Who is the fish and what is the sea in (my) simile, that the King Almighty and Glorious should resemble them?
کیست ماهی چیست دریا در مثل ** تا بدان ماند ملک عز و جل
In (the world of) existence myriads of seas and fishes prostrate themselves in adoration before that Munificence and Bounty.505
صد هزاران بحر و ماهی در وجود ** سجده آرد پیش آن اکرام و جود
How many a rain of largesse hath rained, so that the sea was made thereby to scatter pearls!
چند باران عطا باران شده ** تا بدان آن بحر در افشان شده
How many a sun of generosity hath shone, so that cloud and sea learned to be bountiful!
چند خورشید کرم افروخته ** تا که ابر و بحر جود آموخته
The sunbeams of Wisdom struck on soil and clay, so that the earth became receptive of the seed.
پرتو دانش زده بر آب و طین ** تا شده دانه پذیرندهی زمین
The soil is faithful to its trust, and whatever you have sown in it, you carry away the (equivalent in) kind thereof without fraud (on the part of the soil).
خاک امین و هر چه در وی کاشتی ** بیخیانت جنس آن برداشتی
It has derived this faithfulness from that (Divine) faithfulness, inasmuch as the sun of Justice has shone upon it.510
این امانت ز آن امانت یافته ست ** کافتاب عدل بر وی تافته ست
Until springtide brings the token of God, the soil does not reveal its secrets.
تا نشان حق نیارد نو بهار ** خاک سرها را نکرده آشکار
The Bounteous One who gave to an inanimate thing these informations and this faithfulness and this righteousness,
آن جوادی که جمادی را بداد ** این خبرها وین امانت وین سداد
His grace makes an inanimate thing informed, (while) His wrath makes blind the men of understanding.
مر جمادی را کند فضلش خبیر ** عاقلان را کرده قهر او ضریر