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هیچ کس با خویش زر غبا نمود ** هیچ کس با خود به نوبت یار بود
- Did any one (ever) pay recurring visits to himself? Was any one (ever) a companion to himself at regular intervals?
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آن یکیی نه که عقلش فهم کرد ** فهم این موقوف شد بر مرگ مرد
- That (of which I speak) is not the (sort of) oneness that reason apprehends: the apprehension of this (oneness) depends on a man's dying (to self);
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ور به عقل ادراک این ممکن بدی ** قهر نفس از بهر چه واجب شدی
- And if it were possible to perceive this (oneness) by means of reason, wherefore should self-violence have become a duty?
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با چنان رحمت که دارد شاه هش ** بیضرورت چون بگوید نفس کش 2685
- How, with such (infinite) mercy as He hath, would the King of intellect say unnecessarily “Kill thyself”?
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مبالغه کردن موش در لابه و زاری و وصلت جستن از چغز آبی
- How the mouse exerted himself to the utmost in supplication and humble entreaty and besought the water-frog to grant him access (at all times).
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گفت کای یار عزیز مهرکار ** من ندارم بیرخت یکدم قرار
- He (the mouse) said, “O dear and affectionate friend, without (seeing) thy face I have not a moment's rest.
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روز نور و مکسب و تابم توی ** شب قرار و سلوت و خوابم توی
- By day thou art my light and (power of) acquisition and strength; by night thou art my rest and comfort and sleep.
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از مروت باشد ار شادم کنی ** وقت و بیوقت از کرم یادم کنی
- It would be a generous act if thou wouldst make me happy and kindly remember me early and late.
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در شبانروزی وظیفهی چاشتگاه ** راتبه کردی وصال ای نیکخواه
- During (the period of) a (whole) day and night thou hast allowed me (only) breakfast-time for access (to thee), O well-wisher.
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پانصد استسقاستم اندر جگر ** با هر استسقا قرین جوع البقر 2690
- I feel in my liver five hundred cravings for drink, and bulimy (morbid hunger) is conjoined with every craving.
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بینیازی از غم من ای امیر ** ده زکات جاه و بنگر در فقیر
- Thou, O prince, art unconcerned with my passion: pay the poor-tax on thy high estate, look (kindly) on (this) poor wretch.
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این فقیر بیادب نا درخورست ** لیک لطف عام تو زان برترست
- This poor unmannerly wretch is not worthy (of thy favour); but thy universal grace is superior to (regard for) that.
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مینجوید لطف عام تو سند ** آفتابی بر حدثها میزند
- Thy universal grace requires no support (reason to justify it): a sun strikes (with its beams) on (all) ordures.
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نور او را زان زیانی نابده ** وان حدث از خشکیی هیزم شده
- Its light suffers no loss thereby, and the ordure is made dry and (fit for) fuel,
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تا حدث در گلخنی شد نور یافت ** در در و دیوار حمامی بتافت 2695
- So that the ordure goes into a bath-furnace, is converted into light, and illumines the door and wall of a bath-house.
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بود آلایش شد آرایش کنون ** چون برو بر خواند خورشید آن فسون
- (Formerly) it was a defilement, now it has become an adornment, since the sun chanted that spell (exerted that powerful influence) upon it.
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شمس هم معدهی زمین را گرم کرد ** تا زمین باقی حدثها را بخورد
- The sun also warms the belly of the earth, so that the earth consumes the remaining ordures.
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جزو خاکی گشت و رست از وی نبات ** هکذا یمحو الاله السیات
- They become a part of the earth, and herbage springs up from them: even so doth God wipe out evil actions.
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با حدث که بترینست این کند ** کش نبات و نرگس و نسرین کند
- To ordure, which is the worst (of things), He does this (favour), that He makes it herbage and narcissus and eglantine.
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تا به نسرین مناسک در وفا ** حق چه بخشد در جزا و در عطا 2700
- (Judge, then), what God bestows in (the way of) recompense and bounty on the eglantines (good works) of devotion (performed) faithfully.
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چون خبیثان را چنین خلعت دهد ** طیبین را تا چه بخشد در رصد
- Since He confers such a robe of honour on the wicked, (consider) what He bestows on the righteous in the place where He waits (for them).
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آن دهد حقشان که لا عین رات ** که نگنجد در زبان و در لغت
- God gives them that which no eye hath beheld, that which is not comprehensible in any tongue or language.
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ما کییم این را بیا ای یار من ** روز من روشن کن از خلق حسن
- Who are we to (aspire to) this? Come, my friend, make my day bright with (thy) goodly disposition.
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منگر اندر زشتی و مکروهیم ** که ز پر زهری چو مار کوهیم
- Do not regard my ugliness and hatefulness, though I am as venomous as a mountain-snake.
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ای که من زشت و خصالم جمله زشت ** چون شوم گل چون مرا او خار کشت 2705
- Oh, I am ugly and all my qualities are ugly: since He planted me as a thorn, how should I become a rose?
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نوبهار حسن گل ده خار را ** زینت طاووس ده این مار را
- Bestow on the thorn the springtide of the rose's beauty: bestow on this snake the loveliness of the peacock!