The Cadi said (to him), “Get up and depart from this prison: go to the house which is your inherited property.”
گفت قاضی خیز از این زندان برو ** سوی خانهی مردهریگ خویش شو
He replied, “My house and home consist in thy beneficence; as (in the case of) an infidel, thy prison is my Paradise.
گفت خان و مان من احسان تست ** همچو کافر جنتم زندان تست
If thou wilt drive me from the prison and turn me out, verily I shall die of destitution and beggary.”
گر ز زندانم برانی تو به رد ** خود بمیرم من ز تقصیری و کد
(He pleaded) like the Devil, who was saying, “O Preserver, O my Lord, grant me a respite till the day of Resurrection;630
همچو ابلیسی که میگفت ای سلام ** رب أنظرنی إلی یوم القیام
For I am happy (to be) in the prison of this world, in order that I may be slaying the children of mine enemy,
کاندر این زندان دنیا من خوشم ** تا که دشمن زادگان را میکشم
(And), if any one have some food of faith and a single loaf as provision for the journey (to the life hereafter),
هر که او را قوت ایمانی بود ** و ز برای زاد ره نانی بود
I may seize it, now by plot and now by guile, so that in repentance they may raise an outcry (of lamentation);
میستانم گه به مکر و گه به ریو ** تا بر آرند از پشیمانی غریو
(And in order that) sometimes I may threaten them with poverty, sometimes bind their eyes with (the spell of) tress and mole.”
گه به درویشی کنم تهدیدشان ** گه به زلف و خال بندم دیدشان
In this prison (the world) the food of faith is scarce, and that which exists is in (danger of being caught in) the noose (of destruction) through the attack of this cur.635
قوت ایمانی در این زندان کم است ** وان که هست از قصد این سگ در خم است
(If) from prayer and fasting and a hundred helplessnesses (utter self-abnegations) the food of spiritual feeling come (to any one), he (the Devil) at once carries it off.
از نماز و صوم و صد بیچارگی ** قوت ذوق آید برد یک بارگی