- The first world is the world of probation; the second world is the (world of) recompense for this and that.
- عالم اول جهان امتحان ** عالم ثانی جزای این و آن
- Thy servant, O King, commits a sin: that accident becomes (a substance, namely) chains and prison. 980
- چاکرت شاها جنایت میکند ** آن عرض زنجیر و زندان میشود
- When thy slave performed goodly service, did not that accident become a robe of honour in the battle (between the flesh and the spirit)?
- بندهات چون خدمت شایسته کرد ** آن عرض نه خلعتی شد در نبرد
- This accident with the substance (belonging to it) is egg and bird: this is produced by that, and that by this, in succession.”
- این عرض با جوهر آن بیضه است و طیر ** این از آن و آن از این زاید به سیر
- The King said, “Take the meaning (to be) so: (why then) have these accidents of yours not produced any substance?”
- گفت شاهنشه چنین گیر المراد ** این عرضهای تو یک جوهر نزاد
- “(Divine) Wisdom,” replied the slave, “has kept it concealed, in order that this world of good and evil may be a mystery,
- گفت مخفی داشته ست آن را خرد ** تا بود غیب این جهان نیک و بد
- Because, if the (substantial) forms of thought were to become manifest, infidel and believer (alike) would speak naught but praise (of God). 985
- ز انکه گر پیدا شدی اشکال فکر ** کافر و مومن نگفتی جز که ذکر
- Then, were this clearly seen, O King, not hidden, and were the mark of religion or infidelity (visible) on the forehead,
- پس عیان بودی نه غیب ای شاه این ** نقش دین و کفر بودی بر جبین
- How would there be idol and idolater in this world? How would any one have the stomach to mock (at holy things)?
- کی درین عالم بت و بتگر بدی ** چون کسی را زهرهی تسخر بدی
- Then this world of ours would be (like) the Resurrection: who commits sin and wrong at the Resurrection?”
- پس قیامت بودی این دنیای ما ** در قیامت کی کند جرم و خطا
- The King said, “God has veiled the retribution of evil, but (only) from the vulgar, not from His own elect.
- گفت شه پوشید حق پاداش بد ** لیک از عامه نه از خاصان خود
- If I entrap one Amír, I keep it hidden from the (other) Amírs, (but) not from the Vizier. 990
- گر به دامی افکنم من یک امیر ** از امیران خفیه دارم نه از وزیر
- God, then, has shown to me the retribution of work and myriads of the (substantial) forms of actions.
- حق به من بنمود پس پاداش کار ** وز صورهای عملها صد هزار
- Give a sign (outwardly), for I know all: the cloud does not veil the moon from me.”
- تو نشانی ده که من دانم تمام ** ماه را بر من نمیپوشد غمام
- The slave said, “Then what is the object of my speaking, since thou knowest what is (the real nature of) that which has been?”
- گفت پس از گفت من مقصود چیست ** چون تو میدانی که آن چه بود چیست
- The King said, “The wisdom (of God) in making the world manifest (was) that the (thing) known should come forth (to be seen) plainly.
- گفت شه حکمت در اظهار جهان ** آن که دانسته برون آید عیان
- Until He made visible that which He knew, He did not lay upon the world the pain of parturition and the throes (thereof). 995
- آن چه میدانست تا پیدا نکرد ** بر جهان ننهاد رنج طلق و درد
- You cannot sit inactive for one moment: (you cannot rest) till some badness or goodness has issued from you.
- یک زمان بیکار نتوانی نشست ** تا بدی یا نیکیی از تو نجست
- These demands (cravings) for action were appointed in order that your inward consciousness should come clearly into (outward) view.
- این تقاضاهای کار از بهر آن ** شد موکل تا شود سرت عیان
- How, then, should the reel, which is the body, become still, when the thread's end, which is the mind, is pulling it?
- پس کلابهی تن کجا ساکن شود ** چون سر رشتهی ضمیرش میکشد
- The sign of that pulling is your anguish: to be inactive is to you like the death-agony.
- تاسهی تو شد نشان آن کشش ** بر تو بیکاری بود چون جان کنش
- This world and that world are for ever giving birth: every cause is a mother, the effect is the child (born) from it. 1000
- این جهان و آن جهان زاید ابد ** هر سبب مادر اثر از وی ولد
- When the effect was born, that too became a cause, so that it might give birth to wondrous effects.
- چون اثر زایید آن هم شد سبب ** تا بزاید او اثرهای عجب
- These causes are generation on generation, but it needs a very well illumined eye (to see all the links in their chain).”
- این سببها نسل بر نسل است لیک ** دیدهای باید منور نیک نیک
- The King, in conversation with him, arrived at this point: he either saw or did not see a sign.
- شاه با او در سخن اینجا رسید ** یا بدید از وی نشانی یا ندید