He (the fool) said, “Here you are, this is the truth! I accept (it) with (all) my soul.” Wrong seems right to the wrong-minded.
گفت اینک راست پذرفتم به جان ** کج نماید راست در پیش کجان
If you say to a squinting man, “The moon is one,” he will say to you, “These are two (moons); and there is a (great) doubt as to (the moon's) being one”;
گر بگویی احولی را مه یکی است ** گویدت این دوست و در وحدت شکی است
And if somebody laughs at him and says, “There are two,” he deems it the truth. This (mockery) is what the ill-natured (ignorant and contumacious) fellow deserves.
ور بر او خندد کسی گوید دو است ** راست دارد این سزای بد خو است
Lies muster round (those who are living) lies: (the text) the wicked men for the wicked women has thrown light (upon this point).
بر دروغان جمع میآید دروغ ** الخبیثات الخبیثین زد فروغ
They whose hearts are (opened) wide (to receive spiritual truths) have wide (far-reaching) hands; they whose (spiritual) eyes are blind have to stumble on stony ground.3640
دل فراخان را بود دست فراخ ** چشم کوران را عثار سنگلاخ
On seeking the tree whereof none that eats the fruit shall die.
جستن آن درخت که هر که میوهی آن درخت خورد نمیرد
A learned man (once) said, for the sake of (telling) a story, “In India there is a certain tree:
گفت دانایی برای داستان ** که درختی هست در هندوستان
Whoso takes and eats of its fruit, he grows not old nor ever dies.”
هر کسی کز میوهی او خورد و برد ** نه شود او پیر نه هرگز بمرد
A king heard this (tale) from a veracious person: he became a lover of the tree and its fruit.
پادشاهی این شنید از صادقی ** بر درخت و میوهاش شد عاشقی
From the Divan of culture he sent an intelligent envoy to India in search (of it).
قاصدی دانا ز دیوان ادب ** سوی هندستان روان کرد از طلب
For (many) years his envoy wandered about India in quest (of the tree).3645
سالها میگشت آن قاصد از او ** گرد هندستان برای جستجو