You are of where, (but) your origin is in Nowhere: shut up this shop and open that shop.
تو مکانی اصل تو در لامکان ** این دکان بر بند و بگشا آن دکان
Do not flee to the (world of the) six directions, because in directions there is the shashdara, and the shashdara is mate, mate.
شش جهت مگریز زیرا در جهات ** ششدره است و ششدره مات است مات
How the prisoners laid a complaint of the insolvent's high-handedness before the agent of the Cadi.
شکایت کردن اهل زندان پیش وکیل قاضی از دست آن مفلس
The prisoners came to complain to the Cadi's agent, (who was) possessed of discernment,
با وکیل قاضی ادراکمند ** اهل زندان در شکایت آمدند
Saying, “Take now our salutations to the Cadi and relate (to him) the sufferings inflicted on us by this vile man;615
که سلام ما به قاضی بر کنون ** باز گو آزار ما زین مرد دون
For he has remained in this prison continuously, and he is an idle gad-about, a lickspittle, and a nuisance.
کاندر این زندان بماند او مستمر ** یاوه تاز و طبلخوار است و مضر
Like a fly, he impudently appears at every meal without invitation and without salaam.
چون مگس حاضر شود در هر طعام ** از وقاحت بیصلا و بیسلام
To him the food of sixty persons is nothing; he feigns himself deaf if you say to him, ‘Enough!’
پیش او هیچ است لوت شصت کس ** کر کند خود را اگر گوییش بس
No morsel reaches the (ordinary) man in prison, or if by means of a hundred contrivances he discover some food,
مرد زندان را نیاید لقمهای ** ور به صد حیلت گشاید طعمهای
That hell-throat at once comes forward (with) this (as) his argument, that God has said, ‘Eat ye.’620
در زمان پیش آید آن دوزخ گلو ** حجتش این که خدا گفتا کلوا
Justice, justice against such a three years' famine! May the shadow of our lord endure for ever!
زین چنین قحط سه ساله داد داد ** ظل مولانا ابد پاینده باد
Either let this buffalo go from prison, or make him a regular allowance of food from a trust-fund.
یا ز زندان تا رود این گاومیش ** یا وظیفه کن ز وقفی لقمهایش
O thou by whom both males and females are (made) happy, do justice! Thy help is invoked and besought.”
ای ز تو خوش هم ذکور و هم اناث ** داد کن المستغاث المستغاث
The courteous agent went to the Cadi and related the complaint to him point by point.
سوی قاضی شد وکیل با نمک ** گفت با قاضی شکایت یک به یک
The Cadi called him (the insolvent) from the prison into his presence, and (then) inquired (about him) from his own officers.625
خواند او را قاضی از زندان به پیش ** پس تفحص کرد از اعیان خویش
All the complaints which that flock (of prisoners) had set forth were proved to the Cadi.
گشت ثابت پیش قاضی آن همه ** که نمودند از شکایت آن رمه
The Cadi said (to him), “Get up and depart from this prison: go to the house which is your inherited property.”
گفت قاضی خیز از این زندان برو ** سوی خانهی مردهریگ خویش شو
He replied, “My house and home consist in thy beneficence; as (in the case of) an infidel, thy prison is my Paradise.
گفت خان و مان من احسان تست ** همچو کافر جنتم زندان تست
If thou wilt drive me from the prison and turn me out, verily I shall die of destitution and beggary.”
گر ز زندانم برانی تو به رد ** خود بمیرم من ز تقصیری و کد
(He pleaded) like the Devil, who was saying, “O Preserver, O my Lord, grant me a respite till the day of Resurrection;630
همچو ابلیسی که میگفت ای سلام ** رب أنظرنی إلی یوم القیام
For I am happy (to be) in the prison of this world, in order that I may be slaying the children of mine enemy,
کاندر این زندان دنیا من خوشم ** تا که دشمن زادگان را میکشم
(And), if any one have some food of faith and a single loaf as provision for the journey (to the life hereafter),
هر که او را قوت ایمانی بود ** و ز برای زاد ره نانی بود
I may seize it, now by plot and now by guile, so that in repentance they may raise an outcry (of lamentation);
میستانم گه به مکر و گه به ریو ** تا بر آرند از پشیمانی غریو
(And in order that) sometimes I may threaten them with poverty, sometimes bind their eyes with (the spell of) tress and mole.”
گه به درویشی کنم تهدیدشان ** گه به زلف و خال بندم دیدشان
In this prison (the world) the food of faith is scarce, and that which exists is in (danger of being caught in) the noose (of destruction) through the attack of this cur.635
قوت ایمانی در این زندان کم است ** وان که هست از قصد این سگ در خم است
(If) from prayer and fasting and a hundred helplessnesses (utter self-abnegations) the food of spiritual feeling come (to any one), he (the Devil) at once carries it off.
از نماز و صوم و صد بیچارگی ** قوت ذوق آید برد یک بارگی