The perfumes of our (good) words ascend even unto Him, ascending from us whither God knoweth.
ترتقی أنفاسنا بالمنتقی ** متحفا منا إلی دار البقا
Our breaths soar up with the choice (words), as a gift from us, to the abode of everlastingness;
ثم تاتینا مکافات المقال ** ضعف ذاک رحمة من ذی الجلال
Then comes to us the recompense of our speech, a double (recompense) thereof, as a mercy from (God) the Glorious;
ثم یلجینا الی امثالها ** کی ینال العبد مما نالها885
Then He causes us to repair to (makes us utter) good words like those (already uttered), that His servant may obtain (something more) of what he has obtained.
هکذا تعرج و تنزل دایما ** ذا فلا زلت علیه قائما
Thus do they (our good words) ascend while it (the Divine mercy) descends continually: mayst thou never cease to keep up that (ascent and descent)!
پارسی گوییم یعنی این کشش ** ز آن طرف آید که آمد آن چشش
Let us speak Persian: the meaning is that this attraction (by which God draws the soul towards Himself) comes from the same quarter whence came that savour (spiritual delight experienced in and after prayer).
چشم هر قومی به سویی مانده است ** کان طرف یک روز ذوقی رانده است
The eyes of every set of people remain (turned) in the direction where one day they satisfied a (longing for) delight.
ذوق جنس از جنس خود باشد یقین ** ذوق جزو از کل خود باشد ببین
The delight of (every) kind is certainly in its own kind (congener): the delight of the part, observe, is in its whole;
یا مگر آن قابل جنسی بود ** چون بدو پیوست جنس او شود890
Or else, that (part) is surely capable of (attachment to) a (different) kind and, when it has attached itself thereto, becomes homogeneous with it,
همچو آب و نان که جنس ما نبود ** گشت جنس ما و اندر ما فزود
As (for instance) water and bread, which were not our congeners, became homogeneous with us and increased within us (added to our bulk and strength).
نقش جنسیت ندارد آب و نان ** ز اعتبار آخر آن را جنس دان
Water and bread have not the appearance of being our congeners, (but) from consideration of the end (final result) deem them to be homogeneous (with us).
ور ز غیر جنس باشد ذوق ما ** آن مگر مانند باشد جنس را
And if our delight is (derived) from something not homogeneous, that (thing) will surely resemble the congener.
آن که مانند است باشد عاریت ** عاریت باقی نماند عاقبت
That which (only) bears a resemblance is a loan: a loan is impermanent in the end.
مرغ را گر ذوق آید از صفیر ** چون که جنس خود نیابد شد نفیر895
Although the bird is delighted by (the fowler's) whistle, it takes fright when it (sees him and) does not find its own congener.
تشنه را گر ذوق آید از سراب ** چون رسد در وی گریزد جوید آب
Although the thirsty man is delighted by the mirage, he runs away when he comes up to it, and seeks for water.
مفلسان هم خوش شوند از زر قلب ** لیک آن رسوا شود در دار ضرب
Moreover, the insolent are pleased with base gold, yet that (gold) is put to shame in the mint.
تا زر اندودیت از ره نفگند ** تا خیال کژ ترا چه نفگند
(Take heed) lest gildedness (imposture) cast you out of the (right) way, lest false imagination cast you into the well.
از کلیله باز جو آن قصه را ** و اندر آن قصه طلب کن حصه را
Seek the story (illustrating this) from (the book of) Kalíla (and Dimna), and search out the moral (contained) in the story.
بیان توکل و ترک جهد گفتن نخجیران به شیر
Setting forth how the beasts of chase told the lion to trust in God and cease from exerting himself.
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.
جانهای خلق پیش از دست و پا ** می‌‌پریدند از وفا اندر صفا925
The spirits of created beings, before (the creation of) hand and foot, by reason of their faithfulness were flying in (the realm of) purity;