- (After) the king (had) dug pits in the deserts, yard by yard, he threw the scroll wrathfully before him (the fakir). 1960
- دشتها را گز گز آن شه چاه کند ** رقعه را از خشم پیش او فکند
- “Take this scroll,” said he, “which has no (good) effects; you are the fittest (owner) for it, since you have no work.
- گفت گیر این رقعه کش آثار نیست ** تو بدین اولیتری کت کار نیست
- It is no use for one who has work (to do) that he should burn the rose and go about (busy himself with) the thorn.
- نیست این کار کسی کش هست کار ** که بسوزد گل بگردد گرد خار
- ’Tis singular (how) the victims of this melancholy madness expect grass to grow from iron.
- نادر افتد اهل این ماخولیا ** منتظر که روید از آهن گیا
- This specialty needs a man of stout heart like you: do you, who have a stout heart, search for this (treasure).
- سخت جانی باید این فن را چو تو ** تو که داری جان سخت این را بجو
- If you cannot find it, you will never weary (of seeking); and if you find it, I grant you the right of possession.” 1965
- گر نیابی نبودت هرگز ملال ** ور بیابی آن به تو کردم حلال
- How should Reason wend the way of despair? ’Tis Love that runs on its head in that direction.
- عقل راه ناامیدی کی رود ** عشق باشد کان طرف بر سر دود
- Love is reckless, not Reason: Reason seeks that from which it may get some profit.
- لاابالی عشق باشد نی خرد ** عقل آن جوید کز آن سودی برد
- (The lover is) fierce in onset and body-consuming and unabashed: in tribulation, like the nether millstone;
- ترکتاز و تنگداز و بیحیا ** در بلا چون سنگ زیر آسیا
- A hard-faced one that has no back: he has killed in himself the seeking of self-interest.
- سخترویی که ندارد هیچ پشت ** بهرهجویی را درون خویش کشت
- He gambles (everything) clean away, he seeks no reward, even as he receives (everything) clean (as a free gift) from Him (God). 1970
- پاک میبازد نباشد مزدجو ** آنچنان که پاک میگیرد ز هو
- God gives him his existence without any cause: the devoted (lover) yields it up again without cause;
- میدهد حق هستیش بیعلتی ** میسپارد باز بیعلت فتی
- For devotion consists in giving without cause: gambling (one's self) clean away (pure self-sacrifice) is outside of (transcends) every religion.
- که فتوت دادن بی علتست ** پاکبازی خارج هر ملتست
- Forasmuch as religion seeks (Divine) grace or salvation, those who gamble (everything) clean away are (God's) chosen favourites.
- زانک ملت فضل جوید یا خلاص ** پاک بازانند قربانان خاص
- Neither do they put God to any test, nor do they knock at the door of any profit or loss.
- نی خدا را امتحانی میکنند ** نی در سود و زیانی میزنند
- How the king gave back the treasure-scroll to the fakir, saying, “Take it: we are quit of it.”
- باز دادن شاه گنجنامه را به آن فقیر کی بگیر ما از سر این برخاستیم
- When the king handed over to that grief-stricken man the treasure-scroll (which was) fraught with commotion, 1975
- چونک رقعهی گنج پر آشوب را ** شه مسلم داشت آن مکروب را
- He (the fakir) became secure from rivals and annoyance, (so) he went and wrapped himself in his melancholy madness.
- گشت آمن او ز خصمان و ز نیش ** رفت و میپیچید در سودای خویش
- He made sad-thoughted Love his friend: a dog licks his own sore himself.
- یار کرد او عشق درداندیش را ** کلب لیسد خویش ریش خویش را
- Love hath none to help him in his torment: there is not in the village one inhabitant familiar with him.
- عشق را در پیچش خود یار نیست ** محرمش در ده یکی دیار نیست
- None is more mad than the lover, (yet) Reason is blind and deaf to his melancholia,
- نیست از عاشق کسی دیوانهتر ** عقل از سودای او کورست و کر
- Because this is no common madness: in these cases Medicine cannot give right guidance. 1980
- زآنک این دیوانگی عام نیست ** طب را ارشاد این احکام نیست
- If frenzy of this kind overtake a physician, he will wash out (obliterate) the book of Medicine with (tears of) blood.
- گر طبیبی را رسد زین گون جنون ** دفتر طب را فرو شوید به خون
- The Medicine of all intellects is (but) a picture of him (Love); the faces of all sweethearts are (but) a veil of him.
- طب جملهی عقلها منقوش اوست ** روی جمله دلبران روپوش اوست
- O votary of Love, turn thy face towards thine own face: thou hast no kinsman but thyself, O distraught one.
- روی در روی خود آر ای عشقکیش ** نیست ای مفتون ترا جز خویش خویش
- He (the fakir) made a qibla of his heart and began to pray: man hath naught but that for which he laboureth.
- قبله از دل ساخت آمد در دعا ** لیس للانسان الا ما سعی