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آب جو نسبت به اشتر هست کم ** لیک باشد موش را آن همچو یم
- Relatively to a camel, the water in the stream is little, but to a mouse it is like the ocean.
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هر که را باشد وظیفه چار نان ** دو خورد یا سه خورد هست اوسط آن
- If any one has an allowance of four loaves and eats two or three, that is the mean;
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ور خورد هر چار دور از اوسط است ** او اسیر حرص مانند بط است
- But if he eat all the four, it is far from the mean: he is in bondage to greed, like a duck.
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هر که او را اشتها ده نان بود ** شش خورد میدان که اوسط آن بود 3535
- If one has appetite for ten loaves and eats six, know that that is the mean.
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چون مرا پنجاه نان هست اشتهی ** مر ترا شش گرده هم دستیم نی
- When I have appetite for fifty loaves, and you for (no more than) six scones, we are not equivalent.
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تو به ده رکعت نماز آیی ملول ** من به پانصد در نیایم در نحول
- You may be tired by ten rak‘as (of prayer), I may not be worn thin by five hundred.
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آن یکی تا کعبه حافی میرود ** و آن یکی تا مسجد از خود میشود
- One goes bare-foot (all the way) to the Ka‘ba, and one becomes beside himself (with exhaustion in going) as far as the mosque.
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آن یکی در پاکبازی جان بداد ** وین یکی جان کند تا یک نان بداد
- One in utter self-devotion gives his life, one is agonised at giving a single loaf.
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این وسط در با نهایت میرود ** که مرا آن را اول و آخر بود 3540
- This mean belongs to (the realm of) the finite, for that (finite) has a beginning and end.
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اول و آخر بباید تا در آن ** در تصور گنجد اوسط یا میان
- A beginning and end are necessary in order that the mean or middle (point) between them may be conceived in imagination.