او ز حیوانها فزون‌تر جان کند ** در جهان باریک کاریها کند
He (the man of animal nature) suffers more anxiety than the beasts, (for) he practises subtle arts in the world.
مکر و تلبیسی که او داند تنید ** آن ز حیوان دیگر ناید پدید
The cunning and imposture which he knows how to spin— that (cunning) is not produced by any other animal.
جامه‌های زرکشی را بافتن ** درها از قعر دریا یافتن1515
To weave gold-embroidered robes, to win pearls from the bottom of the sea,
خرده‌کاریهای علم هندسه ** یا نجوم و علم طب و فلسفه
The fine artifices of geometry or astronomy, and the science of medicine and philosophy—
که تعلق با همین دنیاستش ** ره به هفتم آسمان بر نیستش
Which are connected only with this world and have no way (of mounting) up to the Seventh Heaven—
این همه علم بنای آخرست ** که عماد بود گاو و اشترست
All this is the science of building the (worldly) stable which is the pillar (basis) of the existence of (persons like) the ox and the camel.
بهر استبقای حیوان چند روز ** نام آن کردند این گیجان رموز
For the sake of preserving the animal for a few days, these crazy fools have given to those (arts and sciences) the name of “mysteries.”
علم راه حق و علم منزلش ** صاحب دل داند آن را با دلش1520
The knowledge of the Way to God and the knowledge of His dwelling place—that only the owner of the heart knows, or (you may say) his heart (itself).
پس درین ترکیب حیوان لطیف ** آفرید و کرد با دانش الیف
He (God), then, created in this composite fashion the goodly animal and made him familiar with knowledge.
نام کالانعام کرد آن قوم را ** زانک نسبت کو بیقظه نوم را
That (bestial) class (of men) He named “like the cattle,” for where is the resemblance between waking and sleep?
روح حیوانی ندارد غیر نوم ** حسهای منعکس دارند قوم
The animal spirit hath naught but sleep (ignorance): the (bestial) class of men possess inverted sense-perceptions.
یقظه آمد نوم حیوانی نماند ** انعکاس حس خود از لوح خواند
(When) waking comes, the animal sleep is no more, and he (the enlightened man) reads the (former) inversion of his senses from the tablet (of his clairvoyant consciousness)—
هم‌چو حس آنک خواب او را ربود ** چون شد او بیدار عکسیت نمود1525
Like the sense-perceptions of one whom sleep has seized: when he awakes, the inverted quality (of his sense-perceptions whilst he was dreaming) becomes apparent.
لاجرم اسفل بود از سافلین ** ترک او کن لا احب الافلین
Necessarily, he (the bestial man) is the lowest of the low. Take leave of him: I love not them that sink.
در تفسیر این آیت کی و اما الذین فی قلوبهم مرض فزادتهم رجسا و قوله یضل به کثیرا و یهدی به کثیرا
In exposition of the following Verse: "and as for those in whose hearts is a disease, it (each new Súra of the Qur’án) added unto their uncleanness (wicked unbelief)"; and of His Word: "thereby He letteth many be led astray, and thereby He letteth many be guided aright."
زانک استعداد تبدیل و نبرد ** بودش از پستی و آن را فوت کرد
(The bestial man is the lowest of the low) because he possessed the capacity for transforming himself and striving (to escape) from lowness, but (afterwards) lost it.
باز حیوان را چو استعداد نیست ** عذر او اندر بهیمی روشنیست
Again, since the animal does not possess (that) capacity, its excusability (for remaining) in the bestial state is a thing (most) evident.
زو چو استعداد شد کان رهبرست ** هر غذایی کو خورد مغز خرست
When the capacity, which is the guide (to salvation), is gone from him, every nutriment that he eats is the brain of an ass.
گر بلادر خورد او افیون شود ** سکته و بی‌عقلیش افزون شود1530
If he eats anacardium, it becomes (acts upon him as) opium: his apoplexy and dementia are increased.
ماند یک قسم دگر اندر جهاد ** نیم حیوان نیم حی با رشاد
There remains another sort (of men: they are engaged) in warfare: (they are) half animal, half (spiritually) alive and endowed with good guidance.
روز و شب در جنگ و اندر کش‌مکش ** کرده چالیش آخرش با اولش
Day and night in strife and mutual struggle, his (such a one's) last (state) battles with his first.
چالیش عقل با نفس هم چون تنازع مجنون با ناقه میل مجنون سوی حره میل ناقه واپس سوی کره چنانک گفت مجنون هوا ناقتی خلفی و قدامی الهوی و انی و ایاها لمختلفان
The battle of the reason against the flesh is like the contention of Majnún with his she camel: Majnún's inclination is towards the noble woman (Laylá), while the she camel's inclination is (to go) back towards her foal, as Majnún said (in verse): "My she-camel's love is behind me, while my love is in front of me; and verily I and she are discordant."
هم‌چو مجنون‌اند و چون ناقه‌ش یقین ** می‌کشد آن پیش و این واپس به کین
Assuredly they (the reason and the flesh) are like Majnún and his she-camel: that one is pulling forward and this one backward in (mutual) enmity.
میل مجنون پیش آن لیلی روان ** میل ناقه پس پی کره دوان
Majnún's desire is speeding to the presence of that (beloved) Laylá; the she camel's desire is running back after her foal.
یک دم ار مجنون ز خود غافل بدی ** ناقه گردیدی و واپس آمدی1535
If Majnún forgot himself for one moment, the she-camel would turn and go back.
عشق و سودا چونک پر بودش بدن ** می‌نبودش چاره از بی‌خود شدن
Since his body was full of love and passion, he had no resource but to become beside himself.
آنک او باشد مراقب عقل بود ** عقل را سودای لیلی در ربود
That which is regardful was (ever) reason: passion for Laylá carried (his) reason away.