من همی دانستمت پیش از لقا ** کز ستیزه راسخی اندر شقا
I knew, before coming face to face (with thee), that by reason of contumacy thou art set fast in damnation.
چونک چشمم سرخ باشد در غمش ** دانمش زان درد گر کم بینمش
When my eye is red in ophthalmia, I know it (the redness) is from the disease, (even) if I do not see it (the redness).
تو مرا چون بره دیدی بی شبان ** تو گمان بردی ندارم پاسبان
Thou deemedst me as a lamb without the shepherd, thou thoughtest that I have none keeping watch (over me).
عاشقان از درد زان نالیده‌اند ** که نظر ناجایگه مالیده‌اند
The cause why lovers have moaned in grief is that they have rubbed their eyes malapropos.
بی‌شبان دانسته‌اند آن ظبی را ** رایگان دانسته‌اند آن سبی را230
They have regarded that Gazelle as being shepherdless, they have regarded that Captive as (one who may be taken) cost-free,
تا ز غمزه تیر آمد بر جگر ** که منم حارس گزافه کم نگر
Till (suddenly) an arrow from the glance (of Divine jealousy) comes (descends) upon the heart, (as though) to say, ‘I am the Keeper: do not look wantonly.
کی کم از بره کم از بزغاله‌ام ** که نباشد حارس از دنباله‌ام
How am I meaner than a lamb, meaner than a kid, that there should not be a keeper behind me?
حارسی دارم که ملکش می‌سزد ** داند او بادی که آن بر من وزد
I have a Keeper whom it beseems to hold dominion: He knoweth the wind that blows upon me.
سرد بود آن باد یا گرم آن علیم ** نیست غافل نیست غایب ای سقیم
Whether that wind was cold or hot, that Knowing One is not unaware, is not absent, O infirm man.
نفس شهوانی ز حق کرست و کور ** من به دل کوریت می‌دیدم ز دور235
The appetitive soul is deaf and blind to God: I with my heart was seeing thy blindness from afar.
هشت سالت زان نپرسیدم به هیچ ** که پرت دیدم ز جهل پیچ پیچ
For eight years I did not inquire after thee at all, because I saw thee (to be) full of ignorance, fold on fold.
خود چه پرسم آنک او باشد بتون ** که تو چونی چون بود او سرنگون
Why, indeed, should I inquire after one who is in t he bath-stove (of lust), and say (to him) ‘How art thou?’ when he is (plunged) headlong (in sensuality)?
مثال دنیا چون گولخن و تقوی چون حمام
Comparison of this world to a bath-stove and of piety to the bath.
شهوت دنیا مثال گلخنست ** که ازو حمام تقوی روشنست
The lust of this world is like the bath-stove by which the bath, piety, is (made) resplendent;
لیک قسم متقی زین تون صفاست ** زانک در گرمابه است و در نقاست
But the pious man's portion from this stove is (naught but) purity, because he is in the hot-bath and in cleanliness.
اغنیا ماننده‌ی سرگین‌کشان ** بهر آتش کردن گرمابه‌بان240
The rich resemble those who carry dung for the bath-keeper's fire-making.
اندریشان حرص بنهاده خدا ** تا بود گرمابه گرم و با نوا
God hath implanted cupidity in them, in order that the bath may be hot and well-provided.
ترک این تون گوی و در گرمابه ران ** ترک تون را عین آن گرمابه دان
Abandon this stove and advance into the hot-bath: know that abandonment of the stove is the very essence of that bath.
هر که در تونست او چون خادمست ** مر ورا که صابرست و حازمست
Any one who is in the stove is as a servant to him that is self-denying and on his guard.
هر که در حمام شد سیمای او ** هست پیدا بر رخ زیبای او
Whosoever has entered the bath, his (characteristic) sign is visible upon his comely face.
تونیان را نیز سیما آشکار ** از لباس و از دخان و از غبار245
The signs of the stokers are conspicuous too—in their dress and in the smoke and dust (which blacken them).
ور نبینی روش بویش را بگیر ** بو عصا آمد برای هر ضریر
And if you see not his (the stoker's) face, smell him; smell is (as) a staff for every one that is blind;
ور نداری بو در آرش در سخن ** از حدیث نو بدان راز کهن
And if you have not (the sense of) smell, induce him to speak, and from the new talk learn the old secret.
پس بگوید تونیی صاحب ذهب ** بیست سله چرک بردم تا به شب
Then a gold-possessing stoker will say, “I have brought in twenty baskets of filth, (working from dawn) till nightfall.”
حرص تو چون آتشست اندر جهان ** باز کرده هر زبانه صد دهان
Your cupidity is like fire in the (material) world: every (flaming) tongue (thereof) has opened a hundred mouths (to swallow filthy lucre).
پیش عقل این زر چو سرگین ناخوشست ** گرچه چون سرگین فروغ آتشست250
In the sight of Reason, this gold is foul as dung, although, like dung, it is (the cause of) the blazing of the fire.
آفتابی که دم از آتش زند ** چرک تر را لایق آتش کند
The sun, which emulates the fire, makes the moist filth fit for the fire.
آفتاب آن سنگ را هم کرد زر ** تا بتون حرص افتد صد شرر
The sun also made the stone gold, in order that a hundred sparks might fall into the stove of cupidity.
He who says, “I have collected riches”—what is (the meaning of) it? It means, “I have brought in all this filth.”
این سخن گرچه که رسوایی‌فزاست ** در میان تونیان زین فخرهاست
Albeit this saying is exceedingly disgraceful, there are boasts on this account amongst the stokers.
که تو شش سله کشیدی تا به شب ** من کشیدم بیست سله بی کرب255
(One of them says), “Thou hast carried (only) six baskets ere nightfall; I have carried twenty baskets without trouble.”
آنک در تون زاد و پاکی را ندید ** بوی مشک آرد برو رنجی پدید
He that was born in the stove and never saw purity, the smell of musk produces a painful effect upon him.
قصه‌ی آن دباغ کی در بازار عطاران از بوی عطر و مشک بیهوش و رنجور شد
Story of the tanner who fainted and sickened on smelling otto and musk in the bazaar of the perfumers.
آن یکی افتاد بیهوش و خمید ** چونک در بازار عطاران رسید
A certain man fell senseless and curled up as soon as he came into the bazaar of the perfumers.
بوی عطرش زد ز عطاران راد ** تا بگردیدش سر و بر جا فتاد
The scent of the perfume (floating) from the goodly perfumers smote him, so that his head reeled and he fell on the spot.
هم‌چو مردار اوفتاد او بی‌خبر ** نیم روز اندر میان ره‌گذر
He fell unconscious, like a carcase, at noontide in the middle of the thoroughfare.
جمع آمد خلق بر وی آن زمان ** جملگان لاحول‌گو درمان کنان260
Thereupon the people gathered over him, all crying Lá hawl and applying remedies.
آن یکی کف بر دل او می براند ** وز گلاب آن دیگری بر وی فشاند
One was putting his hand on his (the tanner's) heart, while another sprinkled rose-water upon him;
او نمی‌دانست کاندر مرتعه ** از گلاب آمد ورا آن واقعه
(For) he did not know that from (smelling) rose-water in the meadow (the bazaar) that calamity had overtaken him.
آن یکی دستش همی‌مالید و سر ** وآن دگر کهگل همی آورد تر
One was massaging his hands and head, and another was bringing moist clay mixed with straw (to serve as a cold plaster);
آن بخور عود و شکر زد به هم ** وآن دگر از پوششش می‌کرد کم
One compounded incense of aloes-wood and sugar, while another was divesting him of part of his clothes;
وآن دگر نبضش که تا چون می‌جهد ** وان دگر بوی از دهانش می‌ستد265
And another felt his pulse, to see how it was beating; and another was smelling his mouth,
تا که می خوردست و یا بنگ و حشیش ** خلق درماندند اندر بیهشیش
To see whether he had drunk wine or eaten beng or hashish: the people (having exhausted every resource) remained in despair at his insensibility.
پس خبر بردند خویشان را شتاب ** که فلان افتاده است آن‌جا خراب
So they speedily brought the news to his kinsfolk—“Such and such a person is lying there in a state of collapse;
کس نمی داند که چون مصروع گشت ** یا چه شد کو را فتاد از بام طشت
No one knows how he was stricken with catalepsy, or what it was that led to this public exposure.”
یک برادر داشت آن دباغ زفت ** گربز و دانا بیامد زود تفت
That stout tanner had a brother, (who was) cunning and sagacious: he came at once in hot haste.
اندکی سرگین سگ در آستین ** خلق را بشکافت و آمد با حنین270
(With) a small quantity of dog's dung in his sleeve, he cleft (his way through) the crowd and approached (the senseless man) with cries of grief.
گفت من رنجش همی دانم ز چیست ** چون سبب دانی دوا کردن جلیست
“I know,” said he, “whence his illness arises: when you know the cause (of a disease), the (means of) curing (it) is manifest.
چون سبب معلوم نبود مشکلست ** داروی رنج و در آن صد محملست
When the cause is unknown, the remedy for the illness is difficult (to find), and in that (case) there are a hundred grounds to which it may be referred;
چون بدانستی سبب را سهل شد ** دانش اسباب دفع جهل شد
(But) when you have ascertained the cause, it becomes easy: knowledge of causes is the means of expelling ignorance.”
گفت با خود هستش اندر مغز و رگ ** توی بر تو بوی آن سرگین سگ
He said to himself, “The smell of that dog's dung is multiplied in his brain and veins.
تا میان اندر حدث او تا به شب ** غرق دباغیست او روزی‌طلب275
Up to the waist in filth, he is absorbed in the tanner's craft till nightfall, seeking his livelihood.