The World Is a Mirage
Naser Khosrowناصرخسرو
به چه ماند جهان مگر به سراب
What is the world like, if not a mirage?
سپس او تو چون دوی به شتاب؟
Why do you run after it in such haste?
چون شدستند خلق غره بدو
How have all people been deceived by it,
همه خرد و بزرگ و کودک و شاب؟
the small and the great, the child and the young?
زانکه مدهوش گشته‌اند همه
Because they have all been dazed
اندر این خیمه چهار طناب
in this tent with four ropes.
گر ندیدی طناب‌هاش، ببین
If you have not seen its ropes, look:
جملگی خاک و باد و آتش و آب
they are earth and wind and fire and water.
A note for readers
The opening of a qasida on the deceptions of the world. The 'tent with four ropes' is the physical world, held up by the four elements of ancient and medieval natural philosophy. The poem goes on to address a 'you' grown old after fifty years of chasing pleasure.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
مرغی دیدم نشسته بر باره طوس
در پیش نهاده کله کیکاووس
I saw a bird perched on the ramparts of Tus,
with the skull of Kay Kavus set down before it.
A Bird on the Walls of Tus
یکی قطره باران ز ابری چکید
خجل شد چو پهنای دریا بدید
A drop of rain fell from a cloud;
it was ashamed when it saw the breadth of the sea.
A Drop of Rain
ابتدای کار سیمرغ ای عجب
جلوه‌گر بگذشت بر چین نیم‌شب
The beginning of the Simorgh’s story, how wonderful:
in all his splendour he passed over China at midnight.