Look at those who have seen (only) the present: their inmost self is corrupt; they are radically decapitated (cut off from the Truth).
بنگر آنها را که حالی دیده‌اند ** سر فاسد ز اصل سر ببریده‌اند
To the seer of the present, who is in ignorance and doubt, both the true dawn and the false dawn are one (and the same).
پیش حالی‌بین که در جهلست و شک ** صبح صادق صبح کاذب هر دو یک
The false dawn has given a hundred thousand caravans to the wind of destruction, O youth.
صبح کاذب صد هزاران کاروان ** داد بر باد هلاکت ای جوان
There is no genuine money that has not a deceptive counterfeit: alas for the soul that does not possess the touchstone and scissors!
نیست نقدی کش غلط‌انداز نیست ** وای آن جان کش محک و گاز نیست
Warning the pretender to shun pretension and enjoining him to follow (the true guide).
زجر مدعی از دعوی و امر کردن او را به متابعت
Bú Musaylim said, “I myself am Ahmad (Mohammed): I have cunningly confounded the religion of Ahmad.”1695
بو مسیلم گفت خود من احمدم ** دین احمد را به فن برهم زدم
Say to Bú Musaylim, “Do not behave with insolence: be not deluded by the beginning, regard the end.
بو مسیلم را بگو کم کن بطر ** غره‌ی اول مشو آخر نگر
Do not act thus as a guide from (with the motive of) greed for amassing (wealth and power): follow behind, in order that the Candle (the true guide) may go in front (of thee).”
این قلاوزی مکن از حرص جمع ** پس‌روی کن تا رود در پیش شمع
The Candle, like the moon, shows (clearly) the (traveller's) destination, and whether in this direction there is the grain (of spiritual welfare) or the place for the snare (of perdition).
شمع مقصد را نماید هم‌چو ماه ** کین طرف دانه‌ست یا خود دامگاه
Whether thou wilt or not, (so long as thou art) with the Lantern the form of falcon and the form of crow become visible (to thee).
گر بخواهی ور نخواهی با چراغ ** دیده گردد نقش باز و نقش زاغ
Otherwise, (beware, for) these crows have lit (the lantern of) fraud: they have learned the cry of the white falcons.1700
ورنه این زاغان دغل افروختند ** بانگ بازان سپید آموختند