بود شاهی بود او را بنده‌ای ** مرده عقلی بود و شهوت‌زنده‌ای1490
There was a king: he had a slave; he (the slave) was one whose reason was dead and whose lust was alive.
خرده‌های خدمتش بگذاشتی ** بد سگالیدی نکو پنداشتی
He would neglect the niceties of service to him (the king): he was thinking evil and deeming (it) good.
گفت شاهنشه جرااش کم کنید ** ور بجنگد نامش از خط بر زنید
The monarch said, “Reduce his allowance, and if he wrangle strike his name off the roll.”
عقل او کم بود و حرص او فزون ** چون جرا کم دید شد تند و حرون
His reason was deficient, his cupidity excessive: when he saw the allowance reduced he became violent and refractory.
عقل بودی گرد خود کردی طواف ** تا بدیدی جرم خود گشتی معاف
Had there been reason (in him), he would have made a circuit round himself, in order that he might see his offence and become forgiven.
چون خری پابسته تندد از خری ** هر دو پایش بسته گردد بر سری1495
When, on account of asininity, a tethered ass becomes violent, both his (fore-)legs will be shackled in addition.
پس بگوید خر که یک بندم بست ** خود مدان کان دو ز فعل آن خسست
Then the ass will say, “One tether is enough for me”; (but) in sooth do not think (that such is the case), for those two are (result) from the action of that vile creature.
در تفسیر این حدیث مصطفی علیه‌السلام کی ان الله تعالی خلق الملائکة و رکب فیهم العقل و خلق البهائم و رکب فیها الشهوة و خلق بنی آدم و رکب فیهم العقل و الشهوة فمن غلب عقله شهوته فهو اعلی من الملائکة و من غلب شهوته عقله فهو ادنی من البهائم
In exposition of the following Hadíth of Mustafá (Mohammed), on whom be peace: "Verily, the most High God created the angels and set reason in them, and He created the beasts and set lust in them, and He created the sons of Adam and set in them reason and lust; and he whose reason prevails over his lust is higher than the angels, and he whose lust prevails over his reason is lower than the beasts."
در حدیث آمد که یزدان مجید ** خلق عالم را سه گونه آفرید
It is related in the Hadíth that the majestical God created the creatures of the world (in) three kinds.
یک گره را جمله عقل و علم و جود ** آن فرشته‌ست او نداند جز سجود
One class (He made) entirely reason and knowledge and munificence; that is the angel: he knoweth naught but prostration in worship.
نیست اندر عنصرش حرص و هوا ** نور مطلق زنده از عشق خدا
In his original nature is no concupiscence and sensuality: he is absolute light, (he is) living through (his) love of God.
یک گروه دیگر از دانش تهی ** هم‌چو حیوان از علف در فربهی1500
Another class is devoid of knowledge, like the animal (which lives) in fatness from (eating) fodder.
او نبیند جز که اصطبل و علف ** از شقاوت غافلست و از شرف
It sees nothing but stable and fodder: it is heedless of (future) misery and glory (felicity).
این سوم هست آدمی‌زاد و بشر ** نیم او ز افرشته و نیمیش خر
The third (class) is Adam's descendant and Man: half of him is of the angel and half of him is ass.
نیم خر خود مایل سفلی بود ** نیم دیگر مایل عقلی بود
The ass-half, indeed, inclines to that which is low; the other half inclines to that which is rational.
آن دو قوم آسوده از جنگ و حراب ** وین بشر با دو مخالف در عذاب
Those two classes (the angels and the beasts) are at rest from war and combat, while this Man is (engaged) in torment (painful struggle) with two adversaries.
وین بشر هم ز امتحان قسمت شدند ** آدمی شکلند و سه امت شدند1505
And, moreover, this (race of) Man, through probation, has been divided: they (all) are of human shape, but (in truth) they have become three communities (families).
یک گره مستغرق مطلق شدست ** هم‌چو عیسی با ملک ملحق شدست
One party have become submerged absolutely and, like Jesus, have attained unto the (nature of the) angel.
نقش آدم لیک معنی جبرئیل ** رسته از خشم و هوا و قال و قیل
The form (of such a one is that of) Adam, but the reality is Gabriel: he has been delivered from anger and sensual passion and (vain) disputation.
از ریاضت رسته وز زهد و جهاد ** گوییا از آدمی او خود نزاد
He has been delivered from discipline and asceticism and self-mortification: you would say he was not even born of a child of Adam.
قسم دیگر با خران ملحق شدند ** خشم محض و شهوت مطلق شدند
The second sort have attained unto (the nature of) asses: they have become pure anger and absolute lust.
وصف جبریلی دریشان بود رفت ** تنگ بود آن خانه و آن وصف زفت1510
The qualities of Gabriel were in them and departed: that house was (too) narrow, and those qualities (too) grand.
مرده گردد شخص کو بی‌جان شود ** خر شود چون جان او بی‌آن شود
The person who is deprived of (the vital) spirit becomes dead: when his spirit is deprived of those (angelic qualities), he becomes an ass,
زانک جانی کان ندارد هست پست ** این سخن حقست و صوفی گفته است
Because the spirit that hath not those (qualities) is vile: this word is true, and the (perfect) Súfí has said (it).
او ز حیوانها فزون‌تر جان کند ** در جهان باریک کاریها کند
He (the man of animal nature) suffers more anxiety than the beasts, (for) he practises subtle arts in the world.
مکر و تلبیسی که او داند تنید ** آن ز حیوان دیگر ناید پدید
The cunning and imposture which he knows how to spin— that (cunning) is not produced by any other animal.
جامه‌های زرکشی را بافتن ** درها از قعر دریا یافتن1515
To weave gold-embroidered robes, to win pearls from the bottom of the sea,
خرده‌کاریهای علم هندسه ** یا نجوم و علم طب و فلسفه
The fine artifices of geometry or astronomy, and the science of medicine and philosophy—
که تعلق با همین دنیاستش ** ره به هفتم آسمان بر نیستش
Which are connected only with this world and have no way (of mounting) up to the Seventh Heaven—
این همه علم بنای آخرست ** که عماد بود گاو و اشترست
All this is the science of building the (worldly) stable which is the pillar (basis) of the existence of (persons like) the ox and the camel.
بهر استبقای حیوان چند روز ** نام آن کردند این گیجان رموز
For the sake of preserving the animal for a few days, these crazy fools have given to those (arts and sciences) the name of “mysteries.”
علم راه حق و علم منزلش ** صاحب دل داند آن را با دلش1520
The knowledge of the Way to God and the knowledge of His dwelling place—that only the owner of the heart knows, or (you may say) his heart (itself).
پس درین ترکیب حیوان لطیف ** آفرید و کرد با دانش الیف
He (God), then, created in this composite fashion the goodly animal and made him familiar with knowledge.
نام کالانعام کرد آن قوم را ** زانک نسبت کو بیقظه نوم را
That (bestial) class (of men) He named “like the cattle,” for where is the resemblance between waking and sleep?
روح حیوانی ندارد غیر نوم ** حسهای منعکس دارند قوم
The animal spirit hath naught but sleep (ignorance): the (bestial) class of men possess inverted sense-perceptions.
یقظه آمد نوم حیوانی نماند ** انعکاس حس خود از لوح خواند
(When) waking comes, the animal sleep is no more, and he (the enlightened man) reads the (former) inversion of his senses from the tablet (of his clairvoyant consciousness)—
هم‌چو حس آنک خواب او را ربود ** چون شد او بیدار عکسیت نمود1525
Like the sense-perceptions of one whom sleep has seized: when he awakes, the inverted quality (of his sense-perceptions whilst he was dreaming) becomes apparent.
لاجرم اسفل بود از سافلین ** ترک او کن لا احب الافلین
Necessarily, he (the bestial man) is the lowest of the low. Take leave of him: I love not them that sink.
در تفسیر این آیت کی و اما الذین فی قلوبهم مرض فزادتهم رجسا و قوله یضل به کثیرا و یهدی به کثیرا
In exposition of the following Verse: "and as for those in whose hearts is a disease, it (each new Súra of the Qur’án) added unto their uncleanness (wicked unbelief)"; and of His Word: "thereby He letteth many be led astray, and thereby He letteth many be guided aright."
زانک استعداد تبدیل و نبرد ** بودش از پستی و آن را فوت کرد
(The bestial man is the lowest of the low) because he possessed the capacity for transforming himself and striving (to escape) from lowness, but (afterwards) lost it.
باز حیوان را چو استعداد نیست ** عذر او اندر بهیمی روشنیست
Again, since the animal does not possess (that) capacity, its excusability (for remaining) in the bestial state is a thing (most) evident.
زو چو استعداد شد کان رهبرست ** هر غذایی کو خورد مغز خرست
When the capacity, which is the guide (to salvation), is gone from him, every nutriment that he eats is the brain of an ass.
گر بلادر خورد او افیون شود ** سکته و بی‌عقلیش افزون شود1530
If he eats anacardium, it becomes (acts upon him as) opium: his apoplexy and dementia are increased.
ماند یک قسم دگر اندر جهاد ** نیم حیوان نیم حی با رشاد
There remains another sort (of men: they are engaged) in warfare: (they are) half animal, half (spiritually) alive and endowed with good guidance.
روز و شب در جنگ و اندر کش‌مکش ** کرده چالیش آخرش با اولش
Day and night in strife and mutual struggle, his (such a one's) last (state) battles with his first.
چالیش عقل با نفس هم چون تنازع مجنون با ناقه میل مجنون سوی حره میل ناقه واپس سوی کره چنانک گفت مجنون هوا ناقتی خلفی و قدامی الهوی و انی و ایاها لمختلفان
The battle of the reason against the flesh is like the contention of Majnún with his she camel: Majnún's inclination is towards the noble woman (Laylá), while the she camel's inclination is (to go) back towards her foal, as Majnún said (in verse): "My she-camel's love is behind me, while my love is in front of me; and verily I and she are discordant."
هم‌چو مجنون‌اند و چون ناقه‌ش یقین ** می‌کشد آن پیش و این واپس به کین
Assuredly they (the reason and the flesh) are like Majnún and his she-camel: that one is pulling forward and this one backward in (mutual) enmity.
میل مجنون پیش آن لیلی روان ** میل ناقه پس پی کره دوان
Majnún's desire is speeding to the presence of that (beloved) Laylá; the she camel's desire is running back after her foal.
یک دم ار مجنون ز خود غافل بدی ** ناقه گردیدی و واپس آمدی1535
If Majnún forgot himself for one moment, the she-camel would turn and go back.
عشق و سودا چونک پر بودش بدن ** می‌نبودش چاره از بی‌خود شدن
Since his body was full of love and passion, he had no resource but to become beside himself.
آنک او باشد مراقب عقل بود ** عقل را سودای لیلی در ربود
That which is regardful was (ever) reason: passion for Laylá carried (his) reason away.
لیک ناقه بس مراقب بود و چست ** چون بدیدی او مهار خویش سست
But the she-camel was very regardful and alert: whenever she saw her toggle slack
فهم کردی زو که غافل گشت و دنگ ** رو سپس کردی به کره بی‌درنگ
She would at once perceive that he had become heedless and dazed, and would turn her face back to the foal without delay.