It is the abode of my Friend and the city of my King: in the lover’s eyes this is (the meaning of) love of one’s native land.”
مسکن یارست و شهر شاه من ** پیش عاشق این بود حب الوطن
How a loved one asked her lover who had travelled in foreign countries, “Which city didst thou find the fairest and most thronged and the most magnificent and rich and charming?”
پرسیدن معشوقی از عاشق غریب خود کی از شهرها کدام شهر را خوشتر یافتی و انبوهتر و محتشمتر و پر نعمتتر و دلگشاتر
A loved one said to her lover, “O youth, thou hast seen many cities abroad.
گفت معشوقی به عاشق کای فتی ** تو به غربت دیدهای بس شهرها
Which of them, then, is the fairest?” He replied, “The city where my sweetheart is.”
پس کدامین شهر ز آنها خوشترست ** گفت آن شهری که در وی دلبرست
Wherever the carpet is (spread) for our King, (there) is the (spacious) plain, though it (that place) be (as narrow as) the eye of a needle.3810
هرکجا باشد شه ما را بساط ** هست صحرا گر بود سم الخیاط
Wherever a Joseph (beautiful) as the moon may be, ’tis Paradise, even though it be the bottom of a well.
هر کجا که یوسفی باشد چو ماه ** جنتست ارچه که باشد قعر چاه
How his friends hindered him from returning to Bukhárá and threatened him, and how he said, “I don't care.”
منع کردن دوستان او را از رجوع کردن به بخارا وتهدید کردن و لاابالی گفتن او
A candid adviser said to him, “O imprudent man, think of the end (consequence), if thou hast (any) skill.
گفت او را ناصحی ای بیخبر ** عاقبت اندیش اگر داری هنر
Consider reasonably the future and the past: do not let thyself be burnt like a moth.
درنگر پس را به عقل و پیش را ** همچو پروانه مسوزان خویش را
How art thou going to Bukhárá? Thou art mad, thou art (only) fit for chains and the prison-house.
چون بخارا میروی دیوانهای ** لایق زنجیر و زندانخانهای
He (the Sadr-i Jahán) is champing iron in his wrath against thee; he is seeking thee with twenty eyes.3815
او ز تو آهن همیخاید ز خشم ** او همیجوید ترا با بیست چشم
He is sharpening the knife for thee: he is (like) the starving dog, and thou (like) the bag of flour.
میکند او تیز از بهر تو کارد ** او سگ قحطست و تو انبان آرد