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2
619-668

  • مرد زندان را نیاید لقمه‏ای ** ور به صد حیلت گشاید طعمه‏ای‏
  • No morsel reaches the (ordinary) man in prison, or if by means of a hundred contrivances he discover some food,

  • در زمان پیش آید آن دوزخ گلو ** حجتش این که خدا گفتا کلوا 620
  • That hell-throat at once comes forward (with) this (as) his argument, that God has said, ‘Eat ye.’

  • زین چنین قحط سه ساله داد داد ** ظل مولانا ابد پاینده باد
  • Justice, justice against such a three years' famine! May the shadow of our lord endure for ever!

  • یا ز زندان تا رود این گاومیش ** یا وظیفه کن ز وقفی لقمه‏ایش‏
  • Either let this buffalo go from prison, or make him a regular allowance of food from a trust-fund.

  • ای ز تو خوش هم ذکور و هم اناث ** داد کن المستغاث المستغاث‏
  • O thou by whom both males and females are (made) happy, do justice! Thy help is invoked and besought.”

  • سوی قاضی شد وکیل با نمک ** گفت با قاضی شکایت یک به یک‏
  • The courteous agent went to the Cadi and related the complaint to him point by point.

  • خواند او را قاضی از زندان به پیش ** پس تفحص کرد از اعیان خویش‏ 625
  • The Cadi called him (the insolvent) from the prison into his presence, and (then) inquired (about him) from his own officers.

  • گشت ثابت پیش قاضی آن همه ** که نمودند از شکایت آن رمه‏
  • All the complaints which that flock (of prisoners) had set forth were proved to the Cadi.

  • گفت قاضی خیز از این زندان برو ** سوی خانه‏ی مرده‏ریگ خویش شو
  • The Cadi said (to him), “Get up and depart from this prison: go to the house which is your inherited property.”

  • گفت خان و مان من احسان تست ** همچو کافر جنتم زندان تست‏
  • He replied, “My house and home consist in thy beneficence; as (in the case of) an infidel, thy prison is my Paradise.

  • گر ز زندانم برانی تو به رد ** خود بمیرم من ز تقصیری و کد
  • If thou wilt drive me from the prison and turn me out, verily I shall die of destitution and beggary.”

  • همچو ابلیسی که می‏گفت ای سلام ** رب أنظرنی إلی یوم القیام‏ 630
  • (He pleaded) like the Devil, who was saying, “O Preserver, O my Lord, grant me a respite till the day of Resurrection;

  • کاندر این زندان دنیا من خوشم ** تا که دشمن زادگان را می‏کشم‏
  • For I am happy (to be) in the prison of this world, in order that I may be slaying the children of mine enemy,

  • هر که او را قوت ایمانی بود ** و ز برای زاد ره نانی بود
  • (And), if any one have some food of faith and a single loaf as provision for the journey (to the life hereafter),

  • می‏ستانم گه به مکر و گه به ریو ** تا بر آرند از پشیمانی غریو
  • I may seize it, now by plot and now by guile, so that in repentance they may raise an outcry (of lamentation);

  • گه به درویشی کنم تهدیدشان ** گه به زلف و خال بندم دیدشان‏
  • (And in order that) sometimes I may threaten them with poverty, sometimes bind their eyes with (the spell of) tress and mole.”

  • قوت ایمانی در این زندان کم است ** وان که هست از قصد این سگ در خم است‏ 635
  • In this prison (the world) the food of faith is scarce, and that which exists is in (danger of being caught in) the noose (of destruction) through the attack of this cur.

  • از نماز و صوم و صد بی‏چارگی ** قوت ذوق آید برد یک بارگی‏
  • (If) from prayer and fasting and a hundred helplessnesses (utter self-abnegations) the food of spiritual feeling come (to any one), he (the Devil) at once carries it off.

  • أستعیذ الله من شیطانه ** قد هلکنا آه من طغیانه‏
  • I seek refuge with God from His Satan: we have perished, alas, through his overweening disobedience.

  • یک سگ است و در هزاران می‏رود ** هر که در وی رفت او او می‏شود
  • He is (but) one cur, and he goes into thousands (of people): into whomsoever he goes, he (that person) becomes he (Satan).

  • هر که سردت کرد می‏دان کاو در اوست ** دیو پنهان گشته اندر زیر پوست‏
  • Whoever makes you cold (damps your spiritual ardour) know that he (Satan) is in him: the Devil has become hidden beneath his skin.

  • چون نیابد صورت آید در خیال ** تا کشاند آن خیالت در وبال‏ 640
  • When he finds no (bodily) form, he comes into (your) fancy, in order that that fancy may lead you into woe:

  • گه خیال فرجه و گاهی دکان ** گه خیال علم و گاهی خان و مان‏
  • Now the fancy of recreation, now of the shop; now the fancy of knowledge, and now of house and home.

  • هان بگو لاحولها اندر زمان ** از زبان تنها نه بلک از عین جان‏
  • Beware! say at once “God help me!” again and again, not with tongue alone but from your very soul.

  • تتمه قصه مفلس
  • The end of the story of the insolvent.

  • گفت قاضی مفلسی را وانما ** گفت اینک اهل زندانت گوا
  • The Cadi said, “Show plainly that you are insolvent.” “Here are the prisoners,” he replied, “as thy witnesses.”

  • گفت ایشان متهم باشند چون ** می‏گریزند از تو می‏گریند خون‏
  • “They,” said the Cadi, “are suspect, because they are fleeing from you and weeping blood (on account of your ill-treatment of them);

  • از تو می‏خواهند هم تا وارهند ** زین غرض باطل گواهی می‏دهند 645
  • Also, they are suing to be delivered from you: by reason of this self-interest the testimony they give is worthless.”

  • جمله اهل محکمه گفتند ما ** هم بر ادبار و بر افلاسش گوا
  • All the people belonging to the court of justice said, “We bear witness both to his (moral) degeneracy and his insolvency.”

  • هر که را پرسید قاضی حال او ** گفت مولا دست ازین مفلس بشو
  • Every one whom the Cadi questioned about his condition said, “My lord, wash thy hands of this insolvent.”

  • گفت قاضی کش بگردانید فاش ** گرد شهر این مفلس است و بس قلاش‏
  • The Cadi said, “March him round the city for all to see, (and cry), ‘This man is an insolvent and a great rogue.’

  • کو به کو او را مناداها زنید ** طبل افلاسش عیان هر جا زنید
  • Make proclamations concerning him, street by street; beat the drum (as an advertisement) of his insolvency everywhere in open view.

  • هیچ کس نسیه بنفروشد بدو ** قرض ندهد هیچ کس او را تسو 650
  • Let no one sell to him on credit, let no one lend him a farthing.

  • هر که دعوی آردش اینجا به فن ** بیش زندانش نخواهم کرد من‏
  • Whosoever may bring here a claim against him for fraud, I will not put him in prison any more.

  • پیش من افلاس او ثابت شده است ** نقد و کالا نیستش چیزی به دست‏
  • His insolvency has been proven to me: he has nothing in his possession, (neither) money nor goods.”

  • آدمی در حبس دنیا ز آن بود ** تا بود کافلاس او ثابت شود
  • Man is in the prison of this world in order that peradventure his insolvency may be proven.

  • مفلسی دیو را یزدان ما ** هم منادی کرد در قرآن ما
  • Our God has also proclaimed in our Qur’án the insolvency of the Devil,

  • کاو دغا و مفلس است و بد سخن ** هیچ با او شرکت و سودا مکن‏ 655
  • Saying, “He is a swindler and insolvent and liar: do not make any partnership or do any trade with him.”

  • ور کنی او را بهانه آوری ** مفلس است او صرفه از وی کی بری‏
  • And if you do so (and) bring (vain) pretexts to him, he is insolvent: how will you get profit from him?

  • حاضر آوردند چون فتنه فروخت ** اشتر کردی که هیزم می‏فروخت‏
  • When the trouble started, they brought on the scene the camel of a Kurd who sold firewood.

  • کرد بی‏چاره بسی فریاد کرد ** هم موکل را به دانگی شاد کرد
  • The helpless Kurd made a great outcry; he also gladdened the officer (appointed to seize the camel) with (the gift of) a dáng;

  • اشترش بردند از هنگام چاشت ** تا شب و افغان او سودی نداشت‏
  • (But) they took away his camel from the time of forenoon until nightfall, and his lamentation was of no use.

  • بر شتر بنشست آن قحط گران ** صاحب اشتر پی اشتر دوان‏ 660
  • Upon the camel sat that sore famine (the insolvent), while the owner of the camel was running at its heels.

  • سو به سو و کو به کو می‏تاختند ** تا همه شهرش عیان بشناختند
  • They sped from quarter to quarter and from street to street, till the whole town knew him by sight.

  • پیش هر حمام و هر بازارگاه ** کرده مردم جمله در شکلش نگاه‏
  • Before every bath and market-place all the people gazed on his (features and) figure.

  • ده منادی گر بلند آوازیان ** کرد و ترک و رومیان و تازیان‏
  • (There were) ten loud-voiced criers, Turks and Kurds and Anatolians and Arabs, (proclaiming),

  • مفلس است این و ندارد هیچ چیز ** قرض تا ندهد کس او را یک پشیز
  • “This man is insolvent and has nothing: let no one lend him a single brass farthing;

  • ظاهر و باطن ندارد حبه‏ای ** مفلسی قلبی دغایی دبه‏ای‏ 665
  • He does not possess a single mite, patent or latent: he is a bankrupt, a piece of falsehood, a cunning knave, an oil-bag.

  • هان و هان با او حریفی کم کنید ** چون که کاو آرد گره محکم کنید
  • Beware and beware! Have no dealings with him; when he brings the ox (to sell), make fast the knot.

  • ور به حکم آرید این پژمرده را ** من نخواهم کرد زندان مرده را
  • And if ye bring this decayed fellow to judgement, I will not put a corpse in prison.

  • خوش دم است او و گلویش بس فراخ ** با شعار نو دثار شاخ شاخ‏
  • He is fair-spoken and his throat is very wide; (he is clad) with a new inner garment (of plausibility) and a tattered outer garment.