بیست مرده جنگ می‌کردی در آن ** کت همی‌دادند پند آن دیگران
You were fighting like twenty men (to prevail) in the matter concerning which those others were giving you good advice.
که صواب اینست و راه اینست و بس ** کی زند طعنه مرا جز هیچ‌کس
You said, “This is right and this is the only (approved) way: how should any one but a nobody (worthless person) rail at me?”
کی چنین گوید کسی کو مکر هست ** چون چنین جنگد کسی کو بی‌رهست1400
How should one who is compelled speak thus? How should one who has lost his way wrangle like this?
هر چه نفست خواست داری اختیار ** هر چه عقلت خواست آری اضطرار
Whatever your fleshly soul desires, you have free-will (in regard to that); whatever your reason desires, you plead necessity (as an excuse for rejecting it).
داند او کو نیک‌بخت و محرمست ** زیرکی ز ابلیس و عشق از آدمست
He that is blessed and familiar (with spiritual mysteries) knows that intelligence is of Iblís, while love is of Adam.
زیرکی سباحی آمد در بحار ** کم رهد غرقست او پایان کار
Intelligence is (like) swimming in the seas: he (the swimmer) is not saved: he is drowned at the end of the business.
هل سباحت را رها کن کبر و کین ** نیست جیحون نیست جو دریاست این
Leave off swimming, let pride and enmity go: this is not a Jayhun (Oxus) or a (lesser) river, it is an ocean;
وانگهان دریای ژرف بی‌پناه ** در رباید هفت دریا را چو کاه1405
And, moreover, (it is) the deep Ocean without refuge: it sweeps away the seven seas like straw.
عشق چون کشتی بود بهر خواص ** کم بود آفت بود اغلب خلاص
Love is as a ship for the elect: seldom is calamity (the result); for the most part it is deliverance.
زیرکی بفروش و حیرانی بخر ** زیرکی ظنست و حیرانی نظر
Sell intelligence and buy bewilderment: intelligence is opinion, while bewilderment is (immediate) vision.