If thou knowest (it) not, (yet) beware of saying that there is no way: by this wayless way we (all) shall depart.
گر ندانی تا نگویی راه نیست ** زین ره بی‌راهه ما را رفتنیست
In dreams thou wanderest happily to left and right: hast thou any knowledge where the way is that leads to that arena?
می‌روی در خواب شادان چپ و راست ** هیچ دانی راه آن میدان کجاست
Shut that (sensual) eye and give thyself up: thou wilt find thyself in the ancient City.
تو ببند آن چشم و خود تسلیم کن ** خویش را بینی در آن شهر کهن
How shouldst thou shut thy (sensual) eye when in this direction a hundred inebriated (languishing) eyes are (as) a bandage on thine eye because of (thy) infatuation (with them)?
چشم چون بندی که صد چشم خمار ** بند چشم تست این سو از غرار
From love of (having) a purchaser (admirer) thou art (looking) with four eyes (intently) in the hope of (gaining) eminence and chieftainship.1115
چارچشمی تو ز عشق مشتری ** بر امید مهتری و سروری
And if thou fall asleep thou seest the purchaser in thy dreams: how should the ill-omened owl dream of aught but a wilderness?
ور بخسپی مشتری بینی به خواب ** چغد بد کی خواب بیند جز خراب
At every moment thou wantest a purchaser cringing (before thee): what hast thou to sell? Nothing, nothing.
مشتری خواهی بهر دم پیچ پیچ ** تو چه داری که فروشی هیچ هیچ
If thy heart had any (spiritual) bread or breakfast, it would have been empty of (desire for worldly) purchasers.
گر دلت را نان بدی یا چاشتی ** از خریداران فراغت داشتی
Story of the person who claimed to be a prophet. They said to him, “What hast thou eaten that thou hast become crazy and art talking in vain?” He replied, “If I had found anything to eat, I should not have become crazy and talked in vain”; for whenever they (the prophets and saints) speak goodly words to people unworthy to hear them, they will have talked in vain, although they are (divinely) commanded to talk thus in vain.
قصه‌ی آن شخص کی دعوی پیغامبری می‌کرد گفتندش چه خورده‌ای کی گیج شده‌ای و یاوه می‌گویی گفت اگر چیزی یافتمی کی خوردمی نه گیج شدمی و نه یاوه گفتمی کی هر سخن نیک کی با غیر اهلش گویند یاوه گفته باشند اگر چه در آن یاوه گفتن مامورند
A certain man was saying, “I am a prophet: I am superior to all the prophets.”
آن یکی می‌گفت من پیغامبرم ** از همه پیغامبران فاضلترم
They bound his neck and took him to the king, saying, “This man says he is a prophet sent by God.”1120
گردنش بستند و بردندش به شاه ** کین همی گوید رسولم از اله