- Oh, there is many a learned man that hath no profit of (his) knowledge: that person is one who commits knowledge to memory, not one who loves (it).
- ای بسا عالم ز دانش بی‌نصیب ** حافظ علمست آنکس نه حبیب
- From him the hearer (but not the learned man himself) perceives the scent (of knowledge), though the hearer be of the common sort,
- مستمع از وی همی‌یابد مشام ** گرچه باشد مستمع از جنس عام
- Because the shirt in his (the learned man's) hand is a borrowed thing, like a slave-girl in the hands of a slave-dealer. 3040
- زانک پیراهان بدستش عاریه‌ست ** چون بدست آن نخاسی جاریه‌ست
- The slave-girl is useless to the slave-dealer: she is in his hands (only) for the sake of the purchaser.
- جاریه پیش نخاسی سرسریست ** در کف او از برای مشتریست
- The dispensation of God is a bestowal of the allotted portion: no one's (portion) has access (can find its way) to another.
- قسمت حقست روزی دادنی ** هر یکی را سوی دیگر راه نی
- A good fancy becomes that (blessed) man's garden (of Paradise); an ugly fancy waylays this (unblest) man (and brings him to perdition).
- یک خیال نیک باغ آن شده ** یک خیال زشت راه این زده
- That Lord who hath made from one fancy the garden (of Paradise), and from one fancy Hell and the place of melting (torment)—
- آن خدایی کز خیالی باغ ساخت ** وز خیالی دوزخ و جای گداخت
- Then who (but He) should know the way to His roseries? Then who (but He) should know the way to His furnaces? 3045
- پس کی داند راه گلشنهای او ** پس کی داند جای گلخنهای او
- The sentry of the heart, while on his round, does not see from what corner of the soul the fancy comes.
- دیدبان دل نبیند در مجال ** کز کدامین رکن جان آید خیال
- If he saw its rising-place, he would contrive to bar the way to every unlovely fancy;
- گر بدیدی مطلعش را ز احتیال ** بند کردی راه هر ناخوش خیال