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زانک آن دم بانگ اشتر می‌شنید ** کور را گوشست آیینه نه دید
- Because at that moment he heard a camel's cry: the ear, not the eye, is the mirror for the blind.
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باز گوید کور نه این سنگ بود ** یا مگر از قبه‌ی پر طنگ بود 2215
- (But) then again the blind man says, “No, it was a stone (which some one threw at me), or perhaps it was (a brick) from an echoing dome.”
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این نبود و او نبود و آن نبود ** آنک او ترس آفرید اینها نمود
- It was neither this nor that nor that: He who created fear produced these (phantasies).
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ترس و لرزه باشد از غیری یقین ** هیچ کس از خود نترسد ای حزین
- Certainly fear and trembling are (produced) by another: nobody is frightened by himself, O sorrowful man.
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آن حکیمک وهم خواند ترس را ** فهم کژ کردست او این درس را
- The miserable philosopher calls fear “imagination” (wahm): he has wrongly understood this lesson.
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هیچ وهمی بی‌حقیقت کی بود ** هیچ قلبی بی‌صحیحی کی رود
- How should there be any imagination without reality? How should any false coin pass (into circulation) without a genuine one?
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کی دروغی قیمت آرد بی ز راست ** در دو عالم هر دروغ از راست خاست 2220
- How should a lie fetch a price (have value) without truth? Every lie in both worlds has arisen from truth.
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راست را دید او رواجی و فروغ ** بر امید آن روان کرد او دروغ
- He (the liar) saw the currency and prestige enjoyed by truth: he set going (circulated) the lie in hope of (its enjoying) the same.
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ای دروغی که ز صدقت این نواست ** شکر نعمت گو مکن انکار راست
- O (incarnate) lie, whose fortune is (derived) from veracity, give thanks for the bounty and do not deny the truth!
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از مفلسف گویم و سودای او ** یا ز کشتیها و دریاهای او
- Shall I speak of the philosopher and his mad fancy, or of His (God's) ships (arks) and seas (floods)?