- 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
- If that searching King saw (such a sign), ’tis not strange; but we are not permitted to mention it.
- گر بدید آن شاه جویا دور نیست ** لیک ما را ذکر آن دستور نیست
- When that (other) slave came from the warm bath, that King and lofty personage called him to his presence, 1005
- چون ز گرمابه بیامد آن غلام ** سوی خویشش خواند آن شاه و همام
- (And) said, “Health (to you)! Lasting happiness be yours! You are very fine and elegant and good-looking.
- گفت صحا لک نعیم دایم ** بس لطیفی و ظریف و خوب رو
- Oh, alas! If there were not in you that which so-and-so says about you,
- ای دریغا گر نبودی در تو آن ** که همیگوید برای تو فلان
- Whoever beheld your face would become glad; the sight of you would be worth the empire of the world.”
- شاد گشتی هر که رویت دیدهیی ** دیدنت ملک جهان ارزیدیی
- He said, “O King, utter some hint of what that miscreant said about me.”
- گفت رمزی ز آن بگو ای پادشاه ** کز برای من بگفت آن دین تباه
- The King said, “In the first place he described you as double-faced, saying that you are ostensibly a remedy (but) secretly a disease.” 1010
- گفت اول وصف دو روییت کرد ** کاشکارا تو دوایی خفیه درد
- When he heard from the King the malice of his companion, at once the sea of his anger surged up.
- خبث یارش را چو از شه گوش کرد ** در زمان دریای خشمش جوش کرد
- That slave foamed and reddened, so that the billows of his vituperation exceeded (all) bounds.
- کف بر آورد آن غلام و سرخ گشت ** تا که موج هجو او از حد گذشت
- He said, “From the first moment that he was associated with me, he was a great eater of dung, like a dog in (time of) famine.”
- کاو ز اول دم که با من یار بود ** همچو سگ در قحط بس گه خوار بود
- As he satirised him in succession (without intermission), like a bell, the King put his hand on his (the slave's) lips, saying, “Enough!”
- چون دمادم کرد هجوش چون جرس ** دست بر لب زد شهنشاهش که بس
- He said, “I know you from him by that (which you have spoken): in you the spirit is foul, and in your companion (only) the mouth. 1015
- گفت دانستم ترا از وی بدان ** از تو جان گنده ست و از یارت دهان
- Therefore do you sit far off, O foul-spirited one, that he may be the commander and you under his command.”
- پس نشین ای گنده جان از دور تو ** تا امیر او باشد و مأمور تو
- It is (said) in the Hadíth (Traditions of the Prophet): “Know, sire, that glorification (of God) from hypocrisy is like the verdure on a midden.”
- در حدیث آمد که تسبیح از ریا ** همچو سبزهی گولخن دان ای کیا
- Know, then, that a fair and goodly form with bad qualities (within) is not worth a farthing;
- پس بدان که صورت خوب و نکو ** با خصال بد نیرزد یک تسو
- And though the form be despicable and unpleasing, (yet) when his (that person's) disposition is good, die at his feet!
- ور بود صورت حقیر و ناپذیر ** چون بود خلقش نکو در پاش میر
- Know that the outward form passes away, (but) the world of reality remains for ever. 1020
- صورت ظاهر فنا گردد بدان ** عالم معنی بماند جاودان
- How long will you play at loving the shape of the jug? Leave the shape of the jug; go, seek the water.
- چند بازی عشق با نقش سبو ** بگذر از نقش سبو رو آب جو
- You have seen its (outward) form, you are unaware of the reality; pick out from the shell a pearl, if you are wise.
- صورتش دیدی ز معنی غافلی ** از صدف دری گزین گر عاقلی
- These shells of bodies in the world, though they all are living by (grace of) the Sea of Soul—
- این صدفهای قوالب در جهان ** گر چه جمله زندهاند از بحر جان