علم تقلیدی و تعلیمی است آن ** کز نفورش مستمع دارد فغان
Knowledge is conventional and acquired (not real), when he (its owner) laments because the hearer is averse to (hearing) it.
چون پی دانه نه بهر روشنی است ** همچو طالب علم دنیای دنی است2430
Since it is (learned) as a bait (for popularity), not for the sake of (spiritual) enlightenment, he (the seeker of religious knowledge) is just as (bad) as the seeker of vile worldly knowledge;
طالب علم است بهر عام و خاص ** نی که تا یابد از این عالم خلاص
(For) he is seeking knowledge on account of the vulgar and the noble, not in order that he may win release from this world.
همچو موشی هر طرف سوراخ کرد ** چون که نورش راند از در گشت سرد
Like a mouse, he has burrowed in every direction, since the light drove him (back) from the door (the entrance to the hole) and said, ‘Away!’
چون که سوی دشت و نورش ره نبود ** هم در آن ظلمات جهدی مینمود
Inasmuch as he had no way (of getting out) to the open country and the light, he continued to make (such) an exertion even in that darkness.
گر خدایش پر دهد پر خرد ** برهد از موشی و چون مرغان پرد
If God give him wings, the wings of Wisdom, he will escape from mousiness and will fly like the birds;
ور نجوید پر بماند زیر خاک ** ناامید از رفتن راه سماک2435
But if he seek not wings, he will remain underground with no hope of traversing the path to Simák.
علم گفتاری که آن بیجان بود ** عاشق روی خریداران بود
Dialectic knowledge, which is soulless, is in love with (eager for) the countenance of customers;
گر چه باشد وقت بحث علم زفت ** چون خریدارش نباشد مرد و رفت
(But) though it is robust at the time of disputation, it is dead and gone when it has no customer.
مشتری من خدای است او مرا ** میکشد بالا که الله اشتری
My purchaser is God: He is drawing me aloft, for God hath purchased.