And if he (the scoffer) be not fit for this praise (of Me) and humble supplication, then, O (spiritual) Sultan, the (proper) reply to a fool is silence.
ور نباشد اهل این ذکر و قنوت ** پس جواب الاحمق ای سلطان سکوت
From God's Heaven silence comes in reply when, O (dear) soul, the prayer is unanswered.”
ز آسمان حق سکوت آید جواب ** چون بود جانا دعا نامستجاب
Oh, alas, ’tis harvest-time, but by our (ill) fortune the day has become late.
ای دریغا وقت خرمنگاه شد ** لیک روز از بخت ما بیگاه شد
Time is pressing, and the amplitude of this (subject of) discussion (is such that) a perpetual life will be (too) restricted for it.1485
وقت تنگست و فراخی این کلام ** تنگ می‌آید برو عمر دوام
To dart the lance in these narrow lanes brings to disgrace those who dart the lance.
نیزه‌بازی اندرین کوه‌های تنگ ** نیزه‌بازان را همی آرد به تنگ
The time is narrow (limited), and the mind and understanding of the vulgar is narrower a hundredfold than the time, O youth.
وقت تنگ و خاطر و فهم عوام ** تنگ‌تر صد ره ز وقت است ای غلام
Inasmuch as silence is the (proper) reply to the fool, how art thou thus prolonging the discourse?
چون جواب احمق آمد خامشی ** این درازی در سخن چون می‌کشی
(Because) He (God), from the perfection of His mercy and the waves of His bounty, bestows rain and moisture on every barren soil.
از کمال رحمت و موج کرم ** می‌دهد هر شوره را باران و نم
Showing that (the proverb), "Omission to reply is a reply," confirms the saying that silence is the (proper) reply to the fool. The explanation of both these (sayings) is (contained) in the story which will now be related.
در بیان آنک ترک الجواب جواب مقرر این سخن کی جواب الاحمق سکوت شرح این هر دو درین قصه است کی گفته می‌آید
There was a king: he had a slave; he (the slave) was one whose reason was dead and whose lust was alive.1490
بود شاهی بود او را بنده‌ای ** مرده عقلی بود و شهوت‌زنده‌ای
He would neglect the niceties of service to him (the king): he was thinking evil and deeming (it) good.
خرده‌های خدمتش بگذاشتی ** بد سگالیدی نکو پنداشتی
The monarch said, “Reduce his allowance, and if he wrangle strike his name off the roll.”
گفت شاهنشه جرااش کم کنید ** ور بجنگد نامش از خط بر زنید
His reason was deficient, his cupidity excessive: when he saw the allowance reduced he became violent and refractory.
عقل او کم بود و حرص او فزون ** چون جرا کم دید شد تند و حرون
Had there been reason (in him), he would have made a circuit round himself, in order that he might see his offence and become forgiven.
عقل بودی گرد خود کردی طواف ** تا بدیدی جرم خود گشتی معاف
When, on account of asininity, a tethered ass becomes violent, both his (fore-)legs will be shackled in addition.1495
چون خری پابسته تندد از خری ** هر دو پایش بسته گردد بر سری
Then the ass will say, “One tether is enough for me”; (but) in sooth do not think (that such is the case), for those two are (result) from the action of that vile creature.
پس بگوید خر که یک بندم بست ** خود مدان کان دو ز فعل آن خسست
In exposition of the following Hadíth of Mustafá (Mohammed), on whom be peace: "Verily, the most High God created the angels and set reason in them, and He created the beasts and set lust in them, and He created the sons of Adam and set in them reason and lust; and he whose reason prevails over his lust is higher than the angels, and he whose lust prevails over his reason is lower than the beasts."
در تفسیر این حدیث مصطفی علیه‌السلام کی ان الله تعالی خلق الملائکة و رکب فیهم العقل و خلق البهائم و رکب فیها الشهوة و خلق بنی آدم و رکب فیهم العقل و الشهوة فمن غلب عقله شهوته فهو اعلی من الملائکة و من غلب شهوته عقله فهو ادنی من البهائم
It is related in the Hadíth that the majestical God created the creatures of the world (in) three kinds.
در حدیث آمد که یزدان مجید ** خلق عالم را سه گونه آفرید
One class (He made) entirely reason and knowledge and munificence; that is the angel: he knoweth naught but prostration in worship.
یک گره را جمله عقل و علم و جود ** آن فرشته‌ست او نداند جز سجود
In his original nature is no concupiscence and sensuality: he is absolute light, (he is) living through (his) love of God.
نیست اندر عنصرش حرص و هوا ** نور مطلق زنده از عشق خدا
Another class is devoid of knowledge, like the animal (which lives) in fatness from (eating) fodder.1500
یک گروه دیگر از دانش تهی ** هم‌چو حیوان از علف در فربهی
It sees nothing but stable and fodder: it is heedless of (future) misery and glory (felicity).
او نبیند جز که اصطبل و علف ** از شقاوت غافلست و از شرف
The third (class) is Adam's descendant and Man: half of him is of the angel and half of him is ass.
این سوم هست آدمی‌زاد و بشر ** نیم او ز افرشته و نیمیش خر
The ass-half, indeed, inclines to that which is low; the other half inclines to that which is rational.
نیم خر خود مایل سفلی بود ** نیم دیگر مایل عقلی بود
Those two classes (the angels and the beasts) are at rest from war and combat, while this Man is (engaged) in torment (painful struggle) with two adversaries.
آن دو قوم آسوده از جنگ و حراب ** وین بشر با دو مخالف در عذاب
And, moreover, this (race of) Man, through probation, has been divided: they (all) are of human shape, but (in truth) they have become three communities (families).1505
وین بشر هم ز امتحان قسمت شدند ** آدمی شکلند و سه امت شدند
One party have become submerged absolutely and, like Jesus, have attained unto the (nature of the) angel.
یک گره مستغرق مطلق شدست ** هم‌چو عیسی با ملک ملحق شدست
The form (of such a one is that of) Adam, but the reality is Gabriel: he has been delivered from anger and sensual passion and (vain) disputation.
نقش آدم لیک معنی جبرئیل ** رسته از خشم و هوا و قال و قیل
He has been delivered from discipline and asceticism and self-mortification: you would say he was not even born of a child of Adam.
از ریاضت رسته وز زهد و جهاد ** گوییا از آدمی او خود نزاد
The second sort have attained unto (the nature of) asses: they have become pure anger and absolute lust.
قسم دیگر با خران ملحق شدند ** خشم محض و شهوت مطلق شدند
The qualities of Gabriel were in them and departed: that house was (too) narrow, and those qualities (too) grand.1510
وصف جبریلی دریشان بود رفت ** تنگ بود آن خانه و آن وصف زفت
The person who is deprived of (the vital) spirit becomes dead: when his spirit is deprived of those (angelic qualities), he becomes an ass,
مرده گردد شخص کو بی‌جان شود ** خر شود چون جان او بی‌آن شود
Because the spirit that hath not those (qualities) is vile: this word is true, and the (perfect) Súfí has said (it).
زانک جانی کان ندارد هست پست ** این سخن حقست و صوفی گفته است
He (the man of animal nature) suffers more anxiety than the beasts, (for) he practises subtle arts in the world.
او ز حیوانها فزون‌تر جان کند ** در جهان باریک کاریها کند
The cunning and imposture which he knows how to spin— that (cunning) is not produced by any other animal.
مکر و تلبیسی که او داند تنید ** آن ز حیوان دیگر ناید پدید
To weave gold-embroidered robes, to win pearls from the bottom of the sea,1515
جامه‌های زرکشی را بافتن ** درها از قعر دریا یافتن
The fine artifices of geometry or astronomy, and the science of medicine and philosophy—
خرده‌کاریهای علم هندسه ** یا نجوم و علم طب و فلسفه
Which are connected only with this world and have no way (of mounting) up to the Seventh Heaven—
که تعلق با همین دنیاستش ** ره به هفتم آسمان بر نیستش
All this is the science of building the (worldly) stable which is the pillar (basis) of the existence of (persons like) the ox and the camel.
این همه علم بنای آخرست ** که عماد بود گاو و اشترست
For the sake of preserving the animal for a few days, these crazy fools have given to those (arts and sciences) the name of “mysteries.”
بهر استبقای حیوان چند روز ** نام آن کردند این گیجان رموز
The knowledge of the Way to God and the knowledge of His dwelling place—that only the owner of the heart knows, or (you may say) his heart (itself).1520
علم راه حق و علم منزلش ** صاحب دل داند آن را با دلش
He (God), then, created in this composite fashion the goodly animal and made him familiar with knowledge.
پس درین ترکیب حیوان لطیف ** آفرید و کرد با دانش الیف
That (bestial) class (of men) He named “like the cattle,” for where is the resemblance between waking and sleep?
نام کالانعام کرد آن قوم را ** زانک نسبت کو بیقظه نوم را
The animal spirit hath naught but sleep (ignorance): the (bestial) class of men possess inverted sense-perceptions.
روح حیوانی ندارد غیر نوم ** حسهای منعکس دارند قوم
(When) waking comes, the animal sleep is no more, and he (the enlightened man) reads the (former) inversion of his senses from the tablet (of his clairvoyant consciousness)—
یقظه آمد نوم حیوانی نماند ** انعکاس حس خود از لوح خواند
Like the sense-perceptions of one whom sleep has seized: when he awakes, the inverted quality (of his sense-perceptions whilst he was dreaming) becomes apparent.1525
هم‌چو حس آنک خواب او را ربود ** چون شد او بیدار عکسیت نمود
Necessarily, he (the bestial man) is the lowest of the low. Take leave of him: I love not them that sink.
لاجرم اسفل بود از سافلین ** ترک او کن لا احب الافلین
In exposition of the following Verse: "and as for those in whose hearts is a disease, it (each new Súra of the Qur’án) added unto their uncleanness (wicked unbelief)"; and of His Word: "thereby He letteth many be led astray, and thereby He letteth many be guided aright."
در تفسیر این آیت کی و اما الذین فی قلوبهم مرض فزادتهم رجسا و قوله یضل به کثیرا و یهدی به کثیرا
(The bestial man is the lowest of the low) because he possessed the capacity for transforming himself and striving (to escape) from lowness, but (afterwards) lost it.
زانک استعداد تبدیل و نبرد ** بودش از پستی و آن را فوت کرد
Again, since the animal does not possess (that) capacity, its excusability (for remaining) in the bestial state is a thing (most) evident.
باز حیوان را چو استعداد نیست ** عذر او اندر بهیمی روشنیست
When the capacity, which is the guide (to salvation), is gone from him, every nutriment that he eats is the brain of an ass.
زو چو استعداد شد کان رهبرست ** هر غذایی کو خورد مغز خرست
If he eats anacardium, it becomes (acts upon him as) opium: his apoplexy and dementia are increased.1530
گر بلادر خورد او افیون شود ** سکته و بی‌عقلیش افزون شود
There remains another sort (of men: they are engaged) in warfare: (they are) half animal, half (spiritually) alive and endowed with good guidance.
ماند یک قسم دگر اندر جهاد ** نیم حیوان نیم حی با رشاد