining strength and nourishing the (vital) spirit.
تو بدان نادر کجا افتاده‌ای ** گر نه محرومی و ابله زاده‌ای4795
How hast thou fallen into that rare (calamity), unless thou art deprived (of blessedness) and art born a fool?
این جهان پر آفتاب و نور ماه ** او بهشته سر فرو برده به چاه
He (the ill-fated man) has forsaken this world full of sunshine and moonlight and has plunged his head into the pit,
که اگر حقست پس کو روشنی ** سر ز چه بردار و بنگر ای دنی
Saying, “If it is true, then where is the radiance?” Lift up thy head from the pit and look, O miserable wretch!
جمله عالم شرق و غرب آن نور یافت ** تا تو در چاهی نخواهد بر تو تافت
The whole world, east and west, obtained that light, (but) whilst thou art in the pit it will not shine upon thee.
چه رها کن رو به ایوان و کروم ** کم ستیز اینجا بدان کاللج شوم
Leave the pit, go to the palace and the vineyards; do not wrangle here, know that quarrelling is unlucky.
هین مگو کاینک فلانی کشت کرد ** در فلان سالی ملخ کشتش بخورد4800
Beware! Do not say, “Mark you, such and such a one sowed seed, and in such and such a year the locusts devoured what he had sown.
پس چرا کارم که اینجا خوف هست ** من چرا افشانم این گندم ز دست
Why, then, should I sow? for there is danger in this respect. Why should I scatter this corn(-seed) from my hand?”
و آنک او نگذاشت کشت و کار را ** پر کند کوری تو انبار را
And (meanwhile) he who did not neglect to sow and labour fills his barn (with grain), to your confusion.
چون دری می‌کوفت او از سلوتی ** عاقبت در یافت روزی خلوتی
Since he (the lover) was patiently knocking at a door, at last one day he obtained a meeting in private.
جست از بیم عسس شب او به باغ ** یار خود را یافت چون شمع و چراغ
From fear of the night-patrol he sprang by night into the orchard: (there) he found his beloved, (radiant) as candle and lamp.
گفت سازنده‌ی سبب را آن نفس ** ای خدا تو رحمتی کن بر عسس4805
At that moment he said to the Maker of the means (by which he had attained to his desire), “O God, have mercy on the night-patrol!
ناشناسا تو سببها کرده‌ای ** از در دوزخ بهشتم برده‌ای
Unbeknown (to me), Thou hast created the means: from the gate of Hell Thou hast brought me to Paradise.
بهر آن کردی سبب این کار را ** تا ندارم خوار من یک خار را
Thou hast made this affair (dread of the night-patrol) a means, to the end that I may not hold (even) a single thorn in contempt.”
در شکست پای بخشد حق پری ** هم ز قعر چاه بگشاید دری
In (consequence of) the fracture of a leg God bestows a wing; likewise from the depths of the pit He opens a door (of escape).
تو مبین که بر درختی یا به چاه ** تو مرا بین که منم مفتاح راه
(God saith), “Do not consider whether thou art on a tree or in a pit: consider Me, for I am the Key of the Way.”
گر تو خواهی باقی این گفت و گو ** ای اخی در دفتر چارم بجو4810
If you wish (to read) the rest of this tale, seek (it), O my brother, in the Fourth Book.