- There is a friendship like the season of spring, whence (come) restorations and produce incalculable.
- صحبتی باشد چو فصل نوبهار ** زو عمارتها و دخل بیشمار
- Prudence is this, that you think evil, so that you may flee and become quit of evil.
- حزم آن باشد که ظن بد بری ** تا گریزی و شوی از بد بری
- The Prophet has said, “Prudence is (consists in) thinking evil”: know that for every footstep there is a snare, O fool!
- حزم س الظن گفتست آن رسول ** هر قدم را دام میدان ای فضول
- The surface of the plateau is level and broad, (but at) every step there is a snare: do not advance boldly.
- روی صحرا هست هموار و فراخ ** هر قدم دامیست کم ران اوستاخ
- The mountain-goat runs on, saying, “Where is the snare?” As it speeds onward, the snare lights on its throat. 270
- آن بز کوهی دود که دام کو ** چون بتازد دامش افتد در گلو
- O thou who saidst “Where?” look and see! Thou sawest the plain, (but) thou didst not see the ambush.
- آنک میگفتی که کو اینک ببین ** دشت میدیدی نمیدیدی کمین
- Without ambush and snare and hunter, O cunning one, how should there be a sheep's tail (laid in a trap) amidst the cornfield?
- بی کمین و دام و صیاد ای عیار ** دنبه کی باشد میان کشتزار
- They that came along boldly on the earth—see their bones and skulls!
- آنک گستاخ آمدند اندر زمین ** استخوان و کلههاشان را ببین
- When you go to the graveyard, O you with whom God is pleased, ask their bones concerning that which is past,
- چون به گورستان روی ای مرتضا ** استخوانشان را بپرس از ما مضی
- That you may see clearly how those blind intoxicated men went down into the pit of delusion. 275
- تا بظاهر بینی آن مستان کور ** چون فرو رفتند در چاه غرور
- If you have eyes, do not walk blindly; and if you have not eyes, take a staff in your hand.
- چشم اگر داری تو کورانه میا ** ور نداری چشم دست آور عصا
- When you have not the staff of prudence and judgement, make the (seer's) eye your leader;
- آن عصای حزم و استدلال را ** چون نداری دید میکن پیشوا
- And if there is no staff of prudence and judgement, do not stand on every road without a guide.
- ور عصای حزم و استدلال نیست ** بی عصاکش بر سر هر ره مهایست
- Step in the same fashion as a blind man steps, in order that your foot may escape from the pit and the dog.
- گام زان سان نه که نابینا نهد ** تا که پا از چاه و از سگ وا رهد
- He (the blind man) plants his foot tremblingly and with fear and precaution, so that he may not fall into derangement. 280
- لرز لرزان و بترس و احتیاط ** مینهد پا تا نیفتد در خباط
- O you who have jumped away from some smoke and fallen into a fire, you who have sought a mouthful (of food) and become a mouthful for a snake,
- ای ز دودی جسته در ناری شده ** لقمه جسته لقمهی ماری شده
- (Story of the people of Sabá and how prosperity made them forward.)
- قصهی اهل سبا و طاغی کردن نعمت ایشان را و در رسیدن شومی طغیان و کفران در ایشان و بیان فضیلت شکر و وفا
- You have not read the story of the people of Sabá, or you have read it and seen (heard) naught but the echo.
- تو نخواندی قصهی اهل سبا ** یا بخواندی و ندیدی جز صدا
- The mountain itself (which produces the echo) is not aware of the echo: the mind of the mountain hath no way (of access) to the meaning.
- از صدا آن کوه خود آگاه نیست ** سوی معنی هوش که را راه نیست
- Without ear and mind, it goes on making a noise; when you are silent, it also becomes silent.
- او همی بانگی کند بی گوش و هوش ** چون خمش کردی تو او هم شد خموش
- God bestowed on the people of Sabá much ease—myriads of castles and palaces and orchards. 285
- داد حق اهل سبا را بس فراغ ** صد هزاران قصر و ایوانها و باغ
- (But) those bad-natured ones rendered no thanks for that (bounty): in fidelity they were less than dogs.
- شکر آن نگزاردند آن بد رگان ** در وفا بودند کمتر از سگان
- When to a dog there comes from the door a piece of bread, he will gird up his loins at the door.
- مر سگی را لقمهی نانی ز در ** چون رسد بر در همیبندد کمر
- He will become the watcher and guardian of the door, even though violence and hard treatment befall him.
- پاسبان و حارس در میشود ** گرچه بر وی جور و سختی میرود
- Still will he stay and abide at that door: he will deem it ingratitude to prefer another.
- هم بر آن در باشدش باش و قرار ** کفر دارد کرد غیری اختیار
- And (again), if a strange dog come by day or night (to a quarter of the town), the dogs there will at once teach him a lesson, 290
- ور سگی آید غریبی روز و شب ** آن سگانش میکنند آن دم ادب