The Lion Defends Effort
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 1, section 43 of 171: How the lion answered the beasts and explained the advantage of exertion (جواب گفتن شیر نخجیران را و فایده‌‌ی جهد گفتن). Below, each of its 8 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How the lion answered the beasts and explained the advantage of exertion جواب گفتن شیر نخجیران را و فایده‌‌ی جهد گفتن
گفت آری گر وفا بینم نه مکر
مکرها بس دیده‌‌ام از زید و بکر
“Yes,” said he, “if I see (find) good faith (on your part), not fraud, for often have I seen (suffered) frauds from Zayd and Bakr.
من هلاک فعل و مکر مردمم
من گزیده‌‌ی زخم مار و کژدمم
I am done to death by the cunning and fraud of men, I am bitten by the sting of (human) snake and scorpion;
مردم نفس از درونم در کمین
از همه مردم بتر در مکر و کین
(But) worse than all men in fraud and spite is the man of the flesh (nafs) lying in wait within me.
گوش من لا یلدغ المؤمن شنید
قول پیغمبر به جان و دل گزید
My ear heard ‘The believer is not bitten (twice),’ and adopted (this) saying of the Prophet with heart and soul.”
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi)
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