-
راه گم کرد او از آن صبح دروغ ** چون مگس افتاد اندر دیگ دوغ
- He (the captain) lost his way and, (beguiled) by that false dawn, fell like a gnat into the pot of buttermilk.
-
پشیمان شدن آن سرلشکر از آن خیانت کی کرد و سوگند دادن او آن کنیزک را کی به خلیفه باز نگوید از آنچ رفت
- How that military chief repented of the sin which he had committed and adjured the girl not to tell the Caliph anything of what had happened.
-
چند روزی هم بر آن بد بعد از آن ** شد پشیمان او از آن جرم گران
- He was absorbed in that (love-affair) for a while, (but) afterwards he repented of that grievous crime,
-
داد سوگندش کای خورشیدرو ** با خلیفه زینچ شد رمزی مگو
- And adjured her, saying, “O thou whose face is like the sun, do not give the Caliph any hint of what has passed.”
-
چون ندید او را خلیفه مست گشت ** پس ز بام افتاد او را نیز طشت
- When the Caliph saw her he became distraught (with love), and then too his secret was exposed to all.
-
دید صد چندان که وصفش کرده بود ** کی بود خود دیده مانند شنود 3905
- He saw (her to be) a hundred times as beautiful as he (the informer) had described her: how in sooth should seeing be like hearing?
-
وصف تصویرست بهر چشم هوش ** صورت آن چشم دان نه زان گوش
- Description is a picture (drawn) for the eye of intelligence: know that the (sensible) form belongs to the eye, not to the ear.
-
کرد مردی از سخن‌دانی سال ** حق و باطل چیست ای نیکو مقال
- A certain man asked an eloquent person, “What are truth and falsehood, O man of goodly discourse?”
-
گوش را بگرفت و گفت این باطلست ** چشم حقست و یقینش حاصلست
- He took hold of his ear and said, “This is false: the eye is true and possesses certainty.”
-
آن به نسبت باطل آمد پیش این ** نسبتست اغلب سخنها ای امین
- The former is relatively false as compared with the latter: most sayings are relative, O trusty one.
-
ز آفتاب ار کرد خفاش احتجاب ** نیست محجوب از خیال آفتاب 3910
- If the bat screens itself from the sun, (yet) it is not screened from the fancy (idea) of the sun.