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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.
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بینهایت چون ندارد دو طرف ** کی بود او را میانه منصرف
- Inasmuch as the infinite has not (these) two limits, how should the mean be applicable to it?
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اول و آخر نشانش کس نداد ** گفت لو کان له البحر مداد
- No one has shown it to have beginning or end. He (God) said, ‘If the sea were to become ink for it (the Word of God)…’
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هفت دریا گر شود کلی مداد ** نیست مر پایان شدن را هیچ امید
- If the Seven Seas should become entirely ink, (still) there is no hope of coming to an end.