- Much kindness and favour didst thou show in calling them (to God), (but) ’twas not the fortune and provision allotted to those asses.
- تو بسی کردی به دعوت لطف و جود ** آن خران را طالع و روزی نبود
- Therefore let the quilt of bounty cover them, that the slumber of forgetfulness may overtake them speedily,
- پس فرو پوشان لحاف نعمتی ** تا بردشان زود خواب غفلتی
- So that, when this troop (of asses) shall start up from suchlike slumber, the candle will have been extinguished and the cup-bearer will have gone.
- تا چو بجهند از چنین خواب این رده ** شمع مرده باشد و ساقی شده
- Their rebellious disobedience kept thee in a (great) perplexity: therefore they shall suffer in retribution a (great) sorrow, 3675
- داشت طغیانشان ترا در حیرتی ** پس بنوشند از جزا هم حسرتی
- To the end that Our justice may step forth and bestow in retribution what is appropriate to every evil-doer;
- تا که عدل ما قدم بیرون نهد ** در جزا هر زشت را درخور دهد
- For the King, whom they were not seeing openly, was (always) with them secretly in their lives.”
- که آن شهی که میندیدندیش فاش ** بود با ایشان نهان اندر معاش
- Inasmuch as the intellect is with thee, overseeing thy body, and though this perception of thine is unable to apprehend it,
- چون خرد با تست مشرف بر تنت ** گر چه زو قاصر بود این دیدنت
- (Yet) its perception, O such and such, is not unable to apprehend thy motion and rest when it tries,
- نیست قاصر دیدن او ای فلان ** از سکون و جنبشت در امتحان
- What wonder if the Creator of that intellect too is with thee? How art thou not conceding (the truth of that)? 3680
- چه عجب گر خالق آن عقل نیز ** با تو باشد چون نهای تو مستجیز
- He (some one) pays no heed to his intellect and embarks on evil; afterwards his intellect rebukes him.
- از خرد غافل شود بر بد تند ** بعد آن عقلش ملامت میکند