-
بر شتر بنشست آن قحط گران ** صاحب اشتر پی اشتر دوان 660
- Upon the camel sat that sore famine (the insolvent), while the owner of the camel was running at its heels.
-
سو به سو و کو به کو میتاختند ** تا همه شهرش عیان بشناختند
- They sped from quarter to quarter and from street to street, till the whole town knew him by sight.
-
پیش هر حمام و هر بازارگاه ** کرده مردم جمله در شکلش نگاه
- Before every bath and market-place all the people gazed on his (features and) figure.
-
ده منادی گر بلند آوازیان ** کرد و ترک و رومیان و تازیان
- (There were) ten loud-voiced criers, Turks and Kurds and Anatolians and Arabs, (proclaiming),
-
مفلس است این و ندارد هیچ چیز ** قرض تا ندهد کس او را یک پشیز
- “This man is insolvent and has nothing: let no one lend him a single brass farthing;
-
ظاهر و باطن ندارد حبهای ** مفلسی قلبی دغایی دبهای 665
- He does not possess a single mite, patent or latent: he is a bankrupt, a piece of falsehood, a cunning knave, an oil-bag.
-
هان و هان با او حریفی کم کنید ** چون که کاو آرد گره محکم کنید
- Beware and beware! Have no dealings with him; when he brings the ox (to sell), make fast the knot.
-
ور به حکم آرید این پژمرده را ** من نخواهم کرد زندان مرده را
- And if ye bring this decayed fellow to judgement, I will not put a corpse in prison.
-
خوش دم است او و گلویش بس فراخ ** با شعار نو دثار شاخ شاخ
- He is fair-spoken and his throat is very wide; (he is clad) with a new inner garment (of plausibility) and a tattered outer garment.
-
گر بپوشد بهر مکر آن جامه را ** عاریه است او و فریبد عامه را
- If he puts on that (inner) garment for the purpose of deceiving, it is borrowed in order that he may beguile the common folk.”