He said, “I wrote a letter to the king; oh, I wonder if it arrived there and found its way (to him).”
که یکی رقعه نبشتم پیش شه ** ای عجب آنجا رسید و یافت ره
The fair-cheeked (king) read that second one also, and as before he gave him no reply and kept silence.
آن دگر را خواند هم آن خوب‌خد ** هم نداد او را جواب و تن بزد
The king was withholding all favour from him: he (the slave) repeated the letter five times.
خشک می‌آورد او را شهریار ** او مکرر کرد رقعه پنج بار
“After all,” said the chamberlain, “he is your (Majesty’s) slave: if you write a reply to him, tis fitting.
گفت حاجب آخر او بنده‌ی شماست ** گر جوابش بر نویسی هم رواست
What diminution of your sovereignty will occur if you cast looks (of favour) on your slave and servant?”1940
از شهی تو چه کم گردد اگر ** برغلام و بنده اندازی نظر
He (the king) said, “This is easy; but he is fool: a foolish man is foul and rejected of God.
گفت این سهلست اما احمقست ** مرد احمق زشت و مردود حقست
Though I pardon his sin and fault, his disease will infect me also.
گرچه آمرزم گناه و زلتش ** هم کند بر من سرایت علتش
From (contact with) an itchy person a whole hundred become itchy, especially (in the case of) this loathsome reprobate itch.
صد کس از گرگین همه گرگین شوند ** خاصه این گر خبیث ناپسند
May the itch, lack of intelligence, not befall (even) the infidel His (the fool’s) ill-starredness keeps the cloud rainless.
گر کم عقلی مبادا گبر را ** شوم او بی‌آب دارد ابر را
On account of his ill-starredness the cloud sheds no moisture: by his owlishness the city is made a desert.1945
نم نبارد ابر از شومی او ** شهر شد ویرانه از بومی او
Because of the itch of those foolish ones the Flood of Noah devastated a whole world (of people) in disgrace.
از گر آن احمقان طوفان نوح ** کرد ویران عالمی را در فضوح
The Prophet said, ‘Whosoever is foolish, he is our enemy and a ghoul who waylays (the traveller).
گفت پیغامبر که احمق هر که هست ** او عدو ماست و غول ره‌زنست
Whoso is intelligent, he is (dear to us as) our soul :his breeze and wind is our sweet basil.’
هر که او عاقل بود از جان ماست ** روح او و ریح او ریحان ماست
(If) intelligence revile me, I am well-pleased, because it possesses something that has emanated from my emanative activity.
عقل دشنامم دهد من راضیم ** زانک فیضی دارد از فیاضیم
Its revilement is not without use, its hospitality is not without a table;1950
نبود آن دشنام او بی‌فایده ** نبود آن مهمانیش بی‌مایده
(But) if the fool put sweetmeat on my lip, I am in a fever from (tasting) his sweetmeat.”
احمق ار حلوا نهد اندر لبم ** من از آن حلوای او اندر تبم
If you are goodly and enlightened, know this for sure, (that) kissing the arse of an ass hath no (delicious) savour.
این یقین دان گر لطیف و روشنی ** نیست بوسه‌ی کون خر را چاشنی
He (the unsavoury fool) uselessly makes your moustache fetid; your dress is blackened by his kettle without (there being) a table (of food).
سبلتت گنده کند بی‌فایده ** جامه از دیگش سیه بی‌مایده
Intelligence is the table, not bread and roast-meat: the light of intelligence, O son, is the nutriment for the soul.
مایده عقلست نی نان و شوی ** نور عقلست ای پسر جان را غذی
Man hath no food but the light: the soul does not obtain nourishment from aught but that.1955
نیست غیر نور آدم را خورش ** از جز آن جان نیابد پرورش
Little by little cut (yourself) off from the (material) foods –– for these are the nutriment of an ass, not that of a free (noble) man ––
زین خورشها اندک اندک باز بر ** کین غذای خر بود نه آن حر
So that you may become capable of (absorbing) the original nutriment and may eat habitually the dainty morsels of the light.
تا غذای اصل را قابل شوی ** لقمه‌های نور را آکل شوی
‘Tis (from) the reflexion of that light that this bread has become bread; ‘tis (from) the overflowing of that (rational) soul that this (animal) soul has become soul.
عکس آن نورست کین نان نان شدست ** فیض آن جانست کین جان جان شدست
When you eat once of the light you will pour earth over the (material) bread and oven.
چون خوری یکبار از ماکول نور ** خاک ریزی بر سر نان و تنور
Intelligence consists of two intelligences; the former is the acquired one which you learn, like a boy at school,1960
عقل دو عقلست اول مکسبی ** که در آموزی چو در مکتب صبی