- Intelligence is the sun and cupidity the ice; intelligence is the water and this world the dirt.
- هوشیاری آفتاب و حرص یخ ** هوشیاری آب و این عالم وسخ
- A little trickle (of intelligence) is coming from yonder world, that cupidity and envy may not roar (too loudly) in this world.
- ز آن جهان اندک ترشح می‌‌رسد ** تا نغرد در جهان حرص و حسد
- If the trickle from the Unseen should become greater, in this world neither virtue nor vice will be left. 2070
- گر ترشح بیشتر گردد ز غیب ** نی هنر ماند در این عالم نه عیب
- This (topic) has no bound. Go to the starting-point, go back to the tale of the minstrel.
- این ندارد حد سوی آغاز رو ** سوی قصه‌‌ی مرد مطرب باز رو
- The remainder of the story of the old harper and the explanation of its issue (moral)
- بقیه‌‌ی قصه‌‌ی پیر چنگی و بیان مخلص آن
- That minstrel by whom the world was filled with rapture, from whose voice wondrous phantasies grew (arose in the minds of those who heard him),
- مطربی کز وی جهان شد پر طرب ** رسته ز آوازش خیالات عجب
- At whose song the bird of the soul would take wing, and at whose note the mind of the spirit would be distraught—
- از نوایش مرغ دل پران شدی ** وز صدایش هوش جان حیران شدی
- When time passed and he grew old, from weakness the falcon, his soul, became a catcher of gnats.
- چون بر آمد روزگار و پیر شد ** باز جانش از عجز پشه‌‌گیر شد
- His back became bent like the back of a wine-jar, the brows over his eyes like a crupper-strap. 2075
- پشت او خم گشت همچون پشت خم ** ابروان بر چشم همچون پالدم
- His charming soul-refreshing voice became ugly and worth nothing to any one.
- گشت آواز لطیف جان فزاش ** زشت و نزد کس نیرزیدی به لاش
- The tone that had (once) been the envy of Zuhra (Venus) was now like the bray of an old donkey.
- آن نوای رشک زهره آمده ** همچو آواز خر پیری شده