طایفهی نخجیر در وادی خوش ** بودشان از شیر دایم کش مکش900
A number of beasts of chase in a pleasant valley were continually harassed by a lion.
بس که آن شیر از کمین درمیربود ** آن چرا بر جمله ناخوش گشته بود
Inasmuch as the lion was (springing) from ambush and carrying them away, that pasturage had become unpleasant to them all.
حیله کردند آمدند ایشان بشیر ** کز وظیفه ما ترا داریم سیر
They made a plot: they came to the lion, saying, “We will keep thee full-fed by means of a (fixed) allowance.
بعد از این اندر پی صیدی میا ** تا نگردد تلخ بر ما این گیا
Henceforth do not come in quest of any prey in order that this grass may not become bitter to us.”
جواب گفتن شیر نخجیران را و فایدهی جهد گفتن
How the lion answered the beasts and explained the advantage of exertion.
گفت آری گر وفا بینم نه مکر ** مکرها بس دیدهام از زید و بکر
“Yes,” said he, “if I see (find) good faith (on your part), not fraud, for often have I seen (suffered) frauds from Zayd and Bakr.
من هلاک فعل و مکر مردمم ** من گزیدهی زخم مار و کژدمم905
I am done to death by the cunning and fraud of men, I am bitten by the sting of (human) snake and scorpion;
مردم نفس از درونم در کمین ** از همه مردم بتر در مکر و کین
(But) worse than all men in fraud and spite is the man of the flesh (nafs) lying in wait within me.
گوش من لا یلدغ المؤمن شنید ** قول پیغمبر به جان و دل گزید
My ear heard ‘The believer is not bitten (twice),’ and adopted (this) saying of the Prophet with heart and soul.”
ترجیح نهادن نخجیران توکل را بر جهد و اکتساب
How the beasts asserted the superiority of trust in God to exertion and acquisition.
جمله گفتند ای حکیم با خبر ** الحذر دع لیس یغنی عن قدر
They all said: “O knowing sage, let precaution alone: it is of no avail against the Divine decree.
در حذر شوریدن شور و شر است ** رو توکل کن توکل بهتر است
In precaution is the embroilment of broil and woe: go, put thy trust in God: trust in God is better.
با قضا پنجه مزن ای تند و تیز ** تا نگیرد هم قضا با تو ستیز910
Do not grapple with Destiny, O fierce and furious one, lest Destiny also pick a quarrel with thee.
مرده باید بود پیش حکم حق ** تا نیاید زخم از رب الفلق
One must be dead in presence of the decree of God, so that no blow may come from the Lord of the daybreak.”
ترجیح نهادن شیر جهد و اکتساب را بر توکل و تسلیم
How the lion upheld the superiority of exertion and acquisition to trust in God and resignation.
گفت آری گر توکل رهبر است ** این سبب هم سنت پیغمبر است
“Yes,” he said; “(but) if trust in God is the (true) guide, (yet use of) the means too is the Prophet's rule (Sunna).
گفت پیغمبر به آواز بلند ** با توکل زانوی اشتر ببند
The Prophet said with a loud voice, ‘While trusting in God bind the knee of thy camel.’
رمز الکاسب حبیب الله شنو ** از توکل در سبب کاهل مشو
Hearken to the signification of ‘The earner (worker) is beloved of God’: through trusting in God do not become neglectful as to the (ways and) means.”
ترجیح نهادن نخجیران توکل را بر اجتهاد
How the beasts preferred trust in God to exertion.
قوم گفتندش که کسب از ضعف خلق ** لقمهی تزویر دان بر قدر حلق915
The party (of beasts) answered him, saying, “Regard acquisition (work), arising from the infirmity of (God's) creatures, as a mouthful of deceit proportionate to the size of the gullet.
نیست کسبی از توکل خوبتر ** چیست از تسلیم خود محبوبتر
There is no work better than trust in God: what, indeed, is dearer (to God) than resignation?
بس گریزند از بلا سوی بلا ** بس جهند از مار سوی اژدها
Often do they flee from affliction (only) to (fall into) affliction; often do they recoil from the snake (only) to (meet with) the dragon.
حیله کرد انسان و حیلهش دام بود ** آن که جان پنداشت خون آشام بود
Man devised (something), and his device was a snare (wherein he was trapped): that which he thought to be life was (actually) the drainer of his blood (his destroyer).
در ببست و دشمن اندر خانه بود ** حیلهی فرعون زین افسانه بود
He locked the door while the foe was in the house: the plot of Pharaoh was a story of this sort.
صد هزاران طفل کشت آن کینه کش ** و آن که او میجست اندر خانهاش920
That vengeful man slew hundreds of thousands of babes, while the one he was searching after was in his (Pharaoh's) house.
دیدهی ما چون بسی علت در اوست ** رو فنا کن دید خود در دید دوست
Since in our eyesight (foresight) there is much defect, go, let your own sight pass away (faná) in the sight of the Friend (God).
دید ما را دید او نعم العوض ** یابی اندر دید او کل غرض
His sight for ours—what a goodly recompense! In His sight you will find the whole object of your desire.
طفل تا گیرا و تا پویا نبود ** مرکبش جز گردن بابا نبود
So long as the child could neither grasp (exert strength) nor run, he had nothing to ride on but his father's neck;
چون فضولی گشت و دست و پا نمود ** در عنا افتاد و در کور و کبود
When he became a busybody and plied hand and foot (exerted himself), he fell into trouble and wretchedness.