- 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
- (Many) years he lived in the vegetable state and did not remember the inorganic state because of the opposition (between them);
- سالها اندر نباتی عمر کرد ** وز جمادی یاد ناورد از نبرد
- And when he passed from the vegetable into the animal state, the vegetable state was not remembered by him at all,
- وز نباتی چون به حیوانی فتاد ** نامدش حال نباتی هیچ یاد
- Save only for the inclination which he has towards that (state), especially in the season of spring and sweet herbs— 3640
- جز همین میلی که دارد سوی آن ** خاصه در وقت بهار و ضیمران
- Like the inclination of babes towards their mothers: it (the babe) does not know the secret of its desire for being suckled;
- هم‌چو میل کودکان با مادران ** سر میل خود نداند در لبان