How the ass answered the fox
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 5, section 97 of 175: How the ass answered the fox (جواب گفتن خر روباه را). Below, each of its 4 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How the ass answered the fox. جواب گفتن خر روباه را
گفت این معکوس می‌گویی بدان شور و شر از طمع آید سوی جان
He (the ass) replied, “Know that you are speaking (just) the reverse (of the truth), (for) woe and bane come to the soul from cupidity.
از قناعت هیچ کس بی‌جان نشد از حریصی هیچ کس سلطان نشد
No one was (ever) deprived of (spiritual) life by contentment; no one was (ever) made a (spiritual) king by covetousness.
نان ز خوکان و سگان نبود دریغ کسپ مردم نیست این باران و میغ
(The daily) bread is not withheld (even) from pigs and dogs: this rain and (these) clouds are not earned by Man.
آنچنان که عاشقی بر زرق زار هست عاشق رزق هم بر رزق‌خوار
Just as you are pitiably enamoured of the daily bread, so the daily bread is enamoured of its consumer.
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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