When the enjoyments of the (sensual) nature are past, like brackish soil they raise no produce and crop.
هر چه ذوق طبع باشد چون گذشت ** بر نیارد همچو شوره ریع و کشت
The produce thereof is naught but penitence; the sale thereof yields only loss.
جز پشیمانی نباشد ریع او ** جز خسارت پیش نارد بیع او
That is not “easy” in the end; its (true) name ultimately is “hard.”
آن میسر نبود اندر عاقبت ** نام او باشد معسر عاقبت
Distinguish the hard from the easy: consider (what is) the goodliness of this and that in the end.
تو معسر از میسر باز دان ** عاقبت بنگر جمال این و آن
In one he said: “Seek a master (teacher): you will not find foresight as to the end among the qualities derived from ancestors.”490
در یکی گفته که استادی طلب ** عاقبت بینی نیابی در حسب
Every sort of religious sect foresaw the end (according to their own surmise): of necessity they fell captive to error.
عاقبت دیدند هر گون ملتی ** لاجرم گشتند اسیر زلتی
To foresee the end is not (as simple as) a hand-loom; otherwise, how would there have been difference in religions?
عاقبت دیدن نباشد دست‌‌باف ** ور نه کی بودی ز دینها اختلاف
In one he said: “You are the master, because you know the master.
در یکی گفته که استا هم تویی ** ز انکه استا را شناسا هم تویی
Be a man and be not subject to men. Go, take your own head (choose your own way), and be not one whose head is turning (bewildered in search of a guide).”
مرد باش و سخره‌‌ی مردان مشو ** رو سر خود گیر و سر گردان مشو
In one he said: “All this (multiplicity) is one: whoever sees two is a squint-eyed manikin.”495
در یکی گفته که این جمله یکی است ** هر که او دو بیند احول مردکی است