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خیر باشد رنگ تو بر جای نیست ** این اثر یا از هوا یا از تبیست
- May it be well (with you)! Your colour is changed: this is the effect either of (bad) air or of a fever.”
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اندکی اندر خیال افتد ازین ** تو برادر هم مدد کن این‌چنین
- (He continued), “At this he (the master) will begin to fancy a little (that he is ill): do you too, brother, help (me) in like manner.
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چون درآیی از در مکتب بگو ** خیر باشد اوستا احوال تو
- When you come in through the door of the school, say (to him), ‘Master, is your state (of health) good?’
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آن خیالش اندکی افزون شود ** کز خیالی عاقلی مجنون شود 1530
- (Then) that fancy of his will increase a little, for by a fancy a sensible man is driven mad.
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آن سوم و آن چارم و پنجم چنین ** در پی ما غم نمایند و حنین
- After us let the third (boy) and the fourth and the fifth show sympathy and sorrow likewise,
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تا چو سی کودک تواتر این خبر ** متفق گویند یابد مستقر
- So that, when with one consent thirty boys successively tell this story, it may find lodgement (in his mind).”
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هر یکی گفتش که شاباش ای ذکی ** باد بختت بر عنایت متکی
- Each (of the boys) said to him (the ringleader), “Bravo, O sagacious one! May your fortune rest on the favour (of God)!”
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متفق گشتند در عهد وثیق ** که نگرداند سخن را یک رفیق
- They agreed, in firm covenant, that no fellow should alter the words;
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بعد از آن سوگند داد او جمله را ** تا که غمازی نگوید ماجرا 1535
- And afterwards he administered an oath to them all, lest any tell-tale should reveal the plot.
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رای آن کودک بچربید از همه ** عقل او در پیش می‌رفت از رمه
- The counsel of that boy prevailed over all (the others), his intellect was going in front of the (whole) flock.