- The man who lives in a city (many) years, as soon as his eye goes asleep,
- سالها مردی که در شهری بود ** یک زمان که چشم در خوابی رود
- Beholds another city full of good and evil, and his own city comes not into his memory at all,
- شهر دیگر بیند او پر نیک و بد ** هیچ در یادش نیاید شهر خود
- So that (he should say), “I have lived there (so many years); this new city is not mine: here I am (only) in pawn.” 3630
- که من آنجا بوده‌ام این شهر نو ** نیست آن من درینجاام گرو
- Nay, he thinks that in sooth he has always lived in this very city and has been born and bred in it.
- بل چنان داند که خود پیوسته او ** هم درین شهرش به دست ابداع و خو
- What wonder (then) if the spirit does not remember its (ancient) abodes, which have been its dwelling-place and birthplace aforetime,
- چه عجب گر روح موطنهای خویش ** که بدستش مسکن و میلاد پیش
- Since this world, like sleep, is covering it over as clouds cover the stars? —
- می‌نیارد یاد کین دنیا چو خواب ** می‌فرو پوشد چو اختر را سحاب
- Especially as it has trodden so many cities, and the dust has not (yet) been swept from its perceptive faculty,
- خاصه چندین شهرها را کوفته ** گردها از درک او ناروفته
- Nor has it made ardent efforts that its heart should become pure and behold the past; 3635
- اجتهاد گرم ناکرده که تا ** دل شود صاف و ببیند ماجرا
- That its heart should put forth its head (peep forth) from the aperture of the mystery and should see the beginning and the end with open eye.
- سر برون آرد دلش از بخش راز ** اول و آخر ببیند چشم باز
- The diverse modes and stages of the nature of Man from the beginning.
- اطوار و منازل خلقت آدمی از ابتدا
- First he came into the clime (world) of inorganic things, and from the state of inorganic things he passed into the vegetable state.
- آمده اول به اقلیم جماد ** وز جمادی در نباتی اوفتاد