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ور نبینی روش بویش را بگیر ** بو عصا آمد برای هر ضریر
- And if you see not his (the stoker's) face, smell him; smell is (as) a staff for every one that is blind;
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ور نداری بو در آرش در سخن ** از حدیث نو بدان راز کهن
- And if you have not (the sense of) smell, induce him to speak, and from the new talk learn the old secret.
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پس بگوید تونیی صاحب ذهب ** بیست سله چرک بردم تا به شب
- Then a gold-possessing stoker will say, “I have brought in twenty baskets of filth, (working from dawn) till nightfall.”
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حرص تو چون آتشست اندر جهان ** باز کرده هر زبانه صد دهان
- Your cupidity is like fire in the (material) world: every (flaming) tongue (thereof) has opened a hundred mouths (to swallow filthy lucre).
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پیش عقل این زر چو سرگین ناخوشست ** گرچه چون سرگین فروغ آتشست 250
- In the sight of Reason, this gold is foul as dung, although, like dung, it is (the cause of) the blazing of the fire.
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آفتابی که دم از آتش زند ** چرک تر را لایق آتش کند
- The sun, which emulates the fire, makes the moist filth fit for the fire.
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آفتاب آن سنگ را هم کرد زر ** تا بتون حرص افتد صد شرر
- The sun also made the stone gold, in order that a hundred sparks might fall into the stove of cupidity.
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آنک گوید مال گرد آورده‌ام ** چیست یعنی چرک چندین برده‌ام
- He who says, “I have collected riches”—what is (the meaning of) it? It means, “I have brought in all this filth.”
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این سخن گرچه که رسوایی‌فزاست ** در میان تونیان زین فخرهاست
- Albeit this saying is exceedingly disgraceful, there are boasts on this account amongst the stokers.
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که تو شش سله کشیدی تا به شب ** من کشیدم بیست سله بی کرب 255
- (One of them says), “Thou hast carried (only) six baskets ere nightfall; I have carried twenty baskets without trouble.”