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

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!

پس بگو کو جنبش و جولانتان ** بحر افکندست در بحرانتان

Then say (to them), “Where is your movement and gyration (now)? The Sea has cast you into the crisis (of a deadly malady)”—

تا بگویندت به لب نی بل به حال ** که ز دریا کن نه از ما این سال

In order that they may say to you, not with their lips but implicitly, “Ask this question of the Sea, not of us.”

نقش چون کف کی بجنبد بی ز موج ** خاک بی بادی کجا آید بر اوج

How should the foam-like (phenomenal) form move without the wave? How should the dust rise to the zenith without a wind?