از وجودی ترس که اکنون در ویی ** آن خیالت لاشی و تو لا شیی

Be afraid of the existence in which you are now: that phantasy of yours is nothing and you (yourself) are nothing.

لاشیی بر لاشیی عاشق شدست ** هیچ نی مر هیچ نی را ره زدست

One nothing has fallen in love with another nothing: has any naught ever waylaid (and attacked) any other naught?

چون برون شد این خیالات از میان ** گشت نامعقول تو بر تو عیان

When these phantasies have departed from before you, that which your understanding hath not conceived becomes clear to you.

لیس للماضین هم الموت انما لهم حسره الموت

Those who have passed away do not grieve on account of death; their only regret is to have missed the opportunities (of life).

راست گفتست آن سپهدار بشر ** که هر آنک کرد از دنیا گذر 1450

That captain of mankind has said truly that no one who has passed away from this world

نیستش درد و دریغ و غبن موت ** بلک هستش صد دریغ از بهر فوت

Feels sorrow and regret and disappointment on account of death; nay, but he feels a hundred regrets for having missed the opportunity,

که چرا قبله نکردم مرگ را ** مخزن هر دولت و هر برگ را

Saying (to himself), “Why did not I make death my object —(death, which is) the store-house of every fortune and every provision—

قبله کردم من همه عمر از حول ** آن خیالاتی که گم شد در اجل

(And why), through seeing double, did I make the lifelong object of my attention those phantoms that vanished at the fated hour?”

حسرت آن مردگان از مرگ نیست ** زانست کاندر نقشها کردیم ایست

The grief of the dead is not on account of death; it is because (so they say) “we dwelt upon the (phenomenal) forms,

ما ندیدیم این که آن نقش است و کف ** کف ز دریا جنبد و یابد علف 1455

And this we did not perceive, that those are (mere) form and foam, (and that) the foam is moved and fed by the Sea.”

چونک بحر افکند کفها را به بر ** تو بگورستان رو آن کفها نگر

When the Sea has cast the foam-flakes on the shore, go to the graveyard and behold those flakes of foam!