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گر چه سر قصه این دانه ست و دام ** صورت قصه شنو اکنون تمام
- Although the inner meaning of the tale is this bait and trap, listen now to the outward form of the tale in its entirety.
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گر بیان معنوی کافی شدی ** خلق عالم عاطل و باطل بدی
- If the spiritual explanation were sufficient, the creation of the world would have been vain and idle.
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گر محبت فکرت و معنیستی ** صورت روزه و نمازت نیستی 2625
- If love were (only spiritual) thought and reality, the form of your fasting and prayer would be non-existent.
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هدیه‌‌های دوستان با همدیگر ** نیست اندر دوستی الا صور
- The gifts of lovers to one another are, in respect of love, naught but forms;
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تا گواهی داده باشد هدیه‌ها ** بر محبتهای مضمر در خفا
- (But the purpose is) that the gifts may have borne testimony to feelings of love which are concealed in secrecy,
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ز آن که احسانهای ظاهر شاهدند ** بر محبتهای سر ای ارجمند
- Because outward acts of kindness bear witness to feelings of love in the heart, O dear friend.
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شاهدت گه راست باشد گه دروغ ** مست گاهی از می و گاهی ز دوغ
- Your witness is sometimes true, sometimes false, sometimes drunken with wine, sometimes with sour curds.
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دوغ خورده مستیی پیدا کند ** های و هوی و سر گرانیها کند 2630
- He that has drunk sour curds makes a show of intoxication, shouts ecstatically, and behaves like one whose head is heavy (with the fumes of wine);
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آن مرایی در صیام و در صلاست ** تا گمان آید که او مست ولاست
- That hypocrite is (assiduous) in fasting and praying, in order that it may be supposed that he is drunken with devotion (to God).
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حاصل افعال برونی دیگر است ** تا نشان باشد بر آن چه مضمر است
- In short, external acts are different (from internal feelings), (and their purpose is) to indicate that which is hidden.