When a king listens to such a minister, he (the minister) disgraces the king and his kingdom unto everlasting.
بر چنین صاحب چو شه اصغا کند ** شاه و ملکش را ابد رسوا کند
The resemblance of the bad judgement of this base vizier in corrupting the king's generosity to (that of) the vizier of Pharaoh, namely, Hámán, in corrupting the readiness of Pharaoh to receive (the true Faith).
مانستن بدرایی این وزیر دون در افساد مروت شاه به وزیر فرعون یعنی هامان در افساد قابلیت فرعون
How many a time did Pharaoh soften and become submissive when he was hearing that Word from Moses!—1240
چند آن فرعون می‌شد نرم و رام ** چون شنیدی او ز موسی آن کلام
That Word (which was such) that from the sweetness of that incomparable Word the rock would have yielded milk.
آن کلامی که بدادی سنگ شیر ** از خوشی آن کلام بی‌نظیر
Whenever he took counsel with Hámán, who was his vizier and whose nature it was to hate,
چون بهامان که وزیرش بود او ** مشورت کردی که کینش بود خو
Then he (Hámán) would say, “Until now thou hast been the Khedive: wilt thou become, through deception, the slave to a wearer of rags?”
پس بگفتی تا کنون بودی خدیو ** بنده گردی ژنده‌پوشی را بریو
Those words would come like a stone shot by a mangonel (ballista) and strike upon his glass house.
هم‌چو سنگ منجنیقی آمدی ** آن سخن بر شیشه خانه‌ی او زدی
All that the Kalím of sweet address built up in a hundred days he (Hámán) would destroy in one moment.1245
هر چه صد روز آن کلیم خوش‌خطاب ** ساختی در یک‌دم او کردی خراب
Thy intellect is the vizier and is overcome by sensuality: in (the realm of) thy being it is a brigand (that attacks thee) on the Way to God.
عقل تو دستور و مغلوب هواست ** در وجودت ره‌زن راه خداست
(If) a godly monitor give thee good advice, it will artfully put those words (of his) aside,
ناصحی ربانیی پندت دهد ** آن سخن را او به فن طرحی نهد
Saying, “These (words) are not well-founded: take heed, don't be carried away (by them); they are not (worth) so much: come to thyself (be sensible), don't be crazed.”
کین نه بر جایست هین از جا مشو ** نیست چندان با خود آ شیدا مشو
Alas for the king whose vizier is this (carnal intellect): the place (abode) of them both is vengeful Hell.
وای آن شه که وزیرش این بود ** جای هر دو دوزخ پر کین بود
Happy is the king whose helper in affairs is a vizier like Ásaf.1250
شاد آن شاهی که او را دست‌گیر ** باشد اندر کار چون آصف وزیر
When the just king is associated with him, his (the king's) name is light upon light.
شاه عادل چون قرین او شود ** نام آن نور علی نور این بود
A king like Solomon and a vizier like Ásaf are light upon light and ambergris upon ‘abír.
چون سلیمان شاه و چون آصف وزیر ** نور بر نورست و عنبر بر عبیر
(When) the king (is like) Pharaoh and his vizier like Hámán, ill-fortune is inevitable for both.
شاه فرعون و چو هامانش وزیر ** هر دو را نبود ز بدبختی گزیر
Then it is (a case of) darkness, one part over another: neither intellect nor fortune shall be their friend on the Day of Judgement.
پس بود ظلمات بعضی فوق بعض ** نه خرد یار و نه دولت روز عرض
I have not seen aught but misery in the vile: if thou hast seen (aught else), convey (to them) the salaam (of felicitation) from me.1255
من ندیدم جز شقاوت در لام ** گر تو دیدستی رسان از من سلام
The king is as the spirit, and the vizier as the intellect: the corrupt intellect brings the spirit into movement (towards corruption).
هم‌چو جان باشد شه و صاحب چو عقل ** عقل فاسد روح را آرد بنقل
When the angelical intellect became a Hárút, it became the teacher in magic to two hundred devils.
آن فرشته‌ی عقل چون هاروت شد ** سحرآموز دو صد طاغوت شد
Do not take the particular (individual) intellect as thy vizier: make the Universal Intellect thy vizier, O king.
عقل جزوی را وزیر خود مگیر ** عقل کل را ساز ای سلطان وزیر
Do not make sensuality thy vizier, else thy pure spirit will cease from prayer,
مر هوا را تو وزیر خود مساز ** که برآید جان پاکت از نماز
For this sensuality is full of greed and sees (only) the immediate present, (whereas) the Intellect takes thought for the Day of Judgement.1260
کین هوا پر حرص و حالی‌بین بود ** عقل را اندیشه یوم دین بود
The two eyes of the Intellect are (fixed) on the end of things: it endures the pain of the thorn for the sake of that Rose
عقل را دو دیده در پایان کار ** بهر آن گل می‌کشد او رنج خار
Which does not fade and drop in autumn—far from it be the wind (breath) of every nose that cannot smell!
که نفرساید نریزد در خزان ** باد هر خرطوم اخشم دور از آن
How the Demon sat on the place (throne) of Solomon, on whom be peace, and imitated his actions; and concerning the manifest difference between the two Solomons, and how the Demon called himself Solomon son of David.
نشستن دیو بر مقام سلیمان علیه‌السلام و تشبه کردن او به کارهای سلیمان علیه‌السلام و فرق ظاهر میان هر دو سلیمان و دیو خویشتن را سلیمان بن داود نام کردن
Even if thou hast intellect, associate and consult with another intellect, O father.
ورچه عقلت هست با عقل دگر ** یار باش و مشورت کن ای پدر