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صحبتی باشد چو فصل نوبهار ** زو عمارتها و دخل بی‌شمار
- There is a friendship like the season of spring, whence (come) restorations and produce incalculable.
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حزم آن باشد که ظن بد بری ** تا گریزی و شوی از بد بری
- Prudence is this, that you think evil, so that you may flee and become quit of evil.
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حزم س الظن گفتست آن رسول ** هر قدم را دام می‌دان ای فضول
- The Prophet has said, “Prudence is (consists in) thinking evil”: know that for every footstep there is a snare, O fool!
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روی صحرا هست هموار و فراخ ** هر قدم دامیست کم ران اوستاخ
- The surface of the plateau is level and broad, (but at) every step there is a snare: do not advance boldly.
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آن بز کوهی دود که دام کو ** چون بتازد دامش افتد در گلو 270
- The mountain-goat runs on, saying, “Where is the snare?” As it speeds onward, the snare lights on its throat.
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آنک می‌گفتی که کو اینک ببین ** دشت می‌دیدی نمی‌دیدی کمین
- O thou who saidst “Where?” look and see! Thou sawest the plain, (but) thou didst not see the ambush.
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بی کمین و دام و صیاد ای عیار ** دنبه کی باشد میان کشت‌زار
- Without ambush and snare and hunter, O cunning one, how should there be a sheep's tail (laid in a trap) amidst the cornfield?
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آنک گستاخ آمدند اندر زمین ** استخوان و کله‌هاشان را ببین
- They that came along boldly on the earth—see their bones and skulls!
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چون به گورستان روی ای مرتضا ** استخوانشان را بپرس از ما مضی
- When you go to the graveyard, O you with whom God is pleased, ask their bones concerning that which is past,
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تا بظاهر بینی آن مستان کور ** چون فرو رفتند در چاه غرور 275
- That you may see clearly how those blind intoxicated men went down into the pit of delusion.