How am I meaner than a lamb, meaner than a kid, that there should not be a keeper behind me?
کی کم از بره کم از بزغاله‌ام ** که نباشد حارس از دنباله‌ام
I have a Keeper whom it beseems to hold dominion: He knoweth the wind that blows upon me.
حارسی دارم که ملکش می‌سزد ** داند او بادی که آن بر من وزد
Whether that wind was cold or hot, that Knowing One is not unaware, is not absent, O infirm man.
سرد بود آن باد یا گرم آن علیم ** نیست غافل نیست غایب ای سقیم
The appetitive soul is deaf and blind to God: I with my heart was seeing thy blindness from afar.235
نفس شهوانی ز حق کرست و کور ** من به دل کوریت می‌دیدم ز دور
For eight years I did not inquire after thee at all, because I saw thee (to be) full of ignorance, fold on fold.
هشت سالت زان نپرسیدم به هیچ ** که پرت دیدم ز جهل پیچ پیچ
Why, indeed, should I inquire after one who is in t he bath-stove (of lust), and say (to him) ‘How art thou?’ when he is (plunged) headlong (in sensuality)?
خود چه پرسم آنک او باشد بتون ** که تو چونی چون بود او سرنگون
Comparison of this world to a bath-stove and of piety to the bath.
مثال دنیا چون گولخن و تقوی چون حمام
The lust of this world is like the bath-stove by which the bath, piety, is (made) resplendent;
شهوت دنیا مثال گلخنست ** که ازو حمام تقوی روشنست
But the pious man's portion from this stove is (naught but) purity, because he is in the hot-bath and in cleanliness.
لیک قسم متقی زین تون صفاست ** زانک در گرمابه است و در نقاست
The rich resemble those who carry dung for the bath-keeper's fire-making.240
اغنیا ماننده‌ی سرگین‌کشان ** بهر آتش کردن گرمابه‌بان
God hath implanted cupidity in them, in order that the bath may be hot and well-provided.
اندریشان حرص بنهاده خدا ** تا بود گرمابه گرم و با نوا