Like a lion, hunt your prey yourself: leave (pay no heed to) the blandishment of stranger or kinsman.
همچو شیری صید خود را خویش کن ** ترک عشوهی اجنبی و خویش کن
Know that the regard of the base is like that servant; ’tis better to have nobody (as your friend) than (to accept) the flattery of nobodies (worthless people).
Do not make your home in (other) men's land: do your own work, don't do the work of a stranger.
در زمین مردمان خانه مکن ** کار خود کن کار بیگانه مکن
Who is the stranger? Your earthen body, for the sake of which is (all) your sorrow.
کیست بیگانه تن خاکی تو ** کز برای اوست غمناکی تو
So long as you are giving your body greasy (rich) and sweet (food), you will not see fatness in your (spiritual) essence.265
تا تو تن را چرب و شیرین میدهی ** جوهر خود را نبینی فربهی
If the body be set in the midst of musk, (yet) on the day of death its stench will become manifest.
گر میان مشک تن را جا شود ** روز مردن گند او پیدا شود
Do not put musk on your body, rub it on your heart. What is musk? The holy name of the Glorious (God).
مشک را بر تن مزن بر دل بمال ** مشک چه بود نام پاک ذو الجلال
The hypocrite puts musk on his body and puts his spirit at the bottom of the ash-pit.
آن منافق مشک بر تن مینهد ** روح را در قعر گلخن مینهد
On his tongue the name of God, and in his soul stenches (arising) from his infidel thought.
بر زبان نام حق و در جان او ** گندها از فکر بیایمان او
In relation to him praise of God is (like) the herbage of the ash-pit: it is roses and lilies (growing) upon a dunghill.270
ذکر با او همچو سبزه گلخن است ** بر سر مبرز گلست و سوسن است
Those plants are certainly there on loan (and belong to somewhere else); the proper place for those flowers is the symposium and (the scene of) festivity.
آن نبات آن جا یقین عاریت است ** جای آن گل مجلس است و عشرت است
The good women come to the good men; there is (also the text) to the wicked men the wicked women. Mark!
طیبات آید به سوی طیبین ** للخبیثین الخبیثات است هین
Do not bear malice: they that are led astray by malice, their graves are placed beside the malicious.
کین مدار آنها که از کین گمرهند ** گورشان پهلوی کین داران نهند
The origin of malice is Hell, and your malice is a part of that whole and is the enemy of your religion.
اصل کینه دوزخ است و کین تو ** جزو آن کل است و خصم دین تو
Since you are a part of Hell, take care! The part gravitates towards its whole.275
چون تو جزو دوزخی پس هوش دار ** جزو سوی کل خود گیرد قرار
He that is bitter will assuredly be attached to those who are bitter: how should vain breath (false words) be joined with the truth?
تلخ با تلخان یقین ملحق شود ** کی دم باطل قرین حق شود
O brother, you are that same thought (of yours); as for the rest (of you), you are (only) bone and fibre.
ای برادر تو همان اندیشهای ** ما بقی تو استخوان و ریشهای
If your thought is a rose, you are a rose-garden; and if it is a thorn, you are fuel for the bath-stove.
گر گل است اندیشهی تو گلشنی ** ور بود خاری تو هیمهی گلخنی
If you are rose-water, you are sprinkled on head and bosom; and if you are (stinking) like urine, you are cast out.
گر گلابی، بر سر و جیبت زنند ** ور تو چون بولی برونت افکنند
Look at the trays in front of druggists—each kind put beside its own kind,280
طبلهها در پیش عطاران ببین ** جنس را با جنس خود کرده قرین
Things of each sort mixed with things of the same sort, and a certain elegance produced by this homogeneity;
جنسها با جنسها آمیخته ** زین تجانس زینتی انگیخته
If his (the druggist's) aloes-wood and sugar get mixed, he picks them out from each other, piece by piece.
گر در آمیزند عود و شکرش ** بر گزیند یک یک از یکدیگرش
The trays were broken and the souls were spilled: good and evil ones were mingled with each other.
طبلهها بشکست و جانها ریختند ** نیک و بد در همدگر آمیختند
God sent the prophets with scrolls (of Revelation), that He might pick out (and sort) these grains on the dish.
حق فرستاد انبیا را با ورق ** تا گزید این دانه‌ها را بر طبق
Before the, (the prophets) we were all alike, none knew whether we were good or bad.285
پیش از ایشان ما همه یکسان بدیم ** کس ندانستی که ما نیک و بدیم