- Small is that thought in the people's eyes, but like a flood it swallowed and swept away the world.
- هست آن اندیشه پیش خلق خرد ** لیک چون سیلی جهان را خورد و برد
- So, when you see that from a thought every craft in the world (arises and) subsists—
- پس چو میبینی که از اندیشهای ** قایم است اندر جهان هر پیشهای
- (That) houses and palaces and cities, mountains and plains and rivers, 1035
- خانهها و قصرها و شهرها ** کوهها و دشتها و نهرها
- Earth and ocean as well as sun and sky, are living (derive their life) from it as fishes from the sea—
- هم زمین و بحر و هم مهر و فلک ** زنده از وی همچو کز دریا سمک
- Then why in your foolishness, O blind one, does the body seem to you a Solomon, and thought (only) as an ant?
- پس چرا از ابلهی پیش تو کور ** تن سلیمان است و اندیشه چو مور
- To your eye the mountain appears great: (to you) thought is like a mouse, and the mountain (like) a wolf.
- مینماید پیش چشمت که بزرگ ** هست اندیشه چو موش و کوه گرگ
- The (material) world in your eyes is awful and sublime: you tremble and are frightened at the clouds and the thunder and the sky,
- عالم اندر چشم تو هول و عظیم ** ز ابر و رعد و چرخ داری لرز و بیم
- While in regard to the world of thought, O less (lower) than the ass, you are secure and indifferent as a witless stone, 1040
- وز جهان فکرتی ای کم ز خر ** ایمن و غافل چو سنگ بیخبر
- Because you are a (mere) shape and have no portion of intelligence; you are not of human nature, you are an ass's colt.
- ز انکه نقشی وز خرد بیبهرهای ** آدمی خو نیستی خر کرهای
- From ignorance you deem the shadow to be the substance: hence to you the substance has become a plaything and of slight account.
- سایه را تو شخص میبینی ز جهل ** شخص از آن شد نزد تو بازی و سهل
- Wait till the Day when that thought and phantasy unfolds its wings and pinions without any veil (encumbrance).
- باش تا روزی که آن فکر و خیال ** بر گشاید بیحجابی پر و بال
- You will see that the mountains have become soft as wool, (and that) this Earth of hot and cold has become naught;
- کوهها بینی شده چون پشم نرم ** نیست گشته این زمین سرد و گرم
- You will see neither the sky nor the stars nor (any) existence but God, the One, the Living, the Loving. 1045
- نه سما بینی نه اختر نه وجود ** جز خدای واحد حی ودود
- Here is a tale, (be it) true or false, to illustrate (these) truths.
- یک فسانه راست آمد یا دروغ ** تا دهد مر راستیها را فروغ
- How the (King's) retainers envied the favourite slave.
- حسد کردن حشم بر غلام خاص
- A King had, of his grace, preferred a certain slave above all his retinue.
- پادشاهی بندهای را از کرم ** بر گزیده بود بر جمله حشم
- His allowance was the stipend of forty Amírs; a hundred Viziers would not see (receive) a tenth of its amount.
- جامگی او وظیفهی چل امیر ** ده یک قدرش ندیدی صد وزیر
- Through the perfection of (his) natal star and prosperity and fortune he was an Ayáz, while the King was the Mahmúd of the time.
- از کمال طالع و اقبال و بخت ** او ایازی بود و شه محمود وقت
- His spirit in its origin, before (the creation of) this body, was near-related and akin to the King's spirit. 1050
- روح او با روح شه در اصل خویش ** پیش از این تن بوده هم پیوند و خویش
- (Only) that matters which has existed before the body; leave (behind you) these things which have newly sprung into being.
- کار آن دارد که پیش از تن بده ست ** بگذر از اینها که نو حادث شده ست
- That which matters belongs to the knower (of God), for he is not squinting: his eye is (fixed) upon the things first sown.
- کار عارف راست کاو نه احول است ** چشم او بر کشتهای اول است
- That which was sown as wheat (good) or as barley (relatively evil)—day and night his eye is fastened on that place (where it was sown).
- آن چه گندم کاشتندش و آن چه جو ** چشم او آن جاست روز و شب گرو
- Night gave birth to nothing but what she was pregnant withal: designs and plots are wind, (empty) wind.
- آنچ آبست است شب جز آن نزاد ** حیلهها و مکرها باد است باد
- How should he please his heart with fair designs who sees the design of God (prevailing) over them? 1055
- کی کند دل خوش به حیلتهای گش ** آن که بیند حیلهی حق بر سرش
- He is within the snare (of God) and is laying a snare: by your life, neither that (snare) will escape (destruction) nor will this (man).
- او درون دام دامی مینهد ** جان تو نه این جهد نه آن جهد
- Though (in the meanwhile) a hundred herbs grow and fade, there will grow up at last that which God has sown.
- گر بروید ور بریزد صد گیاه ** عاقبت بر روید آن کشتهی اله