English    Türkçe    فارسی   

6
4716-4740

  • زشت آن زشتست و خوب آن خوب و بس  ** دایم آن ضحاک و این اندر عبس 
  • The only ugly one is that (eternally) ugly one; the only beautiful one is that (eternally) beautiful one: this one is always laughing and that one scowling.

  • خاک را رنگ و فن و سنگی دهد  ** طفل‌خویان را بر آن جنگی دهد 
  • He (God) gives to earth a certain colour and variety and value, and causes childish folk to wrangle over it.

  • از خمیری اشتر وشیری پزند  ** کودکان از حرص آن کف می‌گزند 
  • (When) a piece of dough is baked in the shape of a camel or lion, (these) children bite their fingers (excitedly) in their greed for it.

  • شیر و اشتر نان شود اندر دهان  ** در نگیرد این سخن با کودکان 
  • The lion or camel turns to bread in the mouth, but it is futile to tell this to children.

  • کودک اندر جهل و پندار و شکیست  ** شکر باری قوت او اندکیست  4720
  • The child is in a (state of) ignorance and fancy and doubt: at any rate, thank God, his strength is (but) little.

  • طفل را استیزه و صد آفتست  ** شکر این که بی‌فن و بی‌قوتست 
  • The child is quarrelsome and very mischievous: thank God for his lack of skill and strength.

  • وای ازین پیران طفل ناادیب  ** گشته از قوت بلای هر رقیب 
  • (But) alas for these childish undisciplined elders who in their strength have become an affliction to every guardian!

  • چون سلاح و جهل جمع آید به هم  ** گشت فرعونی جهان‌سوز از ستم 
  • When weapons and ignorance are brought together, he (such an one) becomes in his tyranny a world-consuming Pharaoh.

  • شکر کن ای مرد درویش از قصور  ** که ز فرعونی رهیدی وز کفور 
  • O poor man, thank God for thy deficiency (of means), for (thereby) thou art delivered from being a Pharaoh and ungrateful (for Divine blessings).

  • شکر که مظلومی و ظالم نه‌ای  ** آمن از فرعونی و هر فتنه‌ای  4725
  • Thank God that thou art the oppressed, not the oppressor: thou art secure from acting like Pharaoh and from every temptation.

  • اشکم تی لاف اللهی نزد  ** که آتشش را نیست از هیزم مدد 
  • An empty belly never bragged of Divinity, for it has no faggots to feed its fire.

  • اشکم خالی بود زندان دیو  ** کش غم نان مانعست از مکر و ریو 
  • An empty belly is the Devil's prison, because anxiety for bread prevents him from plotting and deceiving.

  • اشکم پر لوت دان بازار دیو  ** تاجران دیو را در وی غریو 
  • Know that a belly full of viands is the Devil's market, where the Devil's merchants raise a clamour:

  • تاجران ساحر لاشی‌فروش  ** عقل‌ها را تیره کرده از خروش 
  • Merchants who practise sorcery and sell worthless goods and obfuscate (men's) wits by vociferation.

  • خم روان کرده ز سحری چون فرس  ** کرده کرباسی ز مهتاب و غلس  4730
  • By a (trick of) sorcery they cause a vat to run like a horse and make a piece of linen out of moonshine and twilight.

  • چون بریشم خاک را برمی‌تنند  ** خاک در چشم ممیز می‌زنند 
  • They weave earth like silk and throw earth (dust) in the eyes of the discerning.

  • چندلی را رنگ عودی می‌دهند  ** بر کلوخیمان حسودی می‌دهند 
  • They give to a bit of (fragrant) sandal-wood the appearance of a piece of (common) wood; they put in us the envious desire for a clod.

  • پاک آنک خاک را رنگی دهد  ** هم‌چو کودکمان بر آن جنگی دهد 
  • (But) holy is He who giveth (mere) earth a (specious) colour and causes us to quarrel over it like children.

  • دامنی پر خاک ما چون طفلکان  ** در نظرمان خاک هم‌چون زر کان 
  • (The world is) a skirtful of earth, and we are like little children: in our sight the earth is as gold of the mine.

  • طفل را با بالغان نبود مجال  ** طفل را حق کی نشاند با رجال  4735
  • There is no room for a child beside (grown-up) men: how should God let a child sit with men?

  • میوه گر کهنه شود تا هست خام  ** پخته نبود غوره گویندش به نام 
  • If fruit become old, (yet) so long as it is immature and not ripe it is called ghúra (unripe grapes).

  • گر شود صدساله آن خام ترش  ** طفل و غوره‌ست او بر هر تیزهش 
  • Though (one resembling) immature and sour (fruit) reach the age of a hundred years, he is (still) a child and unripe (ghúra) in the opinion of every sagacious person.

  • گرچه باشد مو و ریش او سپید  ** هم در آن طفلی خوفست و امید 
  • Though his hair and beard be white, he is still in the childish state of fear and hope,

  • که رسم یا نارسیده مانده‌ام  ** ای عجب با من کند کرم آن کرم 
  • Saying, “Shall I attain (to maturity), or am I (to be) left immature? Oh, I wonder, will the Vine bestow that bounty on me?

  • با چنین ناقابلی و دوریی  ** بخشد این غوره‌ی مرا انگوریی  4740
  • Notwithstanding such an incapacity and remoteness (from God), will He confer on these unripe grapes (ghúra) of mine a perfection like that of the ripe grape (angúr)?