- If you are an elephant and your foe fled from you, lo, the retribution came upon you, birds in flocks.
- گر تو پیلی خصم تو از تو رمید ** نک جزا طیرا ابابیلت رسید
- If any poor man on the earth beg for mercy, a loud tumult falls on (arises among) the Host of Heaven. 1315
- گر ضعیفی در زمین خواهد امان ** غلغل افتد در سپاه آسمان
- If you bite him with your teeth and make him bleed, toothache will attack you—how will you do (then)?
- گر بدندانش گزی پر خون کنی ** درد دندانت بگیرد چون کنی
- The lion saw himself in the well, and in his fury he did not know himself at that moment from the enemy.
- شیر خود را دید در چه وز غلو ** خویش را نشناخت آن دم از عدو
- He regarded his own reflexion as his enemy: necessarily he drew a sword against himself.
- عکس خود را او عدوی خویش دید ** لا جرم بر خویش شمشیری کشید
- Oh, many an iniquity that you see in others is your own nature (reflected) in them, O reader!
- ای بسا ظلمی که بینی از کسان ** خوی تو باشد در ایشان ای فلان
- In them shone forth all that you are in your hypocrisy and iniquity and insolence. 1320
- اندر ایشان تافته هستی تو ** از نفاق و ظلم و بد مستی تو
- You are that (evil-doer), and you are striking those blows at yourself: you are weaving a curse upon yourself at that moment.
- آن تویی و آن زخم بر خود میزنی ** بر خود آن دم تار لعنت میتنی
- You do not see clearly the evil in yourself, else you would hate yourself with (all) your soul.
- در خود آن بد را نمیبینی عیان ** ور نه دشمن بودیی خود را به جان
- You are assaulting yourself, O simpleton, like the lion who made a rush at himself.
- حمله بر خود میکنی ای ساده مرد ** همچو آن شیری که بر خود حمله کرد
- When you reach the bottom of your own nature, then you will know that that vileness was from yourself.
- چون به قعر خوی خود اندر رسی ** پس بدانی کز تو بود آن ناکسی
- At the bottom (of the well) it became manifest to the lion that he who seemed to him to be another was (really) his own image. 1325
- شیر را در قعر پیدا شد که بود ** نقش او آن کش دگر کس مینمود
- Whoever tears out the teeth of a poor wretch is doing what the falsely-seeing lion did.
- هر که دندان ضعیفی میکند ** کار آن شیر غلط بین میکند
- O you who see the bad reflexion on the face of your uncle, it is not your uncle that is bad, it is you: do not run away from yourself!
- ای بدیده عکس بد بر روی عم ** بد نه عم است آن تویی از خود مرم
- The Faithful are mirrors to one another: this saying is related from the Prophet.
- مومنان آیینهی همدیگرند ** این خبر میاز پیمبر آورند
- You held a blue glass before your eye: for that reason the world seemed to you to be blue.
- پیش چشمت داشتی شیشهی کبود ** ز آن سبب عالم کبودت مینمود
- Unless you are blind, know that this blueness comes from yourself: speak ill of yourself, speak no more ill of any one (else). 1330
- گر نه کوری این کبودی دان ز خویش ** خویش را بد گو، مگو کس را تو بیش
- If the true believer was not seeing by the Light of God, how did things unseen appear naked (plainly revealed) to the true believer?
- مومن ار ینظر بنور الله نبود ** غیب مومن را برهنه چون نمود
- Inasmuch as you were seeing by the Fire of God, in (your) badness you became forgetful of goodness.
- چون که تو ینظر بنار الله بدی ** در بدی از نیکویی غافل شدی
- Little by little throw water on the fire, that your fire may become light, O man of sorrow!
- اندک اندک آب بر آتش بزن ** تا شود نار تو نور ای بو الحزن
- Throw Thou, O Lord, the purifying water, that this world-fire may become wholly light.
- تو بزن یا ربنا آب طهور ** تا شود این نار عالم جمله نور
- All the water of the sea is under Thy command; water and fire, O Lord, are Thine. 1335
- آب دریا جمله در فرمان تست ** آب و آتش ای خداوند آن تست
- If Thou willest, fire becomes sweet water; and if Thou willest not, even water becomes fire.
- گر تو خواهی آتش آب خوش شود ** ور نخواهی آب هم آتش شود
- This search (aspiration) in us is also brought into existence by Thee; deliverance from iniquity is Thy gift, O Lord.
- این طلب در ما هم از ایجاد تست ** رستن از بیداد یا رب داد تست
- Without (our) seeking Thou hast given us this search, Thou hast opened to all the treasure of (Thy) beneficence.
- بیطلب تو این طلبمان دادهای ** گنج احسان بر همه بگشادهای
- How the hare brought to the beasts of chase the news that the lion had fallen into the well.
- مژده بردن خرگوش سوی نخجیران که شیر در چاه افتاد
- When the hare was gladdened by deliverance (from the lion), he began to run towards the beasts until (he came to) the desert.
- چون که خرگوش از رهایی شاد گشت ** سوی نخجیران دوان شد تا به دشت
- Having seen the lion miserably slain in the well, he was skipping joyously all the way to the meadow, 1340
- شیر را چون دید در چه کشته زار ** چرخ میزد شادمان تا مرغزار
- Clapping his hands because he had escaped from the hand of Death; fresh and dancing in the air, like bough and leaf.
- دست میزد چون رهید از دست مرگ ** سبز و رقصان در هوا چون شاخ و برگ
- Bough and leaf were set free from the prison of earth, lifted their heads, and became comrades of the wind;
- شاخ و برگ از حبس خاک آزاد شد ** سر بر آورد و حریف باد شد
- The leaves, when they had burst (forth from) the bough, made haste to reach the top of the tree;
- برگها چون شاخ را بشکافتند ** تا به بالای درخت اشتافتند
- With the tongue of (seed that put forth) its sprouts each fruit and tree severally is singing thanks to God,
- با زبان شطاه شکر خدا ** میسراید هر بر و برگی جدا
- Saying, “The Bounteous Giver nourished our root until the tree grew big and stood upright.” 1345
- که بپرورد اصل ما را ذو العطا ** تا درخت استغلظ آمد و استوی
- (Even so) the spirits bound in clay, when they escape glad at heart from their (prisons of) clay,
- جانهای بسته اندر آب و گل ** چون رهند از آب و گلها شاد دل
- Begin to dance in the air of Divine Love and become flawless like the full moon's orb,
- در هوای عشق حق رقصان شوند ** همچو قرص بدر بینقصان شوند
- Their bodies dancing, and their souls—nay, do not ask (how their souls fare); and of that which surrounds the soul—nay, do not ask of those things!
- جسمشان در رقص و جانها خود مپرس ** و آن که گرد جان از آنها خود مپرس
- The hare lodged the lion in prison. Shame on a lion who was discomfited by a hare!
- شیر را خرگوش در زندان نشاند ** ننگ شیری کاو ز خرگوشی بماند
- He is in such a disgrace, and still—this is a wonder—he would fain be addressed by the title of Fakhr-i Dín. 1350
- در چنان ننگی و آن گه این عجب ** فخر دین خواهد که گویندش لقب
- O thou lion that liest alone at the bottom of this well, thy fleshly soul, like the hare, has shed and drunk thy blood;
- ای تو شیری در تک این چاه فرد ** نفس چون خرگوش خونت ریخت و خورد
- Thy hare-soul is feeding in the desert, (whilst) thou art (lying) at the bottom of this well of “How?” and “Why?”
- نفس خرگوشت به صحرا در چرا ** تو به قعر این چه چون و چرا
- That lion-catcher (the hare) ran towards the beasts, crying, “Rejoice, O my people, since the announcer of joy is come.
- سوی نخجیران دوید آن شیر گیر ** کابشروا یا قوم إذ جاء البشیر
- Glad news! Glad news, O company of merry-makers! That hell-hound has gone back to Hell.
- مژده مژده ای گروه عیشساز ** کان سگ دوزخ به دوزخ رفت باز
- Glad news! Glad news! The enemy of your lives—his teeth have been torn out by the vengeance of his Creator. 1355
- مژده مژده کان عدوی جانها ** کند قهر خالقش دندانها
- He who smote many heads with his claws—him too the broom of Death has swept away like rubbish.”
- آن که از پنجه بسی سرها بکوفت ** همچو خس جاروب مرگش هم بروفت
- How the beasts gathered round the hare and spoke in praise of him.
- جمع شدن نخجیران گرد خرگوش و ثنا گفتن او را
- Then all the wild beasts assembled, joyous and laughing gleefully in rapture and excitement.
- جمع گشتند آن زمان جمله وحوش ** شاد و خندان از طرب در ذوق و جوش
- They formed a ring, he (the hare) in the midst like a candle: they bowed (in homage) and said to him, "Hark!"
- حلقه کردند او چو شمعی در میان ** سجده آوردند و گفتندش که هان
- “Art thou a heavenly angel or a peri? No, thou art the Azrael of fierce lions.
- تو فرشتهی آسمانی یا پری ** نی تو عزراییل شیران نری
- Whatever thou art, our souls are offered in sacrifice to thee. Thou hast prevailed. Health to thy hand and arm! 1360
- هر چه هستی جان ما قربان تست ** دست بردی دست و بازویت درست
- God turned this water into thy stream. Blessing on thy hand and arm!
- راند حق این آب را در جوی تو ** آفرین بر دست و بر بازوی تو
- Explain how thou didst meditate with guile, and how thou didst guilefully wipe out that ruffian.
- باز گو تا چون سگالیدی به مکر ** آن عوان را چون بمالیدی به مکر
- Explain, in order that the tale may be the means of curing (our malady); explain, that it may be a salve for our souls.
- باز گو تا قصه درمانها شود ** باز گو تا مرهم جانها شود