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چون زند افعی دهان بر گردنت ** تلخ گردد جمله شادی جستنت
- When the viper darts its mouth at your neck, all your desire for happiness is made bitter.
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پس بدو گویی همین بود ای فلان ** چون بندریدی گریبان در فغان
- Then you say to him, “O so-and-so, was this all (the warning you gave me)? Why didn't you tear your collar in outcry,
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یا ز بالایم تو سنگی می‌زدی ** تا مرا آن جد نمودی و بدی
- Or why weren't you throwing a stone at me from above, in order that that grave calamity and misfortune might be shown to me (plainly)?”
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او بگوید زآنک می‌آزرده‌ای ** تو بگویی نیک شادم کرده‌ای 2975
- He says, “(I refrained) because you were annoyed”; you say (ironically), “You have made me very happy!”
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گفت من کردم جوامردی بپند ** تا رهانم من ترا زین خشک بند
- He says, “I bestowed counsel generously, that I might deliver you from this sterile (unprofitable) bondage.
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از لیمی حق آن نشناختی ** مایه‌ی ایذا و طغیان ساختی
- From vileness you acknowledged no obligation for that (generosity): you made (it) a source of injury and insolence.”
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این بود خوی لیمان دنی ** بد کند با تو چو نیکویی کنی
- This is the nature of base villains: he (such a one) does evil to thee when thou doest good (to him).
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نفس را زین صبر می‌کن منحنیش ** که لیمست و نسازد نیکویش
- As for the fleshly soul, bend it double (mortify it) by means of this renunciation, for it is vile, and kindness suiteth it not.
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با کریمی گر کنی احسان سزد ** مر یکی را او عوض هفصد دهد 2980
- If thou show beneficence to a noble man, ’tis fitting: he will give seven hundred (benefits) in exchange for every one (conferred upon him);
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با لیمی چون کنی قهر و جفا ** بنده‌ای گردد ترا بس با وفا
- (But be merciless to the ignoble): when thou treatest a villain with violence and cruelty, he becomes a very faithful servant to thee.