Reason comes to seek refuge with His forbearance, (saying), “Thou hast been my Sáqí (Thou hast intoxicated me): take my hand (succour me)!”
عقل آید سوی حلمش مستجیر ** ساقیم تو بوده‌ای دستم بگیر
How the King said to Ayáz, “Choose either to pardon or to punish, for in the present case ’tis (equally) right whether you do justice or show mercy; and there are advantages in each.” Within justice a thousand mercies are enclosed: (God hath said), “and for you in retaliation there is a life.” He who deems retaliation abominable is regarding only the single life of the murderer and does not consider the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be protected and kept safe, as in a fortress, by fear of punishment.
فرمودن شاه ایاز را کی اختیار کن از عفو و مکافات کی از عدل و لطف هر چه کنی اینجا صوابست و در هر یکی مصلحتهاست کی در عدل هزار لطف هست درج و لکم فی القصاص حیوة آنکس کی کراهت می‌دارد قصاص را درین یک حیات قاتل نظر می‌کند و در صد هزار حیات کی معصوم و محقون خواهند شدن در حصن بیم سیاست نمی‌نگرد
“O Ayáz, pass sentence on the culprits! O incorruptible Ayáz who takest infinite precautions (to keep thyself pure),
کن میان مجرمان حکم ای ایاز ** ای ایاز پاک با صد احتراز
Though I boil (test) thee in practice two hundred times, I do not find any refuse in the foam of thy boiling.2110
گر دو صد بارت بجوشم در عمل ** در کف جوشت نیابم یک دغل
A countless multitude of people are ashamed of (being put to) the test, (but) all tests are ashamed of (being tried on) thee.
ز امتحان شرمنده خلقی بی‌شمار ** امتحانها از تو جمله شرمسار
It (thy knowledge) is a bottomless ocean: it is not (creaturely) knowledge alone; it (thy forbearance) is a mountain and a hundred mountains: indeed, it is not (creaturely) forbearance.”
بحر بی‌قعرست تنها علم نیست ** کوه و صد کوهست این خود حلم نیست
He (Ayáz) replied, “I know that this is thy gift; otherwise I am (nothing except) those rustic shoon and that sheepskin jacket.”
گفت من دانم عطای تست این ** ورنه من آن چارقم و آن پوستین
Hence the Prophet expounded this (matter), (when he said), “Whoso knoweth himself knoweth God.”
بهر آن پیغامبر این را شرح ساخت ** هر که خود بشناخت یزدان را شناخت
The seed (from which you were conceived) is your shoon, and your blood is the sheepskin jacket: (all) the rest, O master, is His gift.2115
چارقت نطفه‌ست و خونت پوستین ** باقی ای خواجه عطای اوست این
He hath given it to you in order that you may seek more: do not say, “He has only this amount (to give).”
بهر آن دادست تا جویی دگر ** تو مگو که نیستش جز این قدر
The gardener shows a number of apples, to the end that you may know the trees and produce of the orchard.
زان نماید چند سیب آن باغبان ** تا بدانی نخل و دخل بوستان