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
How does earning a livelihood prevent the (discovery of) treasure? Do not retire from work: that (treasure), indeed, is (following) behind (the work).735
کسب کردن گنج را مانع کی است ** پا مکش از کار آن خود در پی است
See that you are not made captive by “if,” saying, “If I had done this or the other (thing),”
تا نگردی تو گرفتار اگر ** که اگر این کردمی یا آن دگر
For the sincere Prophet forbade (people) to say “if,” and said, “That is from hypocrisy”;
کز اگر گفتن رسول با وفاق ** منع کرد و گفت آن هست از نفاق
For the hypocrite died in saying “if,” and from saying “if” he won nothing but remorse.
کان منافق در اگر گفتن بمرد ** وز اگر گفتن بجز حسرت نبرد