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جغدها بر باز استم میکنند ** پر و بالش بیگناهی میکنند
- The owls are doing violence to the falcon: they are tearing out his plumes and feathers though he is innocent.
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جرم او اینست کو بازست و بس ** غیر خوبی جرم یوسف چیست پس
- His only crime is this, that he is a falcon: after all, what is Joseph's crime except (that he had) beauty?
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جغد را ویرانه باشد زاد و بود ** هستشان بر باز زان زخم جهود
- The owl's origin and existence is (in) the wilderness; that is the cause of their Jewish (fanatical) anger against the falcon.
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که چرا می یاد آری زان دیار ** یا ز قصر و ساعد آن شهریار
- (They say), ‘Why art thou (always) making mention of yonder land, or of the palace and wrist of the Emperor?
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در ده جغدان فضولی میکنی ** فتنه و تشویش در میافکنی 960
- Thou art behaving impudently in the owls’ village, thou art introducing dissension and disturbance (amongst us).
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مسکن ما را که شد رشک اثیر ** تو خرابه خوانی و نام حقیر
- Our dwelling-place, which is the envy of the empyrean, thou callest a wilderness and givest it the name of “vile.”
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شید آوردی که تا جغدان ما ** مر ترا سازند شاه و پیشوا
- Thou hast employed hypocrisy in order that our owls may make thee (their) king and leader.
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وهم و سودایی دریشان میتنی ** نام این فردوس ویران میکنی
- Thou art instilling into them a vain imagination and a mad fancy: thou art giving the name “ruin” to this Paradise.
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بر سرت چندان زنیم ای بد صفات ** که بگویی ترک شید و ترهات
- We will beat thy head so long, O (bird) of evil qualities, that thou wilt renounce this hypocrisy and nonsense.’
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پیش مشرق چارمیخش میکنند ** تن برهنه شاخ خارش میزنند 965
- They (the Jews) are crucifying him (Bilál), his face to the East, and flogging his naked body with a thorny branch.
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از تنش صد جای خون بر میجهد ** او احد میگوید و سر مینهد
- The blood is spurting from his body in a hundred places, (whilst) he is crying ‘One!’ and bowing his head (in resignation).
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پندها دادم که پنهان دار دین ** سر بپوشان از جهودان لعین
- I admonished him often, saying, ‘Keep thy religion hidden, conceal thy secret from the accursed Jews.’
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عاشق است او را قیامت آمدست ** تا در توبه برو بسته شدست
- (But) he is a lover: to him the (spiritual) resurrection has come, so that the door of repentance has been shut on him.”
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عاشقی و توبه یا امکان صبر ** این محالی باشد ای جان بس سطبر
- Loverhood and repentance or (even) the possibility of patience—this, O (dear) soul, is a very enormous absurdity.
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توبه کردم و عشق همچون اژدها ** توبه وصف خلق و آن وصف خدا 970
- Repentance is a worm, while Love is like a dragon: repentance is an attribute of Man, while that (other) is an attribute of God.
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عشق ز اوصاف خدای بینیاز ** عاشقی بر غیر او باشد مجاز
- Love is (one) of the attributes of God who wants nothing: love for aught besides Him is unreal,
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زانک آن حسن زراندود آمدست ** ظاهرش نور اندرون دود آمدست
- Because that (which is besides Him) is (but) a gilded beauty: its outside is (shining) light, (but) ’tis (like dark) smoke within.
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چون رود نور و شود پیدا دخان ** بفسرد عشق مجازی آن زمان
- When the light goes and the smoke becomes visible, at that moment the unreal love is frozen up.
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وا رود آن حسن سوی اصل خود ** جسم ماند گنده و رسوا و بد
- That beauty returns to its source; the body is left—foul-smelling, shameful, and ugly.
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نور مه راجع شود هم سوی ماه ** وا رود عکسش ز دیوار سیاه 975
- The moonlight is returning to the moon: its reflexion goes off the black (dark) wall;
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پس بماند آب و گل بی آن نگار ** گردد آن دیوار بی مه دیووار
- And then, (when) the water and clay (of the wall) are left without that ornament, the wall, (being) moonless, becomes (hideous) as a devil.
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قلب را که زر ز روی او بجست ** بازگشت آن زر بکان خود نشست
- When the gold flies from the surface of the base coin, that gold returns to its (original) mine and settles (there);
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پس مس رسوا بماند دود وش ** زو سیهروتر بماند عاشقش
- Then the shamefully exposed copper is left (looking black) like smoke, and its lover is left looking blacker than it.
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عشق بینایان بود بر کان زر ** لاجرم هر روز باشد بیشتر
- (But) the love of them that have (spiritual) insight is (fixed) on the gold-mine; necessarily it is (grows) greater every day,
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زانک کان را در زری نبود شریک ** مرحبا ای کان زر لاشک فیک 980
- Because the mine hath no partner in aureity. Hail, O Gold-mine (of Reality), Thou concerning whom there is no doubt!