زیرکی سباحی آمد در بحار ** کم رهد غرقست او پایان کار
Intelligence is (like) swimming in the seas: he (the swimmer) is not saved: he is drowned at the end of the business.
هل سباحت را رها کن کبر و کین ** نیست جیحون نیست جو دریاست این
Leave off swimming, let pride and enmity go: this is not a Jayhun (Oxus) or a (lesser) river, it is an ocean;
وانگهان دریای ژرف بی‌پناه ** در رباید هفت دریا را چو کاه1405
And, moreover, (it is) the deep Ocean without refuge: it sweeps away the seven seas like straw.
عشق چون کشتی بود بهر خواص ** کم بود آفت بود اغلب خلاص
Love is as a ship for the elect: seldom is calamity (the result); for the most part it is deliverance.
زیرکی بفروش و حیرانی بخر ** زیرکی ظنست و حیرانی نظر
Sell intelligence and buy bewilderment: intelligence is opinion, while bewilderment is (immediate) vision.
عقل قربان کن به پیش مصطفی ** حسبی الله گو که الله‌ام کفی
Sacrifice your understanding in the presence of Mustafá (Mohammed) say, “hasbiya ‘lláh, for God sufficeth me.”
هم‌چو کنعان سر ز کشتی وا مکش ** که غرورش داد نفس زیرکش
Do not draw back your head from the ship (ark), like Kan‘án (Canaan), whom his intelligent soul deluded,
که برآیم بر سر کوه مشید ** منت نوحم چرا باید کشید1410
Saying, “I will go up to the top of the lofty mountain: why must I bear gratitude (be under an obligation) to Noah?”
چون رمى از منتش اى بىرشد ** كه خدا هم منت او مىكشد
How should you recoil from being grateful to him, O unrighteous one, when even God bears gratitude to him?
چون رمی از منتش بر جان ما ** چونک شکر و منتش گوید خدا
How should gratitude to him not be (as an obligation) on our souls, when God gives him words of thankful praise and gratitude?
تو چه دانی ای غراره‌ی پر حسد ** منت او را خدا هم می‌کشد
What do you know (about his exalted state), O sack full of envy? Even God bears gratitude to him.
کاشکی او آشنا ناموختی ** تا طمع در نوح و کشتی دوختی
Would that he (one like Kan‘án) had not learned to swim, so that he might have fixed his hope on Noah and the ark!
کاش چون طفل از حیل جاهل بدی ** تا چو طفلان چنگ در مادر زدی1415
Would that, like a child, he had been ignorant of devices, so that, like children, he might have clung to his mother,
یا به علم نقل کم بودی ملی ** علم وحی دل ربودی از ولی
Or that he had not been filled with traditional knowledge, (but) had carried away from a saint the knowledge divinely revealed to the heart!
با چنین نوری چو پیش آری کتاب ** جان وحی آسای تو آرد عتاب
When you bring forward a book (in rivalry) with such a light (of inspiration), your soul, that resembles inspiration (in its nature), reproaches (you).
چون تیمم با وجود آب دان ** علم نقلی با دم قطب زمان
Know that beside the breath (words) of the Qutb of the time traditional knowledge is like performing the ritual ablution with sand when there is water (available).
خویش ابله کن تبع می‌رو سپس ** رستگی زین ابلهی یابی و بس
Make yourself foolish (simple) and follow behind (him): only by means of this foolishness will you gain deliverance.
اکثر اهل الجنه البله ای پسر ** بهر این گفتست سلطان البشر1420
On this account, O father, the Sultan of mankind (Mohammed hath said, “Most of the people of Paradise are the foolish.”
زیرکی چون کبر و باد انگیز تست ** ابلهی شو تا بماند دل درست
Since, intelligence is the exciter of pride and vanity in you, become a fool in order that your heart may remain sound—
ابلهی نه کو به مسخرگی دوتوست ** ابلهی کو واله و حیران هوست
Not the fool that is bent double (abases himself) in buffoonery, (but) the fool that is distraught and bewildered (lost) in Him (God).
ابلهان‌اند آن زنان دست بر ** از کف ابله وز رخ یوسف نذر
The foolish are (like) those women (of Egypt) who cut their hands—foolish in respect of their hands, (but) giving (wise) notice to beware of the face (beauty) of Joseph.
عقل را قربان کن اندر عشق دوست ** عقلها باری از آن سویست کوست
Sacrifice your intellect in love for the Friend: anyhow, (all) intellects are from the quarter where He is.
عقلها آن سو فرستاده عقول ** مانده این سو که نه معشوقست گول1425
The (spiritually) intelligent have sent their intellects to that quarter: (only) the dolt has remained in this quarter where the’ Beloved is not.
زین سر از حیرت گر این عقلت رود ** هر سو مویت سر و عقلی شود
If, from bewilderment, this intellect of yours go out of this head, every head (tip) of your hair will become (a new) head and intellect.
نیست آن سو رنج فکرت بر دماغ ** که دماغ و عقل روید دشت و باغ
In that quarter the trouble of thinking is. not (incumbent) on the brain, for (there) the brain and intellect (spontaneously) produce fields and orchards (of spiritual knowledge).
سوی دشت از دشت نکته بشنوی ** سوی باغ آیی شود نخلت روی
(If you turn) towards the field, you will hear from the field a subtle discourse; (if) you come to the orchard, your palm- tree will become fresh and flourishing.
اندرین ره ترک کن طاق و طرنب ** تا قلاوزت نجنبد تو مجنب
In this Way abandon ostentation: do not move unless your (spiritual) guide move.
هر که او بی سر بجنبد دم بود ** جنبشش چون جنبش کزدم بود1430
Any one who moves without the head (guide) is a (mere) tail (base and contemptible): his movement is like the movement of the scorpion.
کژرو و شب کور و زشت و زهرناک ** پیشه‌ی او خستن اجسام پاک
Going crookedly, night-blind and ugly and venomous—his trade is the wounding of the pure bodies (of the unworldly).
سر بکوب آن را که سرش این بود ** خلق و خوی مستمرش این بود
Beat the head of him whose inmost spirit is (like) this, and whose permanent nature and disposition is (like) this.
خود صلاح اوست آن سر کوفتن ** تا رهد جان‌ریزه‌اش زان شوم‌تن
In sooth ‘tis good for him to beat this head (of his), so that his puny-soul may be delivered from that ill-starred body.
واستان آن دست دیوانه سلاح ** تا ز تو راضی شود عدل و صلاح
Take away the weapons from the madman’s hand, that Justice and Goodness may be satisfied with you.
چون سلاحش هست و عقلش نه ببند ** دست او را ورنه آرد صد گزند1435
Since he has weapons and has no understanding, shackle his hand; otherwise he will inflict a hundred injuries.
بیان آنک حصول علم و مال و جاه بدگوهران را فضیحت اوست و چون شمشیریست کی افتادست به دست راه‌زن
Explaining that the acquisition of knowledge and wealth and rank by men of evil nature is the (means of) exposing him (such a one) to shame and is like a sword that has fallen into the hand of a brigand.
بدگهر را علم و فن آموختن ** دادن تیغی به دست راه‌زن
To teach the evil-natured man knowledge and skill is to put a sword in the hand of a brigand.
تیغ دادن در کف زنگی مست ** به که آید علم ناکس را به دست
It is better to put a sword in the hand of an intoxicated negro than that knowledge should come into the possession of a worthless person.
علم و مال و منصب و جاه و قران ** فتنه آمد در کف بدگوهران
Knowledge and wealth and office’ and rank and fortune are a mischief in the hands of the evil-natured.
پس غزا زین فرض شد بر مومنان ** تا ستانند از کف مجنون سنان
Therefore the Holy War was made obligatory on the true believers for this purpose, (namely) that they might take the spear-point from the hand of the madman.
جان او مجنون تنش شمشیر او ** واستان شمشیر را زان زشت‌خو1440
His (the evil-natured man's) spirit is (like) the madman, and his body is (like) his (the madman's) sword: take away the sword from that wicked man!
آنچ منصب می‌کند با جاهلان ** از فضیحت کی کند صد ارسلان
How should a hundred lions inflict the shame which (high) office inflicts upon the ignorant?
عیب او مخفیست چون آلت بیافت ** مارش از سوراخ بر صحرا شتافت
His vice is hidden, (but) when he got the instrument (gained power), his snake, (coming out) from its hole, sped along the plain.
جمله صحرا مار و کزدم پر شود ** چونک جاهل شاه حکم مر شود
The entire plain is filled with snakes and scorpions when the ignorant man becomes king (master) of the bitter (harsh) decree.
مال و منصب ناکسی که آرد به دست ** طالب رسوایی خویش او شدست
The worthless person who acquires wealth and office has become the seeker of his own disgrace.
یا کند بخل و عطاها کم دهد ** یا سخا آرد بنا موضع نهد1445
Either he behaves stingily and gives few presents, or he shows generosity and bestows (them) in the wrong place (unsuitably).
شاه را در خانه‌ی بیذق نهد ** این چنین باشد عطا که احمق دهد
He puts the king in the house (square) of the pawn: the gifts which a fool makes are like this.
حکم چون در دست گمراهی فتاد ** جاه پندارید در چاهی فتاد
When authority falls into the hands of one who has lost the (right) way, he deems it to be a high position (jáh), (but in reality) he has fallen into a pit (cháh).
راه نمی‌داند قلاووزی کند ** جان زشت او جهان‌سوزی کند
He does not know the way, (yet) he acts as guide: his wicked spirit makes a world-conflagration.
طفل راه فقر چون پیری گرفت ** پی‌روان را غول ادباری گرفت
When (one who is as) a child in the Way of (spiritual) poverty assumes the part of an Elder (Director of souls), the ghoul of unblessedness seizes those who follow (him).
که بیا تا ماه بنمایم ترا ** ماه را هرگز ندید آن بی‌صفا1450
“Come,” says he, “for I will show thee the moon”; (yet) that impure one never saw the moon.
چون نمایی چون ندیدستی به عمر ** عکس مه در آب هم ای خام غمر
How wilt thou show (the moon) when during (all) thy life thou hast not seen even the reflexion of the moon in the water, O half-baked dunce?
احمقان سرور شدستند و ز بیم ** عاقلان سرها کشیده در گلیم
The foolish have become leaders, and from fear (of them) the wise have drawn their heads into the cloak.