When your head is at the bottom of the river, how will your eye fall on the colour of the water?
چون که اندر قعر جو باشد سرت ** کی به رنگ آب افتد منظرت
And if you come back from the bottom to the colour of the water, then you have received a coarse woollen garment and given (fine) fur (in exchange).2815
ور به رنگ آب باز آیی ز قعر ** پس پلاسی بستدی دادی تو شعر
The piety of the vulgar is sin in the elect; the unitive state of the vulgar is a veil in the elect.
طاعت عامه گناه خاصگان ** وصلت عامه حجاب خاص دان
If the king make a vizier a police inspector, the king is his enemy, he is not his friend.
مر وزیری را کند شه محتسب ** شه عدوی او بود نبود محب
Also, that vizier will have committed some offence: necessarily change (for the worse) is not (does not occur) without cause.
هم گناهی کرده باشد آن وزیر ** بیسبب نبود تغیر ناگزیر
He that has been a police inspector from the first—to him that (office) has been fortune and livelihood from the beginning;
آن که ز اول محتسب بد خود و را ** بخت و روزی آن بده ست از ابتدا
But he that was first the king's vizier—evil-doing is the cause of making him a police inspector.2820
لیک آن کاول وزیر شه بده ست ** محتسب کردن سبب فعل بد است
When the King has called you from the threshold into His presence, and again has driven you back to the threshold,
چون ترا شه ز آستانه پیش خواند ** باز سوی آستانه باز راند
Know for sure that you have committed a sin and in folly have brought forward (pleaded) compulsion (as the cause),
تو یقین میدان که جرمی کردهای ** جبر را از جهل پیش آوردهای
Saying, “This was my (predestined) portion and lot.” (But) then, why was that good luck in your hands yesterday?
که مرا روزی و قسمت این بده ست ** پس چرا دی بودت آن دولت به دست