The Pen has dried (after writing) that if you do wrong (in this world) you will suffer wrong (in the next), and that if you act rightly (here) the result will be your felicity (there). کژ روی جف القلم کژ آیدت ** راستی آری سعادت زایدت
(If) you behave unjustly, you are damned: the Pen has dried (on that). If you show justice, you eat the fruit (of blessedness): the Pen has dried (on that). ظلم آری مدبری جف القلم ** عدل آری بر خوری جف القلم
When he (any one) steals, his hand goes: the Pen has dried (on that). (When) he drinks wine, he becomes intoxicated: the Pen has dried (on that). 3135 چون بدزدد دست شد جف القلم ** خورد باده مست شد جف القلم
Do you deem it allowable, can it be allowable, that on account of the (eternally) prior decree God should come, like a person dismissed from office, تو روا داری روا باشد که حق ** هم‌چو معزول آید از حکم سبق
Saying, ‘The affair has gone out of My hands: do not approach Me so often, do not entreat (Me) so much’? که ز دست من برون رفتست کار ** پیش من چندین میا چندین مزار
Nay, the meaning is: ‘the Pen has dried (on this that) justice and injustice are not equal in My sight. بلک معنی آن بود جف القلم ** نیست یکسان پیش من عدل و ستم
I have laid down a distinction between good and evil; I have also laid down a distinction between the bad and the worse.’ فرق بنهادم میان خیر و شر ** فرق بنهادم ز بد هم از بتر
If there be in you a single mote of self-discipline in excess of (that of) your companion, the grace of God will know, 3140 ذره‌ای گر در تو افزونی ادب ** باشد از یارت بداند فضل رب
And will bestow on you that mote's amount of superiority: the mote will step forth as (big as) a mountain (to meet you). قدر آن ذره ترا افزون دهد ** ذره چون کوهی قدم بیرون نهد
A king before whose throne there is no distinction between the faithful (friend) and the seeker of iniquity— پادشاهی که به پیش تخت او ** فرق نبود از امین و ظلم‌جو