بهر مهمان گوشت آورد آن معیل ** سوی خانه با دو صد جهد طویل
(One day) that family man brought home, for a guest, (some) meat (which he had procured) with infinite pains.
زن بخوردش با کباب و با شراب ** مرد آمد گفت دفع ناصواب
His wife ate it up with kabáb and wine: (when) the man came in, she put him off with useless words.
مرد گفتش گوشت کو مهمان رسید ** پیش مهمان لوت می‌باید کشید
The man said to her, “Where is the meat? The guest has arrived: one must set nice food before a guest.”
گفت زن این گربه خورد آن گوشت را ** گوشت دیگر خر اگر باشد هلا
“This cat has eaten the meat,” she replied: “hey, go and buy some more meat if you can!”
گفت ای ایبک ترازو را بیار ** گربه را من بر کشم اندر عیار 3415
He said (to the servant), “O Aybak, fetch the balance: I will weigh the cat.
بر کشیدش بود گربه نیم من ** پس بگفت آن مرد کای محتال زن
He weighed her. The cat was half a mann. Then the man said, “O deceitful wife,
گوشت نیم من بود و افزون یک ستیر ** هست گربه نیم‌من هم ای ستیر
The meat was half a mann and one sitír over; the cat is just half a mann, my lady.
این اگر گربه‌ست پس آن گوشت کو ** ور بود این گوشت گربه کو بجو
If this is the cat, then where is the meat? Or, if this is the meat, where is the cat? Search (for her)!”
بایزید ار این بود آن روح چیست ** ور وی آن روحست این تصویر کیست
If Báyazíd is this (body), what is that spirit? And if he is that spirit, who is this (bodily) image?
حیرت اندر حیرتست ای یار من ** این نه کار تست و نه هم کار من 3420
’Tis bewilderment on bewilderment. O my friend, (the solution of) this (problem) is not your affair, nor is it mine either.
هر دو او باشد ولیک از ریع زرع ** دانه باشد اصل و آن که پره فرع
He is both (spirit and body), but in the corn-crop the grain is fundamental, while the stalk is derivative.
حکمت این اضداد را با هم ببست ** ای قصاب این گردران با گردنست
(The Divine) Wisdom has bound these contraries together: O butcher, this fleshy thigh-bone goes along with the neck.
روح بی‌قالب نداند کار کرد ** قالبت بی‌جان فسرده بود و سرد
The spirit cannot function without the body; your body is frozen (inanimate) and cold (inert) without the spirit.
قالبت پیدا و آن جانت نهان ** راست شد زین هر دو اسباب جهان
Your body is visible, while your spirit is hidden from view: the business of the world is conducted by means of them both.
خاک را بر سر زنی سر نشکند ** آب را بر سر زنی در نشکند 3425
If you throw earth at (some one's) head, his head will not be broken; if you throw water at his head, it will not be broken.
گر تو می‌خواهی که سر را بشکنی ** آب را و خاک را بر هم زنی
If you wish to break his head, you bring the earth and the water into contact with each other (and make a lump of clay).
چون شکستی سر رود آبش به اصل ** خاک سوی خاک آید روز فصل
When you have broken your head, its water (the spirit) returns to its source, and earth returns to earth on the day of separation.
حکمتی که بود حق را ز ازدواج ** گشت حاصل از نیاز و از لجاج
The providential purpose that God had—namely, humble supplication or obstinate contumacy—was fulfilled by means of the marriage (of body and spirit).
باشد آنگه ازدواجات دگر ** لا سمع اذن و لا عین بصر
Then (afterwards) there are other marriages that no ear hath heard and no eye hath seen.
گر شنیدی اذن کی ماندی اذن ** یا کجا کردی دگر ضبط سخن 3430
If the ear had heard, how should the ear have remained (in action) or how should it have apprehended words any more?
گر بدیدی برف و یخ خورشید را ** از یخی برداشتی اومید را
If the snow and ice were to behold the sun, they would despair of (retaining their) iciness;
آب گشتی بی‌عروق و بی‌گره ** ز آب داود هوا کردی زره
They would become water (formless and) devoid of roots and knobs: the air, David-like, would make of the water a mail-coat (of ripples),
پس شدی درمان جان هر درخت ** هر درختی از قدومش نیک‌بخت
And then it (the water) would become a life-giving medicine for every tree: every tree (would be made) fortunate by its advent.
آن یخی بفسرده در خود مانده ** لا مساسی با درختان خوانده
(But) the frozen ice that remains (locked) within itself cries to the trees,Touch me not!
لیس یالف لیس یلف جسمه ** لیس الا شح نفس قسمه 3435
Its body makes none its friend nor is it made a friend by any: its portion is naught but miserly selfishness.
نیست ضایع زو شود تازه جگر ** لیک نبود پیک و سلطان خضر
It is not wasted (entirely), the heart is refreshed by it; but it is not the herald and lord of (the vernal) greenery.
ای ایاز استاره‌ی تو بس بلند ** نیست هر برجی عبورش را پسند
“O Ayáz, thou art a very exalted star: not every sign of the zodiac is worthy of its transit.
هر وفا را کی پسندد همتت ** هر صفا را کی گزیند صفوتت
How should thy lofty spirit be satisfied with every loyalty? How should thy pureness choose (to accept) every sincerity?”
حکایت آن امیر کی غلام را گفت کی می بیار غلام رفت و سبوی می آورد در راه زاهدی بود امر معروف کرد زد سنگی و سبو را بشکست امیر بشنید و قصد گوشمال زاهد کرد و این قصد در عهد دین عیسی بود علیه‌السلام کی هنوز می حرام نشده بود ولیکن زاهد تقزیزی می‌کرد و از تنعم منع می‌کرد
Story of the Amír who bade his slave fetch some wine: the slave went off and was bringing a jug of wine, (when) an ascetic (who) was on the road admonished him that he should act righteously and threw a stone and smashed the jug; the Amír heard (of this) and resolved to punish the ascetic. That happened in the epoch of the religion of Jesus, on whom be peace, when wine had not yet been declared unlawful; but the ascetic was showing an abhorrence (for worldly pleasure) and preventing (others) from indulging themselves.
بود امیری خوش دلی می‌باره‌ای ** کهف هر مخمور و هر بیچاره‌ای
There was an Amír of merry heart, exceedingly fond of wine: (he was) the refuge of every drunkard and every resourceless person.