When a magnanimous guest will not eat some (inferior) food, the host brings better food,
ضیف با همت چو ز آشی کم خورد ** صاحب خوان آش بهتر آورد
Unless he be a poor host and a mean one. Do not think (so) ill of the generous Provider!
جز که صاحب خوان درویشی لیم ** ظن بد کم بر به رزاق کریم
Lift up your head like a mountain, O man of authority, in order that the first rays of the Sun may strike upon you;
سر برآور هم‌چو کوهی ای سند ** تا نخستین نور خور بر تو زند
For the lofty firm-based mountain-peak is expecting the sun of dawn.
که آن سر کوه بلند مستقر ** هست خورشید سحر را منتظر
Reply to the simpleton who has said that this world would be delightful if there were no death and that the possessions of the present life would be delightful if they were not fleeting, and (has uttered) other absurdities in the same style.
جواب آن مغفل کی گفته است کی خوش بودی این جهان اگر مرگ نبودی وخوش بودی ملک دنیا اگر زوالش نبودی و علی هذه الوتیرة من الفشارات
A certain man was saying, “The world would be delightful, were it not for the intervention of death.”1760
آن یکی می‌گفت خوش بودی جهان ** گر نبودی پای مرگ اندر میان
The other said, “If there were no death, the tangled world would not be worth a straw.
آن دگر گفت ار نبودی مرگ هیچ ** که نیرزیدی جهان پیچ‌پیچ
It would be (like) a stack heaped up in the field and neglected and left unthreshed.
خرمنی بودی به دشت افراشته ** مهمل و ناکوفته بگذاشته
You have supposed (what is really) death to be life: you have sown your seed in a barren soil.
مرگ را تو زندگی پنداشتی ** تخم را در شوره خاکی کاشتی
The false (discursive) reason, indeed, sees the reverse (of the truth): it sees life as death, O man of weak judgement.”
عقل کاذب هست خود معکوس‌بین ** زندگی را مرگ بیند ای غبین
Do Thou, O God, show (unto us) everything as it really is in this house of illusion.1765
ای خدا بنمای تو هر چیز را ** آنچنان که هست در خدعه‌سرا