Know yourself a sinner and calf yourself a sinner—do not be afraid—so that that Master may not steal (secretly take away) the lesson from you.
خویش مجرم دان و مجرم گو مترس ** تا ندزدد از تو آن استاد درس
When you say, “I am ignorant; give (me) instruction,” such fair-dealing is better than (a false) reputation.
چون بگویی جاهلم تعلیم ده ** این چنین انصاف از ناموس به
Learn from your father (Adam), O clear-browed man: he said heretofore, “O our Lord” and “We have done wrong.”
از پدر آموز ای روشن‌جبین ** ربنا گفت و ظلمنا پیش ازین
He made no excuse, nor did he invent falsehood nor lift up the banner of deceit and evasion.1390
نه بهانه کرد و نه تزویر ساخت ** نه لوای مکر و حیلت بر فراخت
That Iblís, on the other hand, began to dispute, saying, “I was red-faced (honourable): Thou hast made me yellow (disgraced).
باز آن ابلیس بحث آغاز کرد ** که بدم من سرخ رو کردیم زرد
The colour is Thy colour: Thou art my dyer, Thou art the origin of my sin and bane and brand.”
رنگ رنگ تست صباغم توی ** اصل جرم و آفت و داغم توی
Beware! Recite (the text) because Thou hast seduced me, in order that you may not become a necessitarian and may not weave untruth.
هین بخوان رب بما اغویتنی ** تا نگردی جبری و کژ کم تنی
How long will you leap up the tree of necessitarianism and lay your free-will aside,
بر درخت جبر تا کی بر جهی ** اختیار خویش را یک‌سو نهی
Like that Iblís and his progeny, (engaged) in battle and argument with God?1395
هم‌چو آن ابلیس و ذریات او ** با خدا در جنگ و اندر گفت و گو
How should there be compulsion when you are trailing your skirt (sweeping along) into sin with such complacence?
چون بود اکراه با چندان خوشی ** که تو در عصیان همی دامن کشی
Does any one under compulsion walk so complacently? Does any one, having lost his way’, go dancing (gleefully) like that?
آن‌چنان خوش کس رود در مکرهی ** کس چنان رقصان دود در گم‌رهی
You were fighting like twenty men (to prevail) in the matter concerning which those others were giving you good advice.
بیست مرده جنگ می‌کردی در آن ** کت همی‌دادند پند آن دیگران
You said, “This is right and this is the only (approved) way: how should any one but a nobody (worthless person) rail at me?”
که صواب اینست و راه اینست و بس ** کی زند طعنه مرا جز هیچ‌کس
How should one who is compelled speak thus? How should one who has lost his way wrangle like this?1400
کی چنین گوید کسی کو مکر هست ** چون چنین جنگد کسی کو بی‌رهست
Whatever your fleshly soul desires, you have free-will (in regard to that); whatever your reason desires, you plead necessity (as an excuse for rejecting it).
هر چه نفست خواست داری اختیار ** هر چه عقلت خواست آری اضطرار
He that is blessed and familiar (with spiritual mysteries) knows that intelligence is of Iblís, while love is of Adam.
داند او کو نیک‌بخت و محرمست ** زیرکی ز ابلیس و عشق از آدمست
Intelligence is (like) swimming in the seas: he (the swimmer) is not saved: he is drowned at the end of the business.
زیرکی سباحی آمد در بحار ** کم رهد غرقست او پایان کار
Leave off swimming, let pride and enmity go: this is not a Jayhun (Oxus) or a (lesser) river, it is an ocean;
هل سباحت را رها کن کبر و کین ** نیست جیحون نیست جو دریاست این
And, moreover, (it is) the deep Ocean without refuge: it sweeps away the seven seas like straw.1405
وانگهان دریای ژرف بی‌پناه ** در رباید هفت دریا را چو کاه
Love is as a ship for the elect: seldom is calamity (the result); for the most part it is deliverance.
عشق چون کشتی بود بهر خواص ** کم بود آفت بود اغلب خلاص
Sell intelligence and buy bewilderment: intelligence is opinion, while bewilderment is (immediate) vision.
زیرکی بفروش و حیرانی بخر ** زیرکی ظنست و حیرانی نظر
Sacrifice your understanding in the presence of Mustafá (Mohammed) say, “hasbiya ‘lláh, for God sufficeth me.”
عقل قربان کن به پیش مصطفی ** حسبی الله گو که الله‌ام کفی
Do not draw back your head from the ship (ark), like Kan‘án (Canaan), whom his intelligent soul deluded,
هم‌چو کنعان سر ز کشتی وا مکش ** که غرورش داد نفس زیرکش
Saying, “I will go up to the top of the lofty mountain: why must I bear gratitude (be under an obligation) to Noah?”1410
که برآیم بر سر کوه مشید ** منت نوحم چرا باید کشید
How should you recoil from being grateful to him, O unrighteous one, when even God bears gratitude to him?
چون رمى از منتش اى بىرشد ** كه خدا هم منت او مىكشد