بر سر خاکستر انده نشست ** از بهانه شاخ تا شاخی نجست

He seated himself on the ashes of contrition: he did not jump from one branch of idle pleading to another

ربنا انا ظلمنا گفت و بس ** چونک جانداران بدید از پیش و پس

He said only, ‘O Lord, verily we have done wrong,’ when he saw the (angelic) life-guards in front and behind.

دید جانداران پنهان هم‌چو جان ** دورباش هر یکی تا آسمان

He saw the life-guards who are invisible, as the spirit is—each one’s mace (reaching) to the sky—-

که هلا پیش سلیمان مور باش ** تا بنشکافد ترا این دورباش

Saying, ‘Hola! be (as) the ant before Solomon, lest this mace cleave thee asunder.

جز مقام راستی یک دم مه‌ایست ** هیچ لالا مرد را چون چشم نیست 330

Do not for one moment stand (anywhere) but in the place of truth: a man hath no guardian like the (seeing) eye.

کور اگر از پند پالوده شود ** هر دمی او باز آلوده شود

(Even) if the blind man be purified by admonition, he continually becomes polluted again.

آدما تو نیستی کور از نظر ** لیک اذا جاء القضا عمی البصر

O Adam, thou art not blind of vision, but when the Divine destiny comes, the sight becomes blind.’”

عمرها باید به نادر گاه‌گاه ** تا که بینا از قضا افتد به چاه

Lifetimes are needed—(so) rarely and occasionally (does it happen)—for the seeing man to fall by destiny into the pit.

کور را خود این قضا همراه اوست ** که مرورا اوفتادن طبع و خوست

As regards the blind man, this destiny in sooth is his companion on the way; for ‘tis his nature and disposition to fall.

در حدث افتد نداند بوی چیست ** از منست این بوی یا ز آلودگیست 335

He falls into the filth and does not know what the smell is; (he asks himself), “Is this smell from me or from (my) being polluted?”