- The ass that turns the mill is running along: its aim is (to obtain) release, so that it may gain refuge from blows at that moment. 2195
- آن خراسی میدود قصدش خلاص ** تا بیابد او ز زخم آن دم مناص
- Its aim is not to draw some water or thereby (by turning the mill) to make sesame into oil.
- قصد او آن نه که آبی بر کشد ** یاکه کنجد را بدان روغن کند
- The ox hurries for fear of (receiving) hard blows, not for the purpose of taking the cart and baggage (to their destination);
- گاو بشتابد ز بیم زخم سخت ** نه برای بردن گردون و رخت
- But God put such fear of pain in him, to the end that good results might be achieved in consequence (of his fear).
- لیک دادش حق چنین خوف وجع ** تا مصالح حاصل آید در تبع
- Similarly, every shopkeeper works for himself, not for the improvement of the world.
- همچنان هر کاسبی اندر دکان ** بهر خود کوشد نه اصلاح جهان
- Every one seeks a plaster for his pain, and in consequence of this a whole world is set in order. 2200
- هر یکی بر درد جوید مرهمی ** در تبع قایم شده زین عالمی
- God made of fear the pillar (support) of this world: because of fear every one has devoted himself to work.
- حق ستون این جهان از ترس ساخت ** هر یکی از ترس جان در کار باخت
- Praise be to God that on this wise He has made a fear to be the architect and (means for the) improvement of the world.
- حمد ایزد را که ترسی را چنین ** کرد او معمار و اصلاح زمین
- All these (people) are afraid of (losing) good and (suffering) evil: none that is afraid is himself frightened by himself.
- این همه ترسندهاند از نیک و بد ** هیچ ترسنده نترسد خود ز خود
- In reality, then, (the creator of their fear and) the ruler over (them) all is that One who is near, though He is not perceived by the senses.
- پس حقیقت بر همه حاکم کسیست ** که قریبست او اگر محسوس نیست
- He is perceived in a certain hiding-place (the heart), but not perceived by the sense of this house (the body). 2205
- هست او محسوس اندر مکمنی ** لیک محسوس حس این خانه نی
- The sense to which God is manifested is not the sense of this world; it is another.
- آن حسی که حق بر آن حس مظهرست ** نیست حس این جهان آن دیگرست
- If the animal sense perceived those (Divine) forms (ideas) an ox or an ass would be the Báyazíd of the time.
- حس حیوان گر بدیدی آن صور ** بایزید وقت بودی گاو و خر
- He who made the body to be the theatre in which every spirit is manifested, He who made the Ark to be the Buráq (steed) of Noah,
- آنک تن را مظهر هر روح کرد ** وآنک کشتی را براق نوح کرد
- He, if He will, makes (what is) a very ark in (its ordinary) character to be a (destructive) flood for you, O seeker of light.
- گر بخواهد عین کشتی را به خو ** او کند طوفان تو ای نورجو
- At every moment, O man of little means, He has conjoined with your grief and gladness an ark (to save you) and a flood (to destroy you). 2210
- هر دمت طوفان و کشتی ای مقل ** با غم و شادیت کرد او متصل
- If you do not perceive the ark and the sea (flood) before you, (then) consider (whence come) the tremors in all your limbs.
- گر نبینی کشتی و دریا به پیش ** لرزها بین در همه اجزای خویش
- Since his (the trembling man's) eyes do not perceive the source of his fear, he is affrighted by diverse kinds of phantasy.
- چون نبیند اصل ترسش را عیون ** ترس دارد از خیال گونهگون
- (For example), a drunken boor strikes a blind man with his fist: the blind man thinks it is a kicking camel,
- مشت بر اعمی زند یک جلف مست ** کور پندارد لگدزن اشترست
- Because at that moment he heard a camel's cry: the ear, not the eye, is the mirror for the blind.
- زانک آن دم بانگ اشتر میشنید ** کور را گوشست آیینه نه دید
- (But) then again the blind man says, “No, it was a stone (which some one threw at me), or perhaps it was (a brick) from an echoing dome.” 2215
- باز گوید کور نه این سنگ بود ** یا مگر از قبهی پر طنگ بود
- It was neither this nor that nor that: He who created fear produced these (phantasies).
- این نبود و او نبود و آن نبود ** آنک او ترس آفرید اینها نمود
- Certainly fear and trembling are (produced) by another: nobody is frightened by himself, O sorrowful man.
- ترس و لرزه باشد از غیری یقین ** هیچ کس از خود نترسد ای حزین
- The miserable philosopher calls fear “imagination” (wahm): he has wrongly understood this lesson.
- آن حکیمک وهم خواند ترس را ** فهم کژ کردست او این درس را
- How should there be any imagination without reality? How should any false coin pass (into circulation) without a genuine one?
- هیچ وهمی بیحقیقت کی بود ** هیچ قلبی بیصحیحی کی رود