- 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
- Truly, what sweet one is there that did not become unsweet, or what roof that did not become a carpet?—
- خود کدامین خوش که او ناخوش نشد ** یا کدامین سقف کان مفرش نشد
- Except the voices of holy men in their breasts, from the repercussion of whose breath is the blast of the trumpet (of Resurrection).
- غیر آواز عزیزان در صدور ** که بود از عکس دمشان نفخ صور
- (Theirs is) the heart by which (all) hearts are made drunken, (theirs is) the nonexistence whereby these existences of ours are made existent. 2080
- اندرونی کاندرونها مست از اوست ** نیستی کاین هستهامان هست از اوست