- You who are in love with your intellect, deeming yourself superior to worshippers of form, 710
- ای که تو هم عاشقی بر عقل خویش ** خویش بر صورت پرستان دیده بیش
- That (intellect) is a beam of (Universal) Intellect (cast) on your sense-perception; regard it as borrowed gold on your copper.
- پرتو عقل است آن بر حس تو ** عاریت میدان ذهب بر مس تو
- Beauty in humankind is like gilding; else, how did your sweetheart become (as ugly as) an old ass?
- چون زر اندود است خوبی در بشر ** ور نه چون شد شاهد تو پیر خر
- She was like an angel, she became like a demon, for that loveliness in her was a borrowed (transient) thing.
- چون فرشته بود همچون دیو شد ** کان ملاحت اندر او عاریه بد
- Little by little they take away that beauty: little by little the sapling withers.
- اندک اندک میستانند آن جمال ** اندک اندک خشک میگردد نهال
- Go, recite (the text) to whom so We grant length of days, him We cause to decline. Seek the heart (spirit), set not thy heart on bones; 715
- رو نعمره ننکسه بخوان ** دل طلب کن دل منه بر استخوان
- For that beauty of the heart is the lasting beauty: its fortune gives to drink of the Water of Life.
- کان جمال دل جمال باقی است ** دولتش از آب حیوان ساقی است
- Truly it is both the water and the giver of drink and the drunken: all three become one when your talisman is shattered.
- خود هم او آب است و هم ساقی و مست ** هر سه یک شد چون طلسم تو شکست
- That oneness you cannot know by reasoning. Do service (to God) and refrain from foolish gabble, O undiscerning man!
- آن یکی را تو ندانی از قیاس ** بندگی کن ژاژ کم خا ناشناس
- Your reality is the form and that which is borrowed: you rejoice in what is relative and (secondary like) rhyme.
- معنی تو صورت است و عاریت ** بر مناسب شادی و بر قافیت
- Reality is that which seizes (enraptures) you and makes you independent of form. 720
- معنی آن باشد که بستاند ترا ** بینیاز از نقش گرداند ترا
- Reality is not that which makes blind and deaf and causes a man to be more in love with form.
- معنی آن نبود که کور و کر کند ** مرد را بر نقش عاشقتر کند
- The portion of the blind is the fancy that increases pain; the share of the (spiritual) eye is these fancies (ideas) of dying to self (faná).
- کور را قسمت خیال غم فزاست ** بهرهی چشم این خیالات فناست
- The blind are a mine (full) of the letter of the Qur’án: they do not see the ass, and (only) cling to the pack-saddle.
- حرف قرآن را ضریران معدناند ** خر نبینند و به پالان بر زنند
- Since you have sight, go after the ass which has jumped (away from you): how long (will you persist in) stitching the saddle, O saddle-worshipper?
- چون تو بینایی پی خر رو که جست ** چند پالان دوزی ای پالان پرست
- When the ass is there, the saddle will certainly be yours: bread does not fail when you have the (vital) spirit. 725
- خر چو هست آید یقین پالان ترا ** کم نگردد نان چو باشد جان ترا
- (On) the back of the ass is shop and wealth and gain; the pearl of your heart is the stock (which provides wealth) for a hundred bodies.
- پشت خر دکان و مال و مکسب است ** در قلبت مایهی صد قالب است
- Mount the ass bare-backed, O busybody: did not the Prophet ride the ass bare-backed?
- خر برهنه بر نشین ای بو الفضول ** خر برهنه نه که راکب شد رسول
- The Prophet rode (his beast) bare-backed; and the Prophet, it is said, journeyed on foot.
- النبی قد رکب معروریا ** و النبی قیل سافر ماشیا
- The ass, your fleshly soul, has gone off; tie it to a peg. How long will it run away from work and burden, how long?
- شد خر نفس تو بر میخیش بند ** چند بگریزد ز کار و بار چند
- It must bear the burden of patience and thanksgiving, whether for a hundred years or for thirty or twenty. 730
- بار صبر و شکر او را بردنی است ** خواه در صد سال و خواهی سی و بیست
- None that is laden supported another's load; none reaped until he sowed something.
- هیچ وازر وزر غیری بر نداشت ** هیچ کس ندرود تا چیزی نکاشت
- ’Tis a raw (absurd) hope; eat not what is raw, O son: eating raw brings illness to men.
- طمع خام است آن مخور خام ای پسر ** خام خوردن علت آرد در بشر
- (Do not say to yourself), “So-and-so suddenly found a treasure; I would like the same: neither work nor shop (for me)!”
- کان فلانی یافت گنجی ناگهان ** من همان خواهم نه کار و نه دکان
- That (discovery of treasure) is Fortune's doing (a piece of luck), and moreover it is rare: one must earn a living so long as the body is able.
- کار بخت است آن و آن هم نادر است ** کسب باید کرد تا تن قادر است