Those talents have bound our necks, by those high attainments we are (thrown) headlong and (laid) low.
آن هنرها گردن ما را ببست ** زان مناصب سرنگوساریم و پست
(Our) talent is a cord of palm-fibre on our neck: there is no help (to be gained) from those accomplishments on the day of death.”
آن هنر فی جیدنا حبل مسد ** روز مردن نیست زان فنها مدد
(None of them avails) save only the specialty of that man endowed with goodly perceptions whose eye was recognising the Sultan in the (darkness of) night.
جز همان خاصیت آن خوشحواس ** که به شب بد چشم او سلطانشناس
All those talents were (as) ghouls (waylaying travellers) on the road, except (that of) the eye which was aware of the King.
آن هنرها جمله غول راه بود ** غیر چشمی کو ز شه آگاه بود
On the day of audience the King was ashamed (to refuse the petition) of him whose gaze was (fixed) on the King's face at night.2915
شاه را شرم از وی آمد روز بار ** که به شب بر روی شه بودش نظار
And the dog that is acquainted with the loving King—even him you must entitle “the Dog of the Cave.”
وان سگ آگاه از شاه وداد ** خود سگ کهفش لقب باید نهاد
Excellent, too, is the specialty (residing) in the ear; for he (who possesses it) by (hearing) the bark of a dog is made aware of the Lion.
خاصیت در گوش هم نیکو بود ** کو به بانگ سگ ز شیر آگه شود
When the dog is awake during the night, like a watchman, he is not ignorant of the nightly vigil of the (spiritual) kings.