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در خطاب آدمی ناطق بدی ** در نوای طوطیان حاذق بدی
- In addressing human beings it would speak (like them); it was (also) skilled in the song of parrots.
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جست از سوی دکان سویی گریخت ** شیشههای روغن گل را بریخت 250
- (Once) it sprang from the bench and flew away; it spilled the bottles of rose-oil.
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از سوی خانه بیامد خواجهاش ** بر دکان بنشست فارغ خواجهوش
- Its master came from the direction of his house and seated himself on the bench at his ease as a merchant does.
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دید پر روغن دکان و جامه چرب ** بر سرش زد گشت طوطی کل ز ضرب
- (Then) he saw the bench was full of oil and his clothes greasy; he smote the parrot on the head: it was made bald by the blow.
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روزکی چندی سخن کوتاه کرد ** مرد بقال از ندامت آه کرد
- For some few days it refrained from speech; the greengrocer, in repentance, heaved deep sighs,
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ریش بر میکند و میگفت ای دریغ ** کافتاب نعمتم شد زیر میغ
- Tearing his beard and saying, “Alas! the sun of my prosperity has gone under the clouds.
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دست من بشکسته بودی آن زمان ** که زدم من بر سر آن خوش زبان 255
- Would that my hand had been broken (powerless) at the moment when I struck (such a blow) on the head of that sweet-tongued one?”
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هدیهها میداد هر درویش را ** تا بیابد نطق مرغ خویش را
- He was giving presents to every dervish, that he might get back the speech of his bird.
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بعد سه روز و سه شب حیران و زار ** بر دکان بنشسته بد نومید وار
- After three days and three nights, he was seated on the bench, distraught and sorrowful, like a man in despair,
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مینمود آن مرغ را هر گون شگفت ** تا که باشد کاندر آید او بگفت
- Showing the bird every sort of hidden (unfamiliar) thing (in the hope) that maybe it would begin to speak.
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جولقیی سر برهنه میگذشت ** با سر بیمو چو پشت طاس و طشت
- Meanwhile a bare-headed dervish, clad in a jawlaq (coarse woollen frock), passed by, with a head hairless as the outside of bowl and basin.
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طوطی اندر گفت آمد در زمان ** بانگ بر درویش زد که هی فلان 260
- Thereupon the parrot cried to the dervish, as rational persons (might have done).
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از چه ای کل با کلان آمیختی ** تو مگر از شیشه روغن ریختی
- How were you mixed up with the bald, O baldpate? Did you, then, spill oil from the bottle?”
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از قیاسش خنده آمد خلق را ** کو چو خود پنداشت صاحب دلق را
- The bystanders laughed at the parrot's inference, because it deemed the wearer of the frock to be like itself.
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کار پاکان را قیاس از خود مگیر ** گر چه ماند در نبشتن شیر و شیر
- Do not measure the actions of holy men by (the analogy of) yourself, though shér (lion) and shír (milk) are similar in writing.
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جمله عالم زین سبب گمراه شد ** کم کسی ز ابدال حق آگاه شد
- On this account the whole world is gone astray: scarcely any one is cognisant of God's Abdál (Substitutes).
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همسری با انبیا برداشتند ** اولیا را همچو خود پنداشتند 265
- They set up (a claim of) equality with the prophets; they supposed the saints to be like themselves.
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گفته اینک ما بشر ایشان بشر ** ما و ایشان بستهی خوابیم و خور
- “Behold,” they said, “we are men, they are men; both we and they are in bondage to sleep and food.”
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این ندانستند ایشان از عمی ** هست فرقی در میان بیمنتها
- In (their) blindness they did not perceive that there is an infinite difference between (them).
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هر دو گون زنبور خوردند از محل ** لیک شد ز ان نیش و زین دیگر عسل
- Both species of zanbúr ate and drank from the (same) place, but from that one (the hornet) came a sting, and from this other (the bee) honey.
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هر دو گون آهو گیا خوردند و آب ** زین یکی سرگین شد و ز ان مشک ناب
- Both species of deer ate grass and drank water: from this one came dung, and from that one pure musk.
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هر دو نی خوردند از یک آب خور ** این یکی خالی و آن پر از شکر 270
- Both reeds drank from the same water-source, (but) this one is empty and that one full of sugar.
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صد هزاران این چنین اشباه بین ** فرقشان هفتاد ساله راه بین
- Consider hundreds of thousands of such likenesses and observe that the distance between the two is (as great as) a seventy years' journey.
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این خورد گردد پلیدی زو جدا ** آن خورد گردد همه نور خدا
- This one eats, and filth is discharged from him; that one eats, and becomes entirely the light of God.
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این خورد زاید همه بخل و حسد ** و آن خورد زاید همه نور احد
- This one eats, (and of him) is born nothing but avarice and envy; that one eats, (and of him) is born nothing but the Light of the One (God).