Wisdom
There are two things in the world, O friend,
Translated from Uzbek · Original text
There are two things in the world, O friend,That take away your mind and senses and make you drunk.Making every deed seem right to your nafs,They make you Satan’s tablemate and ally.The name of one of them is goods and wealth, riches,And the other, they say, is office and rank.In the embrace of these two a person slipsAnd is sure to be in danger of falling.Either he looks down on the poor and helpless,Or he oppresses without limit, without a care.Mocking and tormenting the hapless,He carries on with his revelry.For a drunken man has no mind,His eyes are blind, his ears deaf, his heart dead.Every tale of his rings out like a madman’s,His deeds are both pitiful and laughable.He will never accept the true word,And no people of truth will stay around him.Night and day his trade is rebellion,He sinks into heedlessness at dawn and dusk, early and late.His neck is choked in the noose of envy,His body fills with the poison of greed.His every thought consists of intrigue,Hypocrisy becomes his worship.He sinks so deep into ignorance, so deep —A killer, a wastrel, a liar, a vile one;He does not see baseness as a danger,Rather, he takes lowliness as his intimate friend.He is full of murder and ugliness, and yetOutwardly he is more beautiful than a flower.If he does not bring calamity upon someone’s head,For him that counts as a perfect good deed.The drunkenness of office and wealth is a disaster,It is hard to come through this disaster unharmed.Unless God shows mercy and compassionAnd saves you, no one will save you!Akrom MALIK
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