To see whether he had drunk wine or eaten beng or hashish: the people (having exhausted every resource) remained in despair at his insensibility.
تا که می خوردست و یا بنگ و حشیش ** خلق درماندند اندر بیهشیش
So they speedily brought the news to his kinsfolk—“Such and such a person is lying there in a state of collapse;
پس خبر بردند خویشان را شتاب ** که فلان افتاده است آن‌جا خراب
No one knows how he was stricken with catalepsy, or what it was that led to this public exposure.”
کس نمی داند که چون مصروع گشت ** یا چه شد کو را فتاد از بام طشت
That stout tanner had a brother, (who was) cunning and sagacious: he came at once in hot haste.
یک برادر داشت آن دباغ زفت ** گربز و دانا بیامد زود تفت
(With) a small quantity of dog's dung in his sleeve, he cleft (his way through) the crowd and approached (the senseless man) with cries of grief.270
اندکی سرگین سگ در آستین ** خلق را بشکافت و آمد با حنین
“I know,” said he, “whence his illness arises: when you know the cause (of a disease), the (means of) curing (it) is manifest.
گفت من رنجش همی دانم ز چیست ** چون سبب دانی دوا کردن جلیست
When the cause is unknown, the remedy for the illness is difficult (to find), and in that (case) there are a hundred grounds to which it may be referred;
چون سبب معلوم نبود مشکلست ** داروی رنج و در آن صد محملست
(But) when you have ascertained the cause, it becomes easy: knowledge of causes is the means of expelling ignorance.”
چون بدانستی سبب را سهل شد ** دانش اسباب دفع جهل شد
He said to himself, “The smell of that dog's dung is multiplied in his brain and veins.
گفت با خود هستش اندر مغز و رگ ** توی بر تو بوی آن سرگین سگ
Up to the waist in filth, he is absorbed in the tanner's craft till nightfall, seeking his livelihood.275
تا میان اندر حدث او تا به شب ** غرق دباغیست او روزی‌طلب