- The crooked shoe is better for the crooked foot; the beggar's power reaches only as far as the door.
- پای کج را کفش کج بهتر بود ** مر گدا را دستگه بر در بود
- How the King made trial of the two slaves whom he had recently purchased.
- امتحان پادشاه به آن دو غلام که نو خریده بود
- A King bought two slaves cheap, and conversed with one of the twain.
- پادشاهی دو غلام ارزان خرید ** با یکی ز آن دو سخن گفت و شنید
- He found him quick-witted and answering sweetly: what issues from the sugar-lip? Sugar-water.
- یافتش زیرک دل و شیرین جواب ** از لب شکر چه زاید شکر آب
- Man is concealed underneath his tongue: this tongue is the curtain over the gate of the soul. 845
- آدمی مخفی است در زیر زبان ** این زبان پرده است بر درگاه جان
- When a gust of wind has rolled up the curtain, the secret of the interior of the house is disclosed to us,
- چون که بادی پرده را در هم کشید ** سر صحن خانه شد بر ما پدید
- (And we see) whether in that house there are pearls or (grains of) wheat, a treasure of gold or whether all is snakes and scorpions;
- کاندر آن خانه گهر یا گندم است ** گنج زر یا جمله مار و کژدم است
- Or whether a treasure is there and a serpent beside it, since a treasure of gold is not without some one to keep watch.
- یا در او گنج است و ماری بر کران ** ز انکه نبود گنج زر بیپاسبان
- Without premeditation he (that slave) would speak in such wise as others after five hundred premeditations.
- بیتامل او سخن گفتی چنان ** کز پس پانصد تامل دیگران
- You would have said that in his inward part there was a sea, and that the whole sea was pearls of eloquence, 850
- گفتی اندر باطنش دریاستی ** جمله دریا گوهر گویاستی
- (And that) the light that shone from every pearl became a criterion for distinguishing between truth and falsehood.
- نور هر گوهر کز او تابان شدی ** حق و باطل را از او فرقان شدی