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کف به حس بینی و دریا از دلیل ** فکر پنهان آشکارا قال و قیل
- Thou seest the foam by sense perception and the Sea by induction: thought is hidden, speech manifest.
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نفی را اثبات می‌پنداشتیم ** دیده‌ی معدوم‌بینی داشتیم
- We deemed negation to be affirmation: we had an eye that saw (only) the nonexistent.
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دیده‌ای که اندر نعاسی شد پدید ** کی تواند جز خیال و نیست دید
- The eye that appeared (came into being) in a state of slumber, how should it be able to see aught but phantasy and non-existence?
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لاجرم سرگشته گشتیم از ضلال ** چون حقیقت شد نهان پیدا خیال
- Necessarily we were bewildered by error, since Reality was hidden and Phantasy visible,
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این عدم را چون نشاند اندر نظر ** چون نهان کرد آن حقیقت از بصر 1035
- (Wondering) why He (God) set up this non-existence in (full) view and why He caused that Reality to be hidden from sight.
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آفرین ای اوستاد سحرباف ** که نمودی معرضان را درد صاف
- Praise (to Thee), O Master-weaver of magic who hast made the dregs to seem pure (wine) to them that turn away (from the Truth).
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ساحران مهتاب پیمایند زود ** پیش بازرگان و زر گیرند سود
- Magicians quickly measure moonbeams in the presence of the merchant and receive gold as profit.
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سیم بربایند زین گون پیچ پیچ ** سیم از کف رفته و کرباس هیچ
- (When) by artful tricks of this sort they take money, the money is gone from his (the purchaser's) hand, (but) there is no linen (to be seen).
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این جهان جادوست ما آن تاجریم ** که ازو مهتاب پیموده خریم
- This world is a sorcerer, and we are the merchants who buy from it the measured moonbeams.
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گز کند کرباس پانصد گز شتاب ** ساحرانه او ز نور ماهتاب 1040
- Magician-like, it hastily measures out by the ell five hundred ells of linen from the light of the moonbeams,