Our breaths soar up with the choice (words), as a gift from us, to the abode of everlastingness;
ترتقی أنفاسنا بالمنتقی ** متحفا منا إلی دار البقا
Then comes to us the recompense of our speech, a double (recompense) thereof, as a mercy from (God) the Glorious;
ثم تاتینا مکافات المقال ** ضعف ذاک رحمة من ذی الجلال
Then He causes us to repair to (makes us utter) good words like those (already uttered), that His servant may obtain (something more) of what he has obtained.885
ثم یلجینا الی امثالها ** کی ینال العبد مما نالها
Thus do they (our good words) ascend while it (the Divine mercy) descends continually: mayst thou never cease to keep up that (ascent and descent)!
هکذا تعرج و تنزل دایما ** ذا فلا زلت علیه قائما
Let us speak Persian: the meaning is that this attraction (by which God draws the soul towards Himself) comes from the same quarter whence came that savour (spiritual delight experienced in and after prayer).
پارسی گوییم یعنی این کشش ** ز آن طرف آید که آمد آن چشش
The eyes of every set of people remain (turned) in the direction where one day they satisfied a (longing for) delight.
چشم هر قومی به سویی مانده است ** کان طرف یک روز ذوقی رانده است
The delight of (every) kind is certainly in its own kind (congener): the delight of the part, observe, is in its whole;
ذوق جنس از جنس خود باشد یقین ** ذوق جزو از کل خود باشد ببین
Or else, that (part) is surely capable of (attachment to) a (different) kind and, when it has attached itself thereto, becomes homogeneous with it,890
یا مگر آن قابل جنسی بود ** چون بدو پیوست جنس او شود
As (for instance) water and bread, which were not our congeners, became homogeneous with us and increased within us (added to our bulk and strength).
همچو آب و نان که جنس ما نبود ** گشت جنس ما و اندر ما فزود
Water and bread have not the appearance of being our congeners, (but) from consideration of the end (final result) deem them to be homogeneous (with us).
نقش جنسیت ندارد آب و نان ** ز اعتبار آخر آن را جنس دان
And if our delight is (derived) from something not homogeneous, that (thing) will surely resemble the congener.
ور ز غیر جنس باشد ذوق ما ** آن مگر مانند باشد جنس را
That which (only) bears a resemblance is a loan: a loan is impermanent in the end.
آن که مانند است باشد عاریت ** عاریت باقی نماند عاقبت
Although the bird is delighted by (the fowler's) whistle, it takes fright when it (sees him and) does not find its own congener.895
مرغ را گر ذوق آید از صفیر ** چون که جنس خود نیابد شد نفیر
Although the thirsty man is delighted by the mirage, he runs away when he comes up to it, and seeks for water.
تشنه را گر ذوق آید از سراب ** چون رسد در وی گریزد جوید آب
Moreover, the insolent are pleased with base gold, yet that (gold) is put to shame in the mint.
مفلسان هم خوش شوند از زر قلب ** لیک آن رسوا شود در دار ضرب
(Take heed) lest gildedness (imposture) cast you out of the (right) way, lest false imagination cast you into the well.
تا زر اندودیت از ره نفگند ** تا خیال کژ ترا چه نفگند
Seek the story (illustrating this) from (the book of) Kalíla (and Dimna), and search out the moral (contained) in the story.
از کلیله باز جو آن قصه را ** و اندر آن قصه طلب کن حصه را
Setting forth how the beasts of chase told the lion to trust in God and cease from exerting himself.
بیان توکل و ترک جهد گفتن نخجیران به شیر
A number of beasts of chase in a pleasant valley were continually harassed by a lion.900
طایفهی نخجیر در وادی خوش ** بودشان از شیر دایم کش مکش
Inasmuch as the lion was (springing) from ambush and carrying them away, that pasturage had become unpleasant to them all.
بس که آن شیر از کمین درمیربود ** آن چرا بر جمله ناخوش گشته بود
They made a plot: they came to the lion, saying, “We will keep thee full-fed by means of a (fixed) allowance.
حیله کردند آمدند ایشان بشیر ** کز وظیفه ما ترا داریم سیر
Henceforth do not come in quest of any prey in order that this grass may not become bitter to us.”
بعد از این اندر پی صیدی میا ** تا نگردد تلخ بر ما این گیا
How the lion answered the beasts and explained the advantage of exertion.
جواب گفتن شیر نخجیران را و فایدهی جهد گفتن
“Yes,” said he, “if I see (find) good faith (on your part), not fraud, for often have I seen (suffered) frauds from Zayd and Bakr.
گفت آری گر وفا بینم نه مکر ** مکرها بس دیدهام از زید و بکر
I am done to death by the cunning and fraud of men, I am bitten by the sting of (human) snake and scorpion;905
من هلاک فعل و مکر مردمم ** من گزیدهی زخم مار و کژدمم
(But) worse than all men in fraud and spite is the man of the flesh (nafs) lying in wait within me.
مردم نفس از درونم در کمین ** از همه مردم بتر در مکر و کین
My ear heard ‘The believer is not bitten (twice),’ and adopted (this) saying of the Prophet with heart and soul.”
گوش من لا یلدغ المؤمن شنید ** قول پیغمبر به جان و دل گزید
How the beasts asserted the superiority of trust in God to exertion and acquisition.
ترجیح نهادن نخجیران توکل را بر جهد و اکتساب
They all said: “O knowing sage, let precaution alone: it is of no avail against the Divine decree.
جمله گفتند ای حکیم با خبر ** الحذر دع لیس یغنی عن قدر
In precaution is the embroilment of broil and woe: go, put thy trust in God: trust in God is better.
در حذر شوریدن شور و شر است ** رو توکل کن توکل بهتر است
Do not grapple with Destiny, O fierce and furious one, lest Destiny also pick a quarrel with thee.910
با قضا پنجه مزن ای تند و تیز ** تا نگیرد هم قضا با تو ستیز
One must be dead in presence of the decree of God, so that no blow may come from the Lord of the daybreak.”
مرده باید بود پیش حکم حق ** تا نیاید زخم از رب الفلق
How the lion upheld the superiority of exertion and acquisition to trust in God and resignation.
ترجیح نهادن شیر جهد و اکتساب را بر توکل و تسلیم
“Yes,” he said; “(but) if trust in God is the (true) guide, (yet use of) the means too is the Prophet's rule (Sunna).
گفت آری گر توکل رهبر است ** این سبب هم سنت پیغمبر است
The Prophet said with a loud voice, ‘While trusting in God bind the knee of thy camel.’
گفت پیغمبر به آواز بلند ** با توکل زانوی اشتر ببند
Hearken to the signification of ‘The earner (worker) is beloved of God’: through trusting in God do not become neglectful as to the (ways and) means.”
رمز الکاسب حبیب الله شنو ** از توکل در سبب کاهل مشو
How the beasts preferred trust in God to exertion.
ترجیح نهادن نخجیران توکل را بر اجتهاد
The party (of beasts) answered him, saying, “Regard acquisition (work), arising from the infirmity of (God's) creatures, as a mouthful of deceit proportionate to the size of the gullet.915
قوم گفتندش که کسب از ضعف خلق ** لقمهی تزویر دان بر قدر حلق
There is no work better than trust in God: what, indeed, is dearer (to God) than resignation?
نیست کسبی از توکل خوبتر ** چیست از تسلیم خود محبوبتر
Often do they flee from affliction (only) to (fall into) affliction; often do they recoil from the snake (only) to (meet with) the dragon.
بس گریزند از بلا سوی بلا ** بس جهند از مار سوی اژدها
Man devised (something), and his device was a snare (wherein he was trapped): that which he thought to be life was (actually) the drainer of his blood (his destroyer).
حیله کرد انسان و حیلهش دام بود ** آن که جان پنداشت خون آشام بود