جز پشیمانی نباشد ریع او ** جز خسارت پیش نارد بیع او
The produce thereof is naught but penitence; the sale thereof yields only loss.
آن میسر نبود اندر عاقبت ** نام او باشد معسر عاقبت
That is not “easy” in the end; its (true) name ultimately is “hard.”
تو معسر از میسر باز دان ** عاقبت بنگر جمال این و آن
Distinguish the hard from the easy: consider (what is) the goodliness of this and that in the end.
در یکی گفته که استادی طلب ** عاقبت بینی نیابی در حسب490
In one he said: “Seek a master (teacher): you will not find foresight as to the end among the qualities derived from ancestors.”
عاقبت دیدند هر گون ملتی ** لاجرم گشتند اسیر زلتی
Every sort of religious sect foresaw the end (according to their own surmise): of necessity they fell captive to error.
عاقبت دیدن نباشد دست‌‌باف ** ور نه کی بودی ز دینها اختلاف
To foresee the end is not (as simple as) a hand-loom; otherwise, how would there have been difference in religions?
در یکی گفته که استا هم تویی ** ز انکه استا را شناسا هم تویی
In one he said: “You are the master, because you know the master.
مرد باش و سخره‌‌ی مردان مشو ** رو سر خود گیر و سر گردان مشو
Be a man and be not subject to men. Go, take your own head (choose your own way), and be not one whose head is turning (bewildered in search of a guide).”
در یکی گفته که این جمله یکی است ** هر که او دو بیند احول مردکی است495
In one he said: “All this (multiplicity) is one: whoever sees two is a squint-eyed manikin.”
در یکی گفته که صد یک چون بود ** این کی اندیشد مگر مجنون بود
In one he said: “How should a hundred be one? He who thinks this is surely mad.”