مرگ شیرین گشت و نقلم زین سرا ** چون قفص هشتن پریدن مرغ را
Death and migration from this (earthly) abode has become as sweet to me as leaving the cage and flying (is sweet) to the (captive) bird—
آن قفص که هست عین باغ در ** مرغ می‌بیند گلستان و شجر
The cage that is in the very midst of the garden, (so that) the bird beholds the rose-beds and the trees,
جوق مرغان از برون گرد قفص ** خوش همی‌خوانند ز آزادی قصص
(While) outside, round the cage, a multitude of birds is sweetly chanting tales of liberty:
مرغ را اندر قفص زان سبزه‌زار ** نه خورش ماندست و نه صبر و قرار
At (the sight of) that verdant place neither (desire for) food remains to the bird in the cage, nor patience and rest,
سر ز هر سوراخ بیرون می‌کند ** تا بود کین بند از پا برکند3955
(But) it puts out its head through every hole, that perchance it may tear off this fetter from its leg.
چون دل و جانش چنین بیرون بود ** آن قفص را در گشایی چون بود
Since its heart and soul are (already) outside like this, how will it be when you open the cage?”
نه چنان مرغ قفص در اندهان ** گرد بر گردش به حلقه گربگان
Not such is the bird caged amidst anxieties—cats round about it in a ring:
کی بود او را درین خوف و حزن ** آرزوی از قفص بیرون شدن
How, in this dread and sorrow, should it have the desire to go out of the cage?
او همی‌خواهد کزین ناخوش حصص ** صد قفص باشد بگرد این قفص
It wishes that, (to save it) from this unwelcome plucking (of its feathers), there might be a hundred cages round about this cage (in which it is confined).
عشق جالینوس برین حیات دنیا بود کی هنر او همینجا بکار می‌آید هنری نورزیده است کی در آن بازار بکار آید آنجا خود را به عوام یکسان می‌بیند
The love of (a) Galen is for this present life, for only here does his art avail; he has not practised any art that avails in yonder market: there he sees himself to be the same as the vulgar.
آنچنانک گفت جالینوس راد ** از هوای این جهان و از مراد3960
That is even as wise Galen said on account of (his) passion for this world and because of what he desired (in it)—