Permission is not (given) in the Law, that we should appoint one less than thee as (our) prince and leader.’
در شریعت نیست دستوری که ما ** کمتر از تو شه کنیم و پیشوا
By this necessity I was made distraught and mad (in appearance), but inwardly I am just the same as I was.
زین ضرورت گیج و دیوانه شدم ** لیک در باطن همانم که بدم
My intelligence is the (hidden) treasure, and I am the ruin (which covers it); if I display the treasure, (then) I am mad (indeed).2425
عقل من گنج است و من ویرانهام ** گنج اگر پیدا کنم دیوانهام
The (real) madman is he that has not gone mad, he that has seen this night patrol and has not gone home.
اوست دیوانه که دیوانه نشد ** این عسس را دید و در خانه نشد
My knowledge is substantial, not accidental; and this precious (thing) is not for (the purpose of gaining) every (worldly) interest.
دانش من جوهر آمد نه عرض ** این بهایی نیست بهر هر غرض
I am a mine of candy, I am a plantation of sugar-canes: it is growing from me, and at the same time I am eating (of it).
کان قندم نیستان شکرم ** هم ز من میروید و من میخورم
Knowledge is conventional and acquired (not real), when he (its owner) laments because the hearer is averse to (hearing) it.
علم تقلیدی و تعلیمی است آن ** کز نفورش مستمع دارد فغان
Since it is (learned) as a bait (for popularity), not for the sake of (spiritual) enlightenment, he (the seeker of religious knowledge) is just as (bad) as the seeker of vile worldly knowledge;2430
چون پی دانه نه بهر روشنی است ** همچو طالب علم دنیای دنی است
(For) he is seeking knowledge on account of the vulgar and the noble, not in order that he may win release from this world.
طالب علم است بهر عام و خاص ** نی که تا یابد از این عالم خلاص
Like a mouse, he has burrowed in every direction, since the light drove him (back) from the door (the entrance to the hole) and said, ‘Away!’
همچو موشی هر طرف سوراخ کرد ** چون که نورش راند از در گشت سرد