- He (the captain) lost his way and, (beguiled) by that false dawn, fell like a gnat into the pot of buttermilk.
- راه گم کرد او از آن صبح دروغ ** چون مگس افتاد اندر دیگ دوغ
- How that military chief repented of the sin which he had committed and adjured the girl not to tell the Caliph anything of what had happened.
- پشیمان شدن آن سرلشکر از آن خیانت کی کرد و سوگند دادن او آن کنیزک را کی به خلیفه باز نگوید از آنچ رفت
- He was absorbed in that (love-affair) for a while, (but) afterwards he repented of that grievous crime,
- چند روزی هم بر آن بد بعد از آن ** شد پشیمان او از آن جرم گران
- And adjured her, saying, “O thou whose face is like the sun, do not give the Caliph any hint of what has passed.”
- داد سوگندش کای خورشیدرو ** با خلیفه زینچ شد رمزی مگو
- When the Caliph saw her he became distraught (with love), and then too his secret was exposed to all.
- چون ندید او را خلیفه مست گشت ** پس ز بام افتاد او را نیز طشت
- He saw (her to be) a hundred times as beautiful as he (the informer) had described her: how in sooth should seeing be like hearing? 3905
- دید صد چندان که وصفش کرده بود ** کی بود خود دیده مانند شنود
- Description is a picture (drawn) for the eye of intelligence: know that the (sensible) form belongs to the eye, not to the ear.
- وصف تصویرست بهر چشم هوش ** صورت آن چشم دان نه زان گوش
- A certain man asked an eloquent person, “What are truth and falsehood, O man of goodly discourse?”
- کرد مردی از سخن‌دانی سال ** حق و باطل چیست ای نیکو مقال
- He took hold of his ear and said, “This is false: the eye is true and possesses certainty.”
- گوش را بگرفت و گفت این باطلست ** چشم حقست و یقینش حاصلست
- The former is relatively false as compared with the latter: most sayings are relative, O trusty one.
- آن به نسبت باطل آمد پیش این ** نسبتست اغلب سخنها ای امین
- If the bat screens itself from the sun, (yet) it is not screened from the fancy (idea) of the sun. 3910
- ز آفتاب ار کرد خفاش احتجاب ** نیست محجوب از خیال آفتاب