Saying, “Why did I impertinently ask him (that question)? He was full of grief: I made him distraught.”
کز فضولی من چرا پرسیدمش ** او ز غم پر بود شورانیدمش
From his (the peacock's) moist eyes the water (of tears) was trickling to the earth: in every drop were contained a hundred answers.
می‌چکید از چشم تر بر خاک آب ** اندر آن هر قطره مدرج صد جواب
Sincere weeping touches the souls (of all), so that it makes (even) the sky and heaven to weep.
گریه‌ی با صدق بر جانها زند ** تا که چرخ و عرش را گریان کند
Without any doubt, intellects and hearts (spirits) are celestial, (though) they live debarred from the celestial light.
عقل و دلها بی‌گمان عرشی‌اند ** در حجاب از نور عرشی می‌زیند
Explaining that the intellect and spirit are imprisoned in clay, like Hárút and Márút in the pit of Babylon.
در بیان آنک عقل و روح در آب و گل محبوس‌اند هم‌چون هاروت و ماروت در چاه بابل
Like Hárút and Márút, those two pure ones (the intellect and spirit) have been confined here (in this world) in a horrible pit.620
هم‌چو هاروت و چو ماروت آن دو پاک ** بسته‌اند اینجا به چاه سهمناک
They are in the low and sensual world: they have been confined in this pit on account of sin.
عالم سفلی و شهوانی درند ** اندرین چه گشته‌اند از جرم‌بند
The good and the evil (alike) learn magic and the opposite of magic from these twain involuntarily;
سحر و ضد سحر را بی‌اختیار ** زین دو آموزند نیکان و شرار
But first they admonish him, saying, “Beware, do not learn and pick up magic from us:
لیک اول پند بدهندش که هین ** سحر را از ما میاموز و مچین
We teach this magic, O such and such, for the purpose of trial and probation;
ما بیاموزیم این سحر ای فلان ** از برای ابتلا و امتحان
(But thou art free to choose), for probation necessarily involves free-will, and thou canst not have any (effective) free-will without the power (of action).”625
که امتحان را شرط باشد اختیار ** اختیاری نبودت بی‌اقتدار