The gist (of the matter) is that masculinity does not come from every male: beware of the ignorant man if you are wise.1430
حاصل آنک از هر ذکر ناید نری ** هین ز جاهل ترس اگر دانشوری
Do not listen to the friendliness of the fair-spoken ignorant man, for it is like old (virulent) poison.
دوستی جاهل شیرینسخن ** کم شنو کان هست چون سم کهن
He says to you, “O soul of thy mother! O light of my eye!” (but) from those (endearments) only grief and sorrow are added to you.
جان مادر چشم روشن گویدت ** جز غم و حسرت از آن نفزویدت
That (foolish) mother says plainly to your father, “My child has grown very thin because of (going to) school.
مر پدر را گوید آن مادر جهار ** که ز مکتب بچهام شد بس نزار
If thou hadst gotten him by another wife, thou wouldst not have treated him with such cruelty and unkindness.”
از زن دیگر گرش آوردیی ** بر وی این جور و جفا کم کردیی
(Your father replies), “Had this child of mine been (born) of another (wife), not of thee, that wife too would have talked this (same) nonsense.”1435
از جز تو گر بدی این بچهام ** این فشار آن زن بگفتی نیز هم
Beware, recoil from this mother and from her blandishments: your father's slaps are better than her sweetmeat.
هین بجه زن مادر و تیبای او ** سیلی بابا به از حلوای او
The mother is the carnal soul, and the father is noble reason: its beginning is constraint, but its end is a hundred expansions (of the spirit).
هست مادر نفس و بابا عقل راد ** اولش تنگی و آخر صد گشاد
O Giver of (all) understandings, come to my help: none wills (aught) unless Thou will (it).
ای دهندهی عقلها فریاد رس ** تا نخواهی تو نخواهد هیچ کس
Both the desire (for good) and the good action (itself) proceed from Thee: who are we? Thou art the First, Thou art the Last.
هم طلب از تست و هم آن نیکوی ** ما کییم اول توی آخر توی
Do Thou speak and do Thou hear and do Thou be! We are wholly naught notwithstanding all this hewing.1440
هم بگو تو هم تو بشنو هم تو باش ** ما همه لاشیم با چندین تراش
Because of this resignation (to Thy will) do Thou increase our desire for worship (of Thee): do not send (upon us) the sloth and stagnation of necessitarianism.
زین حواله رغبت افزا در سجود ** کاهلی جبر مفرست و خمود
Necessitarianism is the wing and pinion of the perfect; necessitarianism is also the prison and chains of the slothful.
جبر باشد پر و بال کاملان ** جبر هم زندان و بند کاهلان
Know that this necessitarianism is like the water of the Nile— water to the true believer and blood to the infidel.
همچو آب نیل دان این جبر را ** آب مومن را و خون مر گبر را
Wings carry falcons to the king; wings carry crows to the graveyard.
بال بازان را سوی سلطان برد ** بال زاغان را به گورستان برد
Now return to the description of non-existence, for it (non-existence) is like bezoar, though you think it is poison.1445
باز گرد اکنون تو در شرح عدم ** که چو پازهرست و پنداریش سم
Hark, O fellow-servant, go and, like the Hindú boy, be not afraid of the Mahmúd of non-existence.
همچو هندوبچه هین ای خواجهتاش ** رو ز محمود عدم ترسان مباش
Be afraid of the existence in which you are now: that phantasy of yours is nothing and you (yourself) are nothing.
از وجودی ترس که اکنون در ویی ** آن خیالت لاشی و تو لا شیی
One nothing has fallen in love with another nothing: has any naught ever waylaid (and attacked) any other naught?
لاشیی بر لاشیی عاشق شدست ** هیچ نی مر هیچ نی را ره زدست
When these phantasies have departed from before you, that which your understanding hath not conceived becomes clear to you.
چون برون شد این خیالات از میان ** گشت نامعقول تو بر تو عیان
Those who have passed away do not grieve on account of death; their only regret is to have missed the opportunities (of life).
لیس للماضین هم الموت انما لهم حسره الموت
That captain of mankind has said truly that no one who has passed away from this world1450
راست گفتست آن سپهدار بشر ** که هر آنک کرد از دنیا گذر
Feels sorrow and regret and disappointment on account of death; nay, but he feels a hundred regrets for having missed the opportunity,
نیستش درد و دریغ و غبن موت ** بلک هستش صد دریغ از بهر فوت
Saying (to himself), “Why did not I make death my object —(death, which is) the store-house of every fortune and every provision—
که چرا قبله نکردم مرگ را ** مخزن هر دولت و هر برگ را
(And why), through seeing double, did I make the lifelong object of my attention those phantoms that vanished at the fated hour?”
قبله کردم من همه عمر از حول ** آن خیالاتی که گم شد در اجل
The grief of the dead is not on account of death; it is because (so they say) “we dwelt upon the (phenomenal) forms,
حسرت آن مردگان از مرگ نیست ** زانست کاندر نقشها کردیم ایست