نرم گو لیکن مگو غیر صواب ** وسوسه مفروش در لین الخطاب
Speak softly, but do not speak aught except the truth: do not offer temptation in your mildness of address.
وقت عصر آمد سخن کوتاه کن ** ای که عصرت عصر را آگاه کن
The time of afternoon is come: cut short the discourse, O thou whose expression (of the hidden truth) makes (the people of) the age acquainted (with reality).
گو تو مر گل‌خواره را که قند به ** نرمی فاسد مکن طینش مده
Do thou tell the clay-eater that sugar is better: do not show injurious softness, do not give him clay.
نطق جان را روضه‌ی جانیستی ** گر ز حرف و صوت مستغنیستی3820
Speech would be a spiritual garden to the soul, if it were independent of letters and sounds.
این سر خر در میان قندزار ** ای بسا کس را که بنهادست خار
Oh, there is many a one in whom this donkey's head amidst the sugar plantation has fixed a thorn!
ظن ببرد از دور کان آنست و بس ** چون قج مغلوب وا می‌رفت پس
He, (seeing it) from afar, supposed that it (the sugar-plantation) is just that (donkey's head), nothing more; (so) he was retiring, like a ram vanquished in fight.
صورت حرف آن سر خر دان یقین ** در رز معنی و فردوس برین
Know for sure that the (literal) form (of speech) is (like) that donkey's head in the vineyard and highest Paradise of the spiritual reality.
ای ضیاء الحق حسام الدین در آر ** این سر خر را در آن بطیخ‌زار
O Ziyá’u ’l-Haqq Husámu’ddín, bring this donkey's head into that melon-field,
تا سر خر چون بمرد از مسلخه ** نشو دیگر بخشدش آن مطبخه3825
In order that, when the donkey's head has died to (has passed beyond) the skinning-place, that kitchen may bestow on it another growth (a spiritual regeneration).
هین ز ما صورت‌گری و جان ز تو ** نه غلط هم این خود و هم آن ز تو
Hark, the shaping (of the poem) is from me, and the spirit (of it) from thee; nay, (I spoke) in error: truly both this and that are from thee.