بخش 82 - مثل

A king was going to the congregational mosque, and the marshals and mace-bearers were beating the people off.

The wielder of the stick would break the head of one and tear to bits the shirt of another.

A poor wretch amidst the throng received ten blows with the stick without (having committed) any offence. “Begone,” they cried, “get out of the way!”

Dripping blood, he turned his face to the king and said, “Behold the manifest iniquity: why ask of that which is hidden?

This is thy good: (thou doest this whilst) thou art going to the mosque; what must thy evil and burden (of sin) be, O misguided one?”

The Pír (Elder) never hears a salaam from a base fellow without being exceedingly tormented by him in the end.

(If) a wolf catch a saint, it is better than that the saint should be caught by the wicked carnal soul,

Because, though the wolf does great violence, yet it has not the same knowledge and craft and cunning;

Else how should it fall into the trap? Cunning is complete (attains to perfection) in man.

The ram said to the ox and the camel, “O comrades, since such a (lucky) chance has come to us,

Let each (of us) declare the date (antiquity) of his life: the oldest has the best right, let the others suffer (disappointment) in silence.

In those times,” said the ram, “my pasturage was (shared) with the ram that was sacrificed for Ismá‘íl (Ishmael).”

The ox said, “I am the (most) advanced in years, (I was) coupled with the ox that Adam yoked.

I am the yoke-fellow of the ox with which Adam, the forefather of mankind, used to plough the earth in sowing.”

When the camel heard the ox and the ram (make these assertions) he was amazed: he lowered his head and picked up that (bunch of grass).

Promptly, without any palaver, the Bactrian camel raised the bunch of fresh barley in the air,

Saying, “I, in sooth, need no (support from) chronology, since I have such a (stout) body and high neck.

Indeed every one knows, O father's darling, that I am not smaller than you.

Whoever is one of those possessed of intelligence knows this, that my nature is superior to yours.”

(The Christian said), “All know that this lofty heaven is a hundred times as great as this low earth.

How can the wide expanse of the celestial domains be compared with the (limited) character of the terrestrial regions?”