تا که می خوردست و یا بنگ و حشیش ** خلق درماندند اندر بیهشیش
To see whether he had drunk wine or eaten beng or hashish: the people (having exhausted every resource) remained in despair at his insensibility.
پس خبر بردند خویشان را شتاب ** که فلان افتاده است آن‌جا خراب
So they speedily brought the news to his kinsfolk—“Such and such a person is lying there in a state of collapse;
کس نمی داند که چون مصروع گشت ** یا چه شد کو را فتاد از بام طشت
No one knows how he was stricken with catalepsy, or what it was that led to this public exposure.”
یک برادر داشت آن دباغ زفت ** گربز و دانا بیامد زود تفت
That stout tanner had a brother, (who was) cunning and sagacious: he came at once in hot haste.
اندکی سرگین سگ در آستین ** خلق را بشکافت و آمد با حنین270
(With) a small quantity of dog's dung in his sleeve, he cleft (his way through) the crowd and approached (the senseless man) with cries of grief.
گفت من رنجش همی دانم ز چیست ** چون سبب دانی دوا کردن جلیست
“I know,” said he, “whence his illness arises: when you know the cause (of a disease), the (means of) curing (it) is manifest.
چون سبب معلوم نبود مشکلست ** داروی رنج و در آن صد محملست
When the cause is unknown, the remedy for the illness is difficult (to find), and in that (case) there are a hundred grounds to which it may be referred;
چون بدانستی سبب را سهل شد ** دانش اسباب دفع جهل شد
(But) when you have ascertained the cause, it becomes easy: knowledge of causes is the means of expelling ignorance.”
گفت با خود هستش اندر مغز و رگ ** توی بر تو بوی آن سرگین سگ
He said to himself, “The smell of that dog's dung is multiplied in his brain and veins.
تا میان اندر حدث او تا به شب ** غرق دباغیست او روزی‌طلب275
Up to the waist in filth, he is absorbed in the tanner's craft till nightfall, seeking his livelihood.