And the tall proud figure, piercing the ranks like a spear-point, in old age is bent double like a bow.970
وان قد صف در نازان چون سنان ** گشته در پیری دو تا همچون کمان
The colour of red anemone becomes the colour of saffron; his lion-like strength becomes as the courage of women.
رنگ لاله گشته رنگ زعفران ** زور شیرش گشته چون زهرهی زنان
He that used to grip a man in his arms by skill (in wrestling), (now) they take hold of his arms (to support him) at the time of departure.
آنک مردی در بغل کردی به فن ** میبگیرندش بغل وقت شدن
Truly these are marks of pain and decay: every one of them is a messenger of death.
این خود آثار غم و پژمردگیست ** هر یکی زینها رسول مردگیست
Commentary on “The lowest of the low, except those who have believed and wrought good works; for they shall have a reward that is not cut off.”
تفسیر اسفل سافلین الا الذین آمنوا و عملوا الصالحات فلهم اجر غیر مومنون
But if his physician be the Light of God, there is no loss or crushing blow (that he will suffer) from old age and fever.
لیک گر باشد طبیبش نور حق ** نیست از پیری و تب نقصان و دق
His weakness is like the weakness of the intoxicated, for in his weakness he is the envy of a Rustam.975
سستی او هست چون سستی مست ** که اندر آن سستیش رشک رستمست
If he die, his bones are drowned in (spiritual) savour; every mote of him is (floating) in the beams of the light of love-desire.
گر بمیرد استخوانش غرق ذوق ** ذره ذرهش در شعاع نور شوق
And he who hath not that (Light) is an orchard without fruit, which the autumn brings to ruin.
وآنک آنش نیست باغ بیثمر ** که خزانش میکند زیر و زبر
The roses remain not; (only) the black thorns remain: it becomes pale and pithless like a heap of straw.
گل نماند خارها ماند سیاه ** زرد و بیمغز آمده چون تل کاه
O God, I wonder what fault did that orchard commit, that these (beautiful) robes should be stripped from it.
تا چه زلت کرد آن باغ ای خدا ** که ازو این حلهها گردد جدا
“It paid regard to itself, and self-regard is a deadly poison. Beware, O thou who art put to the trial!”980
خویشتن را دید و دید خویشتن ** زهر قتالست هین ای ممتحن
The minion for love of whom the world wept—the world (now) is repulsing him from itself: what is (his) crime?
شاهدی کز عشق او عالم گریست ** عالمش میراند از خود جرم چیست
“The crime is that he put on a borrowed adornment and pretended that these robes were his own property.
جرم آنک زیور عاریه بست ** کرد دعوی کین حلل ملک منست
We take them back, in order that he may know for sure that the stack is Ours and the fair ones are (only) gleaners;
واستانیم آن که تا داند یقین ** خرمن آن ماست خوبان دانهچین
That he may know that those robes were a loan: ’twas a ray from the Sun of Being.”
تا بداند کان حلل عاریه بود ** پرتوی بود آن ز خورشید وجود
(All) that beauty and power and virtue and knowledge have journeyed hither from the Sun of Excellence.985
آن جمال و قدرت و فضل و هنر ** ز آفتاب حسن کرد این سو سفر
They, the light of that Sun, turn back again, like the stars, from these (bodily) walls.
باز میگردند چون استارها ** نور آن خورشید ازین دیوارها
(When) the Sunbeam has gone home, every wall is left dark and black.
پرتو خورشید شد وا جایگاه ** ماند هر دیوار تاریک و سیاه
That which made thee amazed at the faces of the fair is the Light of the Sun (reflected) from the three-coloured glass.
آنک کرد او در رخ خوبانت دنگ ** نور خورشیدست از شیشهی سه رنگ
The glasses of diverse hue cause that Light to seem coloured like this to us.
شیشههای رنگ رنگ آن نور را ** مینمایند این چنین رنگین بما
When the many-coloured glasses are no more, then the colourless Light makes thee amazed.990
چون نماند شیشههای رنگرنگ ** نور بیرنگت کند آنگاه دنگ
Make it thy habit to behold the Light without the glass, in order that when the glass is shattered there may not be blindness (in thee).
خوی کن بیشیشه دیدن نور را ** تا چو شیشه بشکند نبود عمی
Thou art content with knowledge learned (from others): thou hast lit thine eye at another's lamp.
قانعی با دانش آموخته ** در چراغ غیر چشم افروخته
He takes away his lamp, that thou mayst know thou art a borrower, not a giver.
او چراغ خویش برباید که تا ** تو بدانی مستعیری نیفتا
If thou hast rendered thanks (to God for what thou hast received) and made the utmost exertion (in doing so), be not grieved (at its loss), for He will give (thee) a hundred such (gifts) in return;
گر تو کردی شکر و سعی مجتهد ** غم مخور که صد چنان بازت دهد