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کنج زندان جهان ناگزیر ** نیست بیپا مزد و بیدق الحصیر
- The corner (narrow cell) of this world's inevitable prison is not exempt from the charges for visitors and (the cost of) housewarming.
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و الله ار سوراخ موشی در روی ** مبتلای گربه چنگالی شوی
- By God, if you go into a mouse-hole, you will be afflicted by some one who has the claws of a cat.
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آدمی را فربهی هست از خیال ** گر خیالاتش بود صاحب جمال
- Man has fatness from (thrives on) fancy, if his fancies are beautiful;
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ور خیالاتش نماید ناخوشی ** میگدازد همچو موم از آتشی 595
- And if his fancies show anything unlovely he melts away as wax (is melted) by a fire.
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در میان مار و کژدم گر ترا ** با خیالات خوشان دارد خدا
- If amidst snakes and scorpions God keep you with the fancies of them that are (spiritually) fair,
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مار و کژدم مر ترا مونس بود ** کان خیالت کیمیای مس بود
- The snakes and scorpions will be friendly to you, because that fancy is the elixir which transmutes your copper (into gold).
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صبر شیرین از خیال خوش شده ست ** کان خیالات فرج پیش آمده ست
- Patience is sweetened by fair fancy, since (in that case) the fancies of relief (from pain) have come before (the mind).
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آن فرج آید ز ایمان در ضمیر ** ضعف ایمان ناامیدی و زحیر
- That relief comes into the heart from faith: weakness of faith is despair and torment.
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صبر از ایمان بیابد سر کله ** حیث لا صبر فلا إیمان له 600
- Patience gains a crown from faith: where one hath no patience, he hath no faith.
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گفت پیغمبر خداش ایمان نداد ** هر که را صبری نباشد در نهاد
- The Prophet said, “God has not given faith to any one in whose nature there is no patience.”
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آن یکی در چشم تو باشد چو مار ** هم وی اندر چشم آن دیگر نگار
- That same one (who) in your eyes is like a snake is a picture (of beauty) in the eyes of another,
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ز انکه در چشمت خیال کفر اوست ** و آن خیال مومنی در چشم دوست
- Because in your eyes is the fancy of his being an infidel, while in the eyes of his friend is the fancy of his being a (true) believer;
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کاندر این یک شخص هر دو فعل هست ** گاه ماهی باشد او و گاه شست
- For both the effects (belief and unbelief) exist in this one person: now he is a fish and now a hook.
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نیم او مومن بود نیمیش گبر ** نیم او حرص آوری نیمیش صبر 605
- Half of him is believer, half of him infidel; half of him cupidity, half of him patience (and abstinence).
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گفت یزدانت فمنکم مومن ** باز منکم کافر گبر کهن
- Your God has said, “(Some) of you (are) believing”; (and) again, “(Some) of you (are) unbelieving” (as) an old fire-worshipper.
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همچو گاوی نیمهی چپش سیاه ** نیمهی دیگر سپید همچو ماه
- (He is) like an ox, his left half black, the other half white as the moon.
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هر که این نیمه ببیند رد کند ** هر که آن نیمه ببیند کد کند
- Whoever sees the former half spurns (him); whoever sees the latter half seeks (after him).
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یوسف اندر چشم اخوان چون ستور ** هم وی اندر چشم یعقوبی چو حور
- Joseph was like a beast of burden in the eyes of his brethren; at the same time in the eyes of a Jacob he was like a houri.
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از خیال بد مر او را زشت دید ** چشم فرع و چشم اصلی ناپدید 610
- Through evil fancy the (bodily) derivative eye and the original unseen eye (of the mind) regarded him (Joseph) as ugly.
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چشم ظاهر سایهی آن چشم دان ** هر چه آن بیند بگردد این بد آن
- Know that the outward eye is the shadow of that (inward) eye: whatever that (inward) eye may see, this (outward) eye turns to that (eye).
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تو مکانی اصل تو در لامکان ** این دکان بر بند و بگشا آن دکان
- You are of where, (but) your origin is in Nowhere: shut up this shop and open that shop.
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شش جهت مگریز زیرا در جهات ** ششدره است و ششدره مات است مات
- Do not flee to the (world of the) six directions, because in directions there is the shashdara, and the shashdara is mate, mate.
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شکایت کردن اهل زندان پیش وکیل قاضی از دست آن مفلس
- How the prisoners laid a complaint of the insolvent's high-handedness before the agent of the Cadi.
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با وکیل قاضی ادراکمند ** اهل زندان در شکایت آمدند
- The prisoners came to complain to the Cadi's agent, (who was) possessed of discernment,
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که سلام ما به قاضی بر کنون ** باز گو آزار ما زین مرد دون 615
- Saying, “Take now our salutations to the Cadi and relate (to him) the sufferings inflicted on us by this vile man;
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کاندر این زندان بماند او مستمر ** یاوه تاز و طبلخوار است و مضر
- For he has remained in this prison continuously, and he is an idle gad-about, a lickspittle, and a nuisance.