رو بایشان کرد و گفت ای مشفقان ** از کجا آمد بگویید این عوان
He turned his face to them and said, “O kindly men, tell (me), whence came this myrmidon (ruffian)?
چیست نام این وزیر جامه‌کن ** قوم گفتندش که نامش هم حسن1235
What is the name of this vizier who tears off the clothes (of the poor)?” The company (of courtiers) said to him, “His name too is Hasan.”
گفت یا رب نام آن و نام این ** چون یکی آمد دریغ ای رب دین
He (the poet) cried, “O Lord, how are the names of that one and this one the same? Alas, O Lord of the Judgement!
آن حسن نامی که از یک کلک او ** صد وزیر و صاحب آید جودخو
That Hasan by name (was such) that by a single pen of his a hundred viziers and ministers are disposed to liberality.
این حسن کز ریش زشت این حسن ** می‌توان بافید ای جان صد رسن
This Hasan (is such) that from the ugly beard of this Hasan thou canst weave, O (dear) soul, a hundred ropes.”
بر چنین صاحب چو شه اصغا کند ** شاه و ملکش را ابد رسوا کند
When a king listens to such a minister, he (the minister) disgraces the king and his kingdom unto everlasting.
مانستن بدرایی این وزیر دون در افساد مروت شاه به وزیر فرعون یعنی هامان در افساد قابلیت فرعون
The resemblance of the bad judgement of this base vizier in corrupting the king's generosity to (that of) the vizier of Pharaoh, namely, Hámán, in corrupting the readiness of Pharaoh to receive (the true Faith).
چند آن فرعون می‌شد نرم و رام ** چون شنیدی او ز موسی آن کلام1240
How many a time did Pharaoh soften and become submissive when he was hearing that Word from Moses!—
آن کلامی که بدادی سنگ شیر ** از خوشی آن کلام بی‌نظیر
That Word (which was such) that from the sweetness of that incomparable Word the rock would have yielded milk.
چون بهامان که وزیرش بود او ** مشورت کردی که کینش بود خو
Whenever he took counsel with Hámán, who was his vizier and whose nature it was to hate,
پس بگفتی تا کنون بودی خدیو ** بنده گردی ژنده‌پوشی را بریو
Then he (Hámán) would say, “Until now thou hast been the Khedive: wilt thou become, through deception, the slave to a wearer of rags?”
هم‌چو سنگ منجنیقی آمدی ** آن سخن بر شیشه خانه‌ی او زدی
Those words would come like a stone shot by a mangonel (ballista) and strike upon his glass house.
هر چه صد روز آن کلیم خوش‌خطاب ** ساختی در یک‌دم او کردی خراب1245
All that the Kalím of sweet address built up in a hundred days he (Hámán) would destroy in one moment.
عقل تو دستور و مغلوب هواست ** در وجودت ره‌زن راه خداست
Thy intellect is the vizier and is overcome by sensuality: in (the realm of) thy being it is a brigand (that attacks thee) on the Way to God.
ناصحی ربانیی پندت دهد ** آن سخن را او به فن طرحی نهد
(If) a godly monitor give thee good advice, it will artfully put those words (of his) aside,
کین نه بر جایست هین از جا مشو ** نیست چندان با خود آ شیدا مشو
Saying, “These (words) are not well-founded: take heed, don't be carried away (by them); they are not (worth) so much: come to thyself (be sensible), don't be crazed.”
وای آن شه که وزیرش این بود ** جای هر دو دوزخ پر کین بود
Alas for the king whose vizier is this (carnal intellect): the place (abode) of them both is vengeful Hell.
شاد آن شاهی که او را دست‌گیر ** باشد اندر کار چون آصف وزیر1250
Happy is the king whose helper in affairs is a vizier like Ásaf.
شاه عادل چون قرین او شود ** نام آن نور علی نور این بود
When the just king is associated with him, his (the king's) name is light upon light.
چون سلیمان شاه و چون آصف وزیر ** نور بر نورست و عنبر بر عبیر
A king like Solomon and a vizier like Ásaf are light upon light and ambergris upon ‘abír.
شاه فرعون و چو هامانش وزیر ** هر دو را نبود ز بدبختی گزیر
(When) the king (is like) Pharaoh and his vizier like Hámán, ill-fortune is inevitable for both.
پس بود ظلمات بعضی فوق بعض ** نه خرد یار و نه دولت روز عرض
Then it is (a case of) darkness, one part over another: neither intellect nor fortune shall be their friend on the Day of Judgement.
من ندیدم جز شقاوت در لام ** گر تو دیدستی رسان از من سلام1255
I have not seen aught but misery in the vile: if thou hast seen (aught else), convey (to them) the salaam (of felicitation) from me.
هم‌چو جان باشد شه و صاحب چو عقل ** عقل فاسد روح را آرد بنقل
The king is as the spirit, and the vizier as the intellect: the corrupt intellect brings the spirit into movement (towards corruption).
آن فرشته‌ی عقل چون هاروت شد ** سحرآموز دو صد طاغوت شد
When the angelical intellect became a Hárút, it became the teacher in magic to two hundred devils.
عقل جزوی را وزیر خود مگیر ** عقل کل را ساز ای سلطان وزیر
Do not take the particular (individual) intellect as thy vizier: make the Universal Intellect thy vizier, O king.
مر هوا را تو وزیر خود مساز ** که برآید جان پاکت از نماز
Do not make sensuality thy vizier, else thy pure spirit will cease from prayer,
کین هوا پر حرص و حالی‌بین بود ** عقل را اندیشه یوم دین بود1260
For this sensuality is full of greed and sees (only) the immediate present, (whereas) the Intellect takes thought for the Day of Judgement.
عقل را دو دیده در پایان کار ** بهر آن گل می‌کشد او رنج خار
The two eyes of the Intellect are (fixed) on the end of things: it endures the pain of the thorn for the sake of that Rose
که نفرساید نریزد در خزان ** باد هر خرطوم اخشم دور از آن
Which does not fade and drop in autumn—far from it be the wind (breath) of every nose that cannot smell!
نشستن دیو بر مقام سلیمان علیه‌السلام و تشبه کردن او به کارهای سلیمان علیه‌السلام و فرق ظاهر میان هر دو سلیمان و دیو خویشتن را سلیمان بن داود نام کردن
How the Demon sat on the place (throne) of Solomon, on whom be peace, and imitated his actions; and concerning the manifest difference between the two Solomons, and how the Demon called himself Solomon son of David.
ورچه عقلت هست با عقل دگر ** یار باش و مشورت کن ای پدر
Even if thou hast intellect, associate and consult with another intellect, O father.
با دو عقل از بس بلاها وا رهی ** پای خود بر اوج گردونها نهی
With two intellects thou wilt be delivered from many afflictions: thou wilt plant thy foot on the summit of the heavens.
دیو گر خود را سلیمان نام کرد ** ملک برد و مملکت را رام کرد1265
If the Demon called himself Solomon and won the kingdom and made the empire subject (to him),
صورت کار سلیمان دیده بود ** صورت اندر سر دیوی می‌نمود
(It was because) he had seen (and imitated) the form of Solomon's action; (but) within the form the spirit of demonry was appearing.
خلق گفتند این سلیمان بی‌صفاست ** از سلیمان تا سلیمان فرقهاست
The people said, “This Solomon is without excellence: there are (great) differences between (that) Solomon and (this) Solomon.”
او چو بیداریست این هم‌چون وسن ** هم‌چنانک آن حسن با این حسن
He (the former) is like wakefulness, this one is like sleep; (there is as much difference) as between that Hasan and this Hasan.
دیو می‌گفتی که حق بر شکل من ** صورتی کردست خوش بر اهرمن
The Demon would reply, “God has bestowed on Ahriman a pleasing form (aspect) in the likeness of me.
دیو را حق صورت من داده است ** تا نیندازد شما را او بشست1270
God hath given my aspect to the Devil: let him not cast you into his net!
گر پدید آید به دعوی زینهار ** صورت او را مدارید اعتبار
If he appear with the pretence (that he is really I), beware! Do not have regard to his (outward) form.”
دیوشان از مکر این می‌گفت لیک ** می‌نمود این عکس در دلهای نیک
The Demon was saying this to them from guile, but in good (enlightened) hearts the reverse of this was apparent.
نیست بازی با ممیز خاصه او ** که بود تمییز و عقلش غیب‌گو
There is no playing tricks with the discerning man, especially (with) him whose discernment and intelligence speak of the Unseen.
هیچ سحر و هیچ تلبیس و دغل ** می‌نبندد پرده بر اهل دول
No magic and no imposture and fraud will bind a veil upon the owners of (spiritual) empire.
پس همی گفتند با خود در جواب ** بازگونه می‌روی ای کژ خطاب1275
Hence they were saying to themselves in reply (to the Demon), “Thou art going upside down, O thou who art addressed falsely (by the name of Solomon).
بازگونه رفت خواهی همچنین ** سوی دوزخ اسفل اندر سافلین
Upside down likewise thou wilt go Hellward, the lowest among the low.
او اگر معزول گشتست و فقیر ** هست در پیشانیش بدر منیر
If he (Solomon) has been deposed and reduced to poverty, (yet) the radiant full-moon is on his forehead.
تو اگر انگشتری را برده‌ای ** دوزخی چون زمهریر افسرده‌ای
If thou hast carried off the (royal) signet-ring, (yet) thou art (as) a Hell frozen like (the region of) piercing cold.
ما ببوش و عارض و طاق و طرنب ** سر کجا که خود همی ننهیم سنب
On account of (the Demon's) ostentation and vain show and pomp and grandeur how (should we lay) the head (in obeisance before him)? for we will not lay (before him) even a hoof.
ور به غفلت ما نهیم او را جبین ** پنجه‌ی مانع برآید از زمین1280
And if heedlessly we should lay the forehead (on the ground in homage) to him, a preventing hand will rise up from the earth,
که منه آن سر مرین سر زیر را ** هین مکن سجده مرین ادبار را
(As though to say), ‘Do not lay the head before this headlong-fallen one; beware, do not bow down to this ill-fated wretch!’”
کردمی من شرح این بس جان‌فزا ** گر نبودی غیرت و رشک خدا
I would have given a very soul-quickening exposition of this (story), were it not for the indignation and jealousy of God.
هم قناعت کن تو بپذیر این قدر ** تا بگویم شرح این وقتی دگر
Still, be content and accept this (insufficient) amount, that I may explain (the whole of) this at another time.