How am I meaner than a lamb, meaner than a kid, that there should not be a keeper behind me?
کی کم از بره کم از بزغاله‌ام ** که نباشد حارس از دنباله‌ام
I have a Keeper whom it beseems to hold dominion: He knoweth the wind that blows upon me.
حارسی دارم که ملکش می‌سزد ** داند او بادی که آن بر من وزد
Whether that wind was cold or hot, that Knowing One is not unaware, is not absent, O infirm man.
سرد بود آن باد یا گرم آن علیم ** نیست غافل نیست غایب ای سقیم
The appetitive soul is deaf and blind to God: I with my heart was seeing thy blindness from afar.235
نفس شهوانی ز حق کرست و کور ** من به دل کوریت می‌دیدم ز دور
For eight years I did not inquire after thee at all, because I saw thee (to be) full of ignorance, fold on fold.
هشت سالت زان نپرسیدم به هیچ ** که پرت دیدم ز جهل پیچ پیچ
Why, indeed, should I inquire after one who is in t he bath-stove (of lust), and say (to him) ‘How art thou?’ when he is (plunged) headlong (in sensuality)?
خود چه پرسم آنک او باشد بتون ** که تو چونی چون بود او سرنگون
Comparison of this world to a bath-stove and of piety to the bath.
مثال دنیا چون گولخن و تقوی چون حمام
The lust of this world is like the bath-stove by which the bath, piety, is (made) resplendent;
شهوت دنیا مثال گلخنست ** که ازو حمام تقوی روشنست
But the pious man's portion from this stove is (naught but) purity, because he is in the hot-bath and in cleanliness.
لیک قسم متقی زین تون صفاست ** زانک در گرمابه است و در نقاست
The rich resemble those who carry dung for the bath-keeper's fire-making.240
اغنیا ماننده‌ی سرگین‌کشان ** بهر آتش کردن گرمابه‌بان
God hath implanted cupidity in them, in order that the bath may be hot and well-provided.
اندریشان حرص بنهاده خدا ** تا بود گرمابه گرم و با نوا
Abandon this stove and advance into the hot-bath: know that abandonment of the stove is the very essence of that bath.
ترک این تون گوی و در گرمابه ران ** ترک تون را عین آن گرمابه دان
Any one who is in the stove is as a servant to him that is self-denying and on his guard.
هر که در تونست او چون خادمست ** مر ورا که صابرست و حازمست
Whosoever has entered the bath, his (characteristic) sign is visible upon his comely face.
هر که در حمام شد سیمای او ** هست پیدا بر رخ زیبای او
The signs of the stokers are conspicuous too—in their dress and in the smoke and dust (which blacken them).245
تونیان را نیز سیما آشکار ** از لباس و از دخان و از غبار
And if you see not his (the stoker's) face, smell him; smell is (as) a staff for every one that is blind;
ور نبینی روش بویش را بگیر ** بو عصا آمد برای هر ضریر
And if you have not (the sense of) smell, induce him to speak, and from the new talk learn the old secret.
ور نداری بو در آرش در سخن ** از حدیث نو بدان راز کهن
Then a gold-possessing stoker will say, “I have brought in twenty baskets of filth, (working from dawn) till nightfall.”
پس بگوید تونیی صاحب ذهب ** بیست سله چرک بردم تا به شب
Your cupidity is like fire in the (material) world: every (flaming) tongue (thereof) has opened a hundred mouths (to swallow filthy lucre).
حرص تو چون آتشست اندر جهان ** باز کرده هر زبانه صد دهان
In the sight of Reason, this gold is foul as dung, although, like dung, it is (the cause of) the blazing of the fire.250
پیش عقل این زر چو سرگین ناخوشست ** گرچه چون سرگین فروغ آتشست
The sun, which emulates the fire, makes the moist filth fit for the fire.
آفتابی که دم از آتش زند ** چرک تر را لایق آتش کند
The sun also made the stone gold, in order that a hundred sparks might fall into the stove of cupidity.
آفتاب آن سنگ را هم کرد زر ** تا بتون حرص افتد صد شرر
He who says, “I have collected riches”—what is (the meaning of) it? It means, “I have brought in all this filth.”
Albeit this saying is exceedingly disgraceful, there are boasts on this account amongst the stokers.
این سخن گرچه که رسوایی‌فزاست ** در میان تونیان زین فخرهاست
(One of them says), “Thou hast carried (only) six baskets ere nightfall; I have carried twenty baskets without trouble.”255
که تو شش سله کشیدی تا به شب ** من کشیدم بیست سله بی کرب
He that was born in the stove and never saw purity, the smell of musk produces a painful effect upon him.
آنک در تون زاد و پاکی را ندید ** بوی مشک آرد برو رنجی پدید
Story of the tanner who fainted and sickened on smelling otto and musk in the bazaar of the perfumers.
قصه‌ی آن دباغ کی در بازار عطاران از بوی عطر و مشک بیهوش و رنجور شد
A certain man fell senseless and curled up as soon as he came into the bazaar of the perfumers.
آن یکی افتاد بیهوش و خمید ** چونک در بازار عطاران رسید
The scent of the perfume (floating) from the goodly perfumers smote him, so that his head reeled and he fell on the spot.
بوی عطرش زد ز عطاران راد ** تا بگردیدش سر و بر جا فتاد
He fell unconscious, like a carcase, at noontide in the middle of the thoroughfare.
هم‌چو مردار اوفتاد او بی‌خبر ** نیم روز اندر میان ره‌گذر
Thereupon the people gathered over him, all crying Lá hawl and applying remedies.260
جمع آمد خلق بر وی آن زمان ** جملگان لاحول‌گو درمان کنان
One was putting his hand on his (the tanner's) heart, while another sprinkled rose-water upon him;
آن یکی کف بر دل او می براند ** وز گلاب آن دیگری بر وی فشاند
(For) he did not know that from (smelling) rose-water in the meadow (the bazaar) that calamity had overtaken him.
او نمی‌دانست کاندر مرتعه ** از گلاب آمد ورا آن واقعه
One was massaging his hands and head, and another was bringing moist clay mixed with straw (to serve as a cold plaster);
آن یکی دستش همی‌مالید و سر ** وآن دگر کهگل همی آورد تر
One compounded incense of aloes-wood and sugar, while another was divesting him of part of his clothes;
آن بخور عود و شکر زد به هم ** وآن دگر از پوششش می‌کرد کم
And another felt his pulse, to see how it was beating; and another was smelling his mouth,265
وآن دگر نبضش که تا چون می‌جهد ** وان دگر بوی از دهانش می‌ستد
To see whether he had drunk wine or eaten beng or hashish: the people (having exhausted every resource) remained in despair at his insensibility.
تا که می خوردست و یا بنگ و حشیش ** خلق درماندند اندر بیهشیش
So they speedily brought the news to his kinsfolk—“Such and such a person is lying there in a state of collapse;
پس خبر بردند خویشان را شتاب ** که فلان افتاده است آن‌جا خراب
No one knows how he was stricken with catalepsy, or what it was that led to this public exposure.”
کس نمی داند که چون مصروع گشت ** یا چه شد کو را فتاد از بام طشت
That stout tanner had a brother, (who was) cunning and sagacious: he came at once in hot haste.
یک برادر داشت آن دباغ زفت ** گربز و دانا بیامد زود تفت
(With) a small quantity of dog's dung in his sleeve, he cleft (his way through) the crowd and approached (the senseless man) with cries of grief.270
اندکی سرگین سگ در آستین ** خلق را بشکافت و آمد با حنین
“I know,” said he, “whence his illness arises: when you know the cause (of a disease), the (means of) curing (it) is manifest.
گفت من رنجش همی دانم ز چیست ** چون سبب دانی دوا کردن جلیست
When the cause is unknown, the remedy for the illness is difficult (to find), and in that (case) there are a hundred grounds to which it may be referred;
چون سبب معلوم نبود مشکلست ** داروی رنج و در آن صد محملست
(But) when you have ascertained the cause, it becomes easy: knowledge of causes is the means of expelling ignorance.”
چون بدانستی سبب را سهل شد ** دانش اسباب دفع جهل شد
He said to himself, “The smell of that dog's dung is multiplied in his brain and veins.
گفت با خود هستش اندر مغز و رگ ** توی بر تو بوی آن سرگین سگ
Up to the waist in filth, he is absorbed in the tanner's craft till nightfall, seeking his livelihood.275
تا میان اندر حدث او تا به شب ** غرق دباغیست او روزی‌طلب
Thus then has the great Jálínús (Galen) said: ‘Give the patient that to which he was habituated (before his illness);
پس چنین گفتست جالینوس مه ** آنچ عادت داشت بیمار آنش ده
For his illness arises from doing the contrary to (his usual) habit: therefore seek the remedy for his illness in that which is habitual (to him).’
کز خلاف عادتست آن رنج او ** پس دوای رنجش از معتاد جو
He (the tanner), from carrying dung, has become like the dung-beetle: the dung-beetle is made insensible by rose-water.
چون جعل گشتست از سرگین‌کشی ** از گلاب آید جعل را بیهشی
The remedy for him consists in that same dog's dung to which he is habituated and accustomed.”
هم از آن سرگین سگ داروی اوست ** که بدان او را همی معتاد و خوست
Recite (the text), the wicked women for the wicked men: recognise (both) the front and the back of this saying.280
الخبیثات الخبیثین را بخوان ** رو و پشت این سخن را باز دان
The sincere mentors prepare medicine for him (the wicked man) with ambergris or rose-water to open the door (of Divine Mercy);
ناصحان او را به عنبر یا گلاب ** می دوا سازند بهر فتح باب