Tell the truth, so that you may be delivered from my hand: cunning will not lay the dust of my war (will not induce me to leave you in peace).”
راست گو تا وارهی از چنگ من ** مکر ننشاند غبار جنگ من
He (Iblís) said, “How do you know (the difference between) falsehood and truth, O thinker of vain fancies, (you that are) filled with (idle) thoughts (about me)?”
گفت چون دانی دروغ و راست را ** ای خیالاندیش پر اندیشهها
He answered, “The Prophet has given an indication: he has laid down the touchstone (criterion) for (distinguishing) the base coin and the good.
گفت پیغمبر نشانی داده است ** قلب و نیکو را محک بنهاده است
He has said, ‘Falsehood is (the cause of) disquiet in (men's) hearts’; he has said, ‘Truth is (the cause of) a joyous tranquillity.’
گفته است الکذب ریب فی القلوب ** گفت الصدق طمانین طروب
The (troubled) heart is not comforted by lying words: water and oil kindle no light.2735
دل نیارامد ز گفتار دروغ ** آب و روغن هیچ نفروزد فروغ
(Only) in truthful speech is there comfort for the heart: truths are the bait that entraps the heart.
در حدیث راست آرام دل است ** راستیها دانهی دام دل است
Sick, surely, and ill-savoured is the heart that knows not (cannot distinguish) the taste of this and that.
دل مگر رنجور باشد بد دهان ** که نداند چاشنی این و آن
When the heart becomes whole (is healed) of pain and disease, it will recognize the flavour of falsehood and truth.
چون شود از رنج و علت دل سلیم ** طعم کذب و راست را باشد علیم
When Adam's greed for the wheat waxed great, it robbed Adam's heart of health.
حرص آدم چون سوی گندم فزود ** از دل آدم سلیمی را ربود
Then he gave ear to your lies and enticements: he was befooled and drank the killing poison.2740
پس دروغ و عشوهات را گوش کرد ** غره گشت و زهر قاتل نوش کرد
At that moment he knew not scorpion (kazhdum) from wheat (gandum): discernment flies from one that is drunken with vain desire.
کژدم از گندم ندانست آن نفس ** میپرد تمییز از مست هوس
The people are drunken with cupidity and desire: hence they are accepting your cheatery.
خلق مست آرزویند و هوا ** ز آن پذیرایند دستان ترا
Whoever has rid his nature of vain desire has (thereby) made his (spiritual) eye familiar with the secret.
هر که خود را از هوا خود باز کرد ** چشم خود را آشنای راز کرد
How a cadi complained of the calamity of (holding) the office of cadi, and how his deputy answered him.
شکایت قاضی از آفت قضا و جواب گفتن نایب او را
They installed a cadi, (and meanwhile) he wept. The deputy said, ‘O cadi, what are you weeping for?
This is not the time for you to weep and lament: it is the time for you to rejoice and receive felicitations.’2745
این نه وقت گریه و فریاد تست ** وقت شادی و مبارک باد تست
‘Ah,’ said he, ‘how shall a man without insight pronounce judgement—an ignorant man (decide) between two who know?
گفت اه چون حکم راند بیدلی ** در میان آن دو عالم جاهلی
Those two adversaries are acquainted with their own case: what should the poor cadi know of those two tangles?
آن دو خصم از واقعهی خود واقفند ** قاضی مسکین چه داند ز آن دو بند
He is ignorant and unaware of their (real) state: how should he proceed (to give judgment) concerning their lives and property?’
جاهل است و غافل است از حالشان ** چون رود در خونشان و مالشان
He (the deputy) said, ‘The litigants know (the truth of their case) and (nevertheless) are unsound (prejudiced); you are ignorant (of the facts), but you are the luminary of the whole body (of Moslems),
گفت خصمان عالمند و علتی ** جاهلی تو لیک شمع ملتی
Because you have no prejudice to interfere (with your discernment), and that freedom (from prejudice) is light to the eyes;2750
ز انکه تو علت نداری در میان ** آن فراغت هست نور دیدهگان
While those two who know are blinded by their self-interest: prejudice has put their knowledge into the grave.
و آن دو عالم را غرضشان کور کرد ** علمشان را علت اندر گور کرد
Unprejudicedness makes ignorance wise; prejudice makes knowledge perverse and iniquitous.
جهل را بیعلتی عالم کند ** علم را علت کژ و ظالم کند
So long as you accept no bribe, you are seeing; when you act covetously, you are blind and enslaved.’
تا تو رشوت نستدی بینندهای ** چون طمع کردی ضریر و بندهای
I have turned my nature away from vain desire: I have not eaten delicious morsels.
از هوا من خوی را واکردهام ** لقمههای شهوتی کم خوردهام
My heart, which tastes (and distinguishes), has become bright (like a clear mirror): it really knows truth from falsehood.2755
چاشنی گیر دلم شد با فروغ ** راست را داند حقیقت از دروغ
How Mu‘áwiya—may God be well-pleased with him!— induced Iblís to confess.