What is (meant by looking) forward? To think of thy own death and last agony. What is (meant by looking) backward? (To remember) the predecease of thy friends.
پیش چه بود یاد مرگ و نزع خویش ** پس چه باشد مردن یاران ز پیش
Thou hast (in thy record) no wailful penitence for thy injustice, O rogue who showest wheat and sellest barley.1830
نه ترا بر ظلم توبهی پر خروش ** ای دغا گندمنمای جوفروش
Since thy scales were wrong and false, how shouldst thou require the scales of thy retribution to be right?
چون ترازوی تو کژ بود و دغا ** راست چون جویی ترازوی جزا
Since thou wert a left foot (wert going to the left) in fraud and dishonesty, how should the scroll come into thy right hand?
چونک پای چپ بدی در غدر و کاست ** نامه چون آید ترا در دست راست
Since retribution is (like) the shadow, accordingly thy shadow, O man of bent figure, falls crookedly before thee.’”
چون جزا سایهست ای قد تو خم ** سایهی تو کژ فتد در پیش هم
(To him) from this quarter (Heaven) come (such) harsh words of rebuke that even the back of a mountain would be bowed by them.
زین قبل آید خطابات درشت ** که شود که را از آن هم کوز پشت
The servant (of God) answers: “I am a hundred, hundred, hundred times as much as that which Thou hast declared.1835
بنده گوید آنچ فرمودی بیان ** صد چنانم صد چنانم صد چنان
Verily, in Thy forbearance Thou hast thrown a veil over worse things (than those mentioned); otherwise (Thou mightst have declared them, for) Thou knowest with Thy knowledge (all my) shameful deeds;
خود تو پوشیدی بترها را به حلم ** ورنه میدانی فضیحتها به علم
But, outside of my own exertion and action, beyond good and evil and religion and infidelity,
لیک بیرون از جهاد و فعل خویش ** از ورای خیر و شر و کفر و کیش
And beyond my feeble supplication and the fancy and imagination of myself or a hundred like me,
وز نیاز عاجزانهی خویشتن ** وز خیال و وهم من یا صد چو من
Beyond living righteously or behaving disobediently—I had a (great) hope in Thy pure lovingkindness.
بودم اومیدی به محض لطف تو ** از ورای راست باشی یا عتو
I had hope in the pure bounty (flowing) from Thy spontaneous loving kindness, O Gracious Disinterested One.1840