خرم آن حیوان که او آنجا شود ** اشتر اندر سبزه ناپیدا شود
Happy the animal that goes thither: amidst the verdure a camel would become invisible.
هر طرف در وی یکی چشمه‌ی روان ** اندرو حیوان مرفه در امان
There, on every side, is a running fountain; there the animals are in comfort and security.”
از خری او را نمی‌گفت ای لعین ** تو از آن‌جایی چرا زاری چنین
From asininity he (the ass) did not say to him, “O accursed one, thou art (come) from there: how art thou so wretched?
کو نشاط و فربهی و فر تو ** چیست این لاغر تن مضطر تو 2435
Where is thy gaiety and fatness and comeliness? What is (the meaning of) this lean starved body of thine?
شرح روضه گر دروغ و زور نیست ** پس چرا چشمت ازو مخمور نیست
If thy description of the meadow is not (mere) falsehood and fiction, then why is thine eye not intoxicated (enraptured) by it?
این گدا چشمی و این نادیدگی ** از گدایی تست نه از بگلربگی
These greedy looks and this blindness are the result of thy beggarliness, not of (spiritual) sovereignty.
چون ز چشمه آمدی چونی تو خشک ** ور تو ناف آهویی کو بوی مشک
Since thou hast come from the fountain, how art thou dry (thirsty)? And if thou art (fragrant like) the gland of the musk-deer, where is the fragrance of musk?
زانک می‌گویی و شرحش می‌کنی ** چون نشانی در تو نامد ای سنی
How is there no trace in thee of that which thou sayest and describest, O exalted one?”
مثل آوردن اشتر در بیان آنک در مخبر دولتی فر و اثر آن چون نبینی جای متهم داشتن باشد کی او مقلدست در آن
Parable of the camel, explaining that when some one tells of his good fortune and you do not perceive in him any appearance or sign of welfare, there is reason to suspect that he is an imitator therein (of those who have really attained to spiritual felicity).
آن یکی پرسید اشتر را که هی ** از کجا می‌آیی ای اقبال پی 2440
A certain man asked a camel, “Hey, whence comest thou, O thou whom fortune attends?
گفت از حمام گرم کوی تو ** گفت خود پیداست در زانوی تو
He replied, “From the hot-bath in thy street.” Said the other, “Truly, ’tis manifest in (the state of) thy knees!”