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
Even the fancy (idea) of it (the sun) puts fear into it (the bat): that fancy leads it towards the darkness.
خوف او را خود خیالش می‌دهد ** آن خیالش سوی ظلمت می‌کشد
That fancy (idea) of the light terrifies it and causes it to become attached to the night of gloom.
آن خیال نور می‌ترساندش ** بر شب ظلمات می‌چفساندش
’Tis from the fancy (idea) and the picture (thou hast formed) of thy enemy that thou hast become attached to thy comrade and friend.
از خیال دشمن و تصویر اوست ** که تو بر چفسیده‌ای بر یار و دوست
O Moses, the revelation given to thee illumined the mountain, (but) the fancy conceiving (mountain) could not endure thy real experience (of the revelation).
موسیا کشفت لمع بر که فراشت ** آن مخیل تاب تحقیقت نداشت