Lightning is transient and very faithless: without clearness (of mind) you will not know the transient from the permanent.
برق آفل باشد و بس بیوفا ** آفل از باقی ندانی بیصفا
The lightning laughs: say, at whom is it laughing? At him that sets his heart upon its light.
برق خندد بر که میخندد بگو ** بر کسی که دل نهد بر نور او
The lights of the sky are hamstrung (feeble and imperfect): how are they like (that Light which is) neither of the east nor of the west?
نورهای چرخ ببریده پی است ** آن چو لا شرقی و لا غربی کی است
Know that the nature of lightning is that it taketh away the sight; regard the everlasting Light as entirely Helpers (to the attainment of vision).1545
برق را چون یخطف الأبصار دان ** نور باقی را همه انصار دان
To ride (your) horse upon the foam of the sea, to read a letter in a flash of lightning,
بر کف دریا فرس را راندن ** نامهای در نور برقی خواندن
Is, to fail, because of covetousness, to see the end; it is, to laugh at your own mind and intellect.
از حریصی عاقبت نادیدن است ** بر دل و بر عقل خود خندیدن است
Intellect, by its proper nature, is a seer of the end (consequence); ’tis the fleshly soul that does not see the end.
عاقبت بین است عقل از خاصیت ** نفس باشد کاو نبیند عاقبت
The intellect that is vanquished by the flesh becomes the flesh: Jupiter is checkmated by Saturn and becomes inauspicious.
عقل کاو مغلوب نفس او نفس شد ** مشتری مات زحل شد نحس شد
Still, turn this gaze (of yours) upon this inauspiciousness, look on that One who made you ill-starred.1550
هم درین نحسی بگردان این نظر ** در کسی که کرد نحست درنگر
The gaze (of him) that surveys this ebb and flow pierces from the inauspicious influence to the auspicious.
آن نظر که بنگرد این جر و مد ** او ز نحسی سوی سعدی نقب زد