To our eye, (all) the graves are alike; to the eyes of the saints, (one is) a garden (in Paradise), and (another is) a pit (in Hell).
گورها یکسان به پیش چشم ما ** روضه و حفره به چشم اولیا
The vulgar would say, “Wherefore has the Prophet become sour (of visage) and why has he become pleasure-killing?”
عامه گفتندی که پیغامبر ترش ** از چه گشتست و شدست او ذوق‌کش
The elect would say, “To your eyes, O peoples, he appears to be sour;
خاص گفتندی که سوی چشمتان ** می‌نماید او ترش ای امتان
(But) come for once into our eyes, that ye may behold the laughs (of delight described) in (the Súra beginning with the words) Hal atá (Did not there come?).”
یک زمان درچشم ما آیید تا ** خنده‌ها بینید اندر هل اتی
That appears (to thee) in the form of inversion (illusion) from the top of the pear-tree: come down, O youth!3540
از سر امرود بن بنماید آن ** منعکس صورت بزیر آ ای جوان
The pear-tree is the tree of (phenomenal) existence: whilst thou art there, the new appears old.
آن درخت هستی است امرودبن ** تا بر آنجایی نماید نو کهن
Whilst thou art there, thou wilt see (only) a thorn-brake full of the scorpions of wrath and full of snakes.
تا بر آنجایی ببینی خارزار ** پر ز کزدمهای خشم و پر ز مار
When thou comest down, thou wilt behold, free of cost, a world filled with rose-cheeked (beauties) and (their) nurses.
چون فرود آیی ببینی رایگان ** یک جهان پر گل‌رخان و دایگان
Story of the lewd woman who said to her husband, "Those illusions appear to thee from the top of the pear-tree, for the top of that pear-tree causes the human eye to see such things: come down from the top of the pear-tree, that those illusions may vanish." And if any one should say that what that man saw was not an illusion, the answer is that this (story) is a parable, not a (precise) similitude. In the (story regarded as a) parable this amount (of resemblance) is sufficient, for if he had not gone to the top of the peartree, he would never have seen those things, whether illusory or real.
حکایت آن زن پلیدکار کی شوهر را گفت کی آن خیالات از سر امرودبن می‌نماید ترا کی چنینها نماید چشم آدمی را سر آن امرودبن از سر امرودبن فرود آی تا آن خیالها برود و اگر کسی گوید کی آنچ آن مرد می‌دید خیال نبود و جواب این مثالیست نه مثل در مثال همین قدر بس بود کی اگر بر سر امرودبن نرفتی هرگز آنها ندیدی خواه خیال خواه حقیقت
That woman desired to embrace her paramour in the presence of her foolish husband.
آن زنی می‌خواست تا با مول خود ** بر زند در پیش شوی گول خود
Therefore the woman said to her husband, “O fortunate one, I will climb the tree to gather fruit.”3545
پس به شوهر گفت زن کای نیکبخت ** من برآیم میوه چیدن بر درخت