- One day an inquirer said to a preacher, “O thou who art the pulpit's most eminent expounder,
- واعظی را گفت روزی سایلی ** کای تو منبر را سنی‌تر قایلی
- I have a question to ask. Answer my question in this assembly-place, O possessor of the marrow (of wisdom). 130
- یک سالستم بگو ای ذو لباب ** اندرین مجلس سالم را جواب
- A bird has settled on the city-wall: which is better—its head or its tail?”
- بر سر بارو یکی مرغی نشست ** از سر و از دم کدامینش بهست
- He replied, “If its face is to the town and its tail to the country, know that its face is better than its tail;
- گفت اگر رویش به شهر و دم به ده ** روی او از دم او می‌دان که به
- But if its tail is towards the town and its face to the country, be the dust on that tail and spring away from its face.”
- ور سوی شهرست دم رویش به ده ** خاک آن دم باش و از رویش بجه
- A bird flies to its nest by means of wings: the wings of Man are aspiration, O people.
- مرغ با پر می‌پرد تا آشیان ** پر مردم همتست ای مردمان
- (In the case of) the lover who is soiled with good and evil, do not regard the good and evil; (only) regard the aspiration. 135
- عاشقی که آلوده شد در خیر و شر ** خیر و شر منگر تو در همت نگر
- If a falcon be white and beyond compare, (yet) it becomes despicable when it hunts a mouse;
- باز اگر باشد سپید و بی‌نظیر ** چونک صیدش موش باشد شد حقیر
- And if there be an owl that has desire for the king, it is (noble as) the falcon's head: do not regard the hood.
- ور بود چغدی و میل او به شاه ** او سر بازست منگر در کلاه
- Man, no bigger than a kneading-trough (scooped in a log), has surpassed (in glory) the heavens and the aether (the empyrean).
- آدمی بر قد یک طشت خمیر ** بر فزود از آسمان و از اثیر