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ور کنی او را بهانه آوری ** مفلس است او صرفه از وی کی بری
- And if you do so (and) bring (vain) pretexts to him, he is insolvent: how will you get profit from him?
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حاضر آوردند چون فتنه فروخت ** اشتر کردی که هیزم میفروخت
- When the trouble started, they brought on the scene the camel of a Kurd who sold firewood.
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کرد بیچاره بسی فریاد کرد ** هم موکل را به دانگی شاد کرد
- The helpless Kurd made a great outcry; he also gladdened the officer (appointed to seize the camel) with (the gift of) a dáng;
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اشترش بردند از هنگام چاشت ** تا شب و افغان او سودی نداشت
- (But) they took away his camel from the time of forenoon until nightfall, and his lamentation was of no use.
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بر شتر بنشست آن قحط گران ** صاحب اشتر پی اشتر دوان 660
- Upon the camel sat that sore famine (the insolvent), while the owner of the camel was running at its heels.
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سو به سو و کو به کو میتاختند ** تا همه شهرش عیان بشناختند
- They sped from quarter to quarter and from street to street, till the whole town knew him by sight.
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پیش هر حمام و هر بازارگاه ** کرده مردم جمله در شکلش نگاه
- Before every bath and market-place all the people gazed on his (features and) figure.
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ده منادی گر بلند آوازیان ** کرد و ترک و رومیان و تازیان
- (There were) ten loud-voiced criers, Turks and Kurds and Anatolians and Arabs, (proclaiming),
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مفلس است این و ندارد هیچ چیز ** قرض تا ندهد کس او را یک پشیز
- “This man is insolvent and has nothing: let no one lend him a single brass farthing;
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ظاهر و باطن ندارد حبهای ** مفلسی قلبی دغایی دبهای 665
- He does not possess a single mite, patent or latent: he is a bankrupt, a piece of falsehood, a cunning knave, an oil-bag.
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هان و هان با او حریفی کم کنید ** چون که کاو آرد گره محکم کنید
- Beware and beware! Have no dealings with him; when he brings the ox (to sell), make fast the knot.
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ور به حکم آرید این پژمرده را ** من نخواهم کرد زندان مرده را
- And if ye bring this decayed fellow to judgement, I will not put a corpse in prison.
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خوش دم است او و گلویش بس فراخ ** با شعار نو دثار شاخ شاخ
- He is fair-spoken and his throat is very wide; (he is clad) with a new inner garment (of plausibility) and a tattered outer garment.
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گر بپوشد بهر مکر آن جامه را ** عاریه است او و فریبد عامه را
- If he puts on that (inner) garment for the purpose of deceiving, it is borrowed in order that he may beguile the common folk.”
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حرف حکمت بر زبان ناحکیم ** حلههای عاریت دان ای سلیم 670
- Know, O simple man, that words of wisdom on the tongue of the unwise are (as) borrowed robes.
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گر چه دزدی حلهای پوشیده است ** دست تو چون گیرد آن ببریده دست
- Although a thief has put on a (fine) robe, how should he whose hand is cut off take your hand (lend you a helping hand)?
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چون شبانه از شتر آمد به زیر ** کرد گفتش منزلم دور است و دیر
- When at nightfall he (the insolvent) came down from the camel, the Kurd said to him, “My abode is far (from here) and a long way off.
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بر نشستی اشترم را از پگاه ** جو رها کردم کم از اخراج کاه
- You have ridden on my camel since early morning: I (will) let the barley go, (but I will not take) less than the cost of (some) straw.”
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گفت تا اکنون چه میکردیم پس ** هوش تو کو، نیست اندر خانه کس
- "What, then," he rejoined, "have we been doing until now? Where are your wits? Is nobody at home?
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طبل افلاسم به چرخ سابعه ** رفت و تو نشنیدهای بد واقعه 675
- The (sound of the) drum (giving notice) of my insolvency reached the Seventh Heaven, and you have not heard the bad news!
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گوش تو پر بوده است از طمع خام ** پس طمع کر میکند کور ای غلام
- Your ear has been filled with foolish hope; (such) hope, then, makes (one) deaf (and) blind, my lad.”
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تا کلوخ و سنگ بشنید این بیان ** مفلس است و مفلس است این قلتبان
- Even clods and stones heard this advertisement—“he is insolvent, he is insolvent, this scoundrel.”
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تا به شب گفتند و در صاحب شتر ** بر نزد کاو از طمع پر بود پر
- They (the criers) said it till nightfall, and it made no impression on the owner of the camel, because he was full of (idle) hope, full.
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هست بر سمع و بصر مهر خدا ** در حجب بس صورت است و بس صدا
- God's seal lies upon the hearing and sight: within the veils is many a form and many a sound.
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آن چه او خواهد رساند آن به چشم ** از جمال و از کمال و از کرشم 680
- He communicates to the eye that which He wills of beauty and of perfection and of amorous looks;