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آن ذکی را پس فرستاد او به کار ** سوی حمامی که رو خود را بخار
- Then he sent that keen-witted one away to do (his behest): (he sent him) to a bathhouse, saying, “Go, scrub yourself.”
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وین دگر را گفت خه تو زیرکی ** صد غلامی در حقیقت نه یکی
- And to this other one he said, “Good! you are a clever lad: in truth you are a hundred slaves, not one.
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آن نهای که خواجهتاش تو نمود ** از تو ما را سرد میکرد آن حسود 875
- You are not such as your fellow-servant declared: that envious one would (fain) have made me cold to (disgusted with) you,
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گفت او دزد و کژ است و کژنشین ** حیز و نامرد و چنان است و چنین
- (For) he said that you are thievish and dishonest and ill-behaved, immoral and infamous and so forth.”
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گفت پیوسته بده ست او راست گو ** راست گویی من ندیده ستم چو او
- The slave said, “He (my fellow-servant) has always been veracious; I have not seen any one so truthful as he is.
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راست گویی در نهادش خلقتی است ** هر چه گوید من نگویم تهمتی است
- Veracity is inborn in his nature; whatever he says, I do not say it is void (of truth).
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کژ ندانم آن نکو اندیش را ** متهم دارم وجود خویش را
- I deem not that good-minded one malicious: I (rather) suspect my own person.
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باشد او در من ببیند عیبها ** من نبینم در وجود خود شها 880
- Maybe, he sees in me faults I do not see in myself, O King.”
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هر کسی گر عیب خود دیدی ز پیش ** کی بدی فارغ خود از اصلاح خویش
- Any one saw his own faults before (seeing those of others) —how should he be unconcerned with correcting himself?
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غافلند این خلق از خود ای پدر ** لاجرم گویند عیب همدگر
- These people (of the world) take no heed of themselves, O father: consequently they blame one another.