(If) you have an ear, hearken with your own ear: why be dependent on the ears of blockheads?
گوش داری تو به گوش خود شنو ** گوش گولان را چرا باشی گرو
Make a practice of seeing (for yourself) without blindly following any authority: think in accordance with the view of your own reason.
بی ز تقلیدی نظر را پیشه کن ** هم برای عقل خود اندیشه کن
How the Khwárizmsháh, may God have mercy upon him, while riding for pleasure, saw an exceedingly fine horse in his cavalcade; and how the king's heart fell in love with the beauty and elegance of the horse; and how the ‘Imádu ’l-Mulk caused the horse to appear undesirable to the king; and how the king preferred his (the ‘Imádu ’l-Mulk's) word to his own sight, as the Hakím (Saná’í), may God have mercy upon him, has said in the Iláhí-náma: “When the tongue of envy turns slave-dealer (salesman), you may get a Joseph for an ell of linen.” Owing to the envious feelings of Joseph's brethren when they acted as brokers (in selling him), (even) such a great beauty (as his) was veiled from the heart (perception) of the buyers and he began to seem ugly (to them), for “they (his brethren) were setting little value on him.”
دیدن خوارزمشاه رحمه الله در سیران در موکب خود اسپی بس نادر و تعلق دل شاه به حسن و چستی آن اسپ و سرد کردن عمادالملک آن اسپ را در دل شاه و گزیدن شاه گفت او را بر دید خویش چنانک حکیم رحمةالله علیه در الهی‌نامه فرمود چون زبان حسد شود نخاس یوسفی یابی از گزی کرباس از دلالی برادران یوسف حسودانه در دل مشتریان آن چندان حسن پوشیده شد و زشت نمودن گرفت کی و کانوا فیه من الزاهدین
A certain Amír had a fine horse: there was no equal to it in the Sultan's troop.3345
بود امیری را یکی اسپی گزین ** در گله‌ی سلطان نبودش یک قرین
Early (one morning) he rode out in the royal cavalcade: suddenly the Khwárizmsháh observed the horse.
او سواره گشت در موکب به گاه ** ناگهان دید اسپ را خوارزمشاه
Its beauty and colour enraptured the king's eye: till his return (home) the king's eye was following the horse.
چشم شه را فر و رنگ او ربود ** تا به رجعت چشم شه با اسپ بود
On whichever limb he let his gaze fall, each seemed to him more pleasing than the other.
بر هر آن عضوش که افکندی نظر ** هر یکش خوشتر نمودی زان دگر
Besides elegance and beauty and spiritedness, God had bestowed on it (other) exquisite qualities.
غیر چستی و گشی و روحنت ** حق برو افکنده بد نادر صفت
Then the king's mind sought to discover what it could be that waylaid (and overpowered) his reason,3350
پس تجسس کرد عقل پادشاه ** کین چه باشد که زند بر عقل راه
Saying, “My eye is full and satisfied and wanting naught: it is illumined by two hundred suns.
چشم من پرست و سیرست و غنی ** از دو صد خورشید دارد روشنی
Oh, the rook of (other) kings is (but) a pawn in my sight, (and yet) a demi-horse enraptures me without any justification.
ای رخ شاهان بر من بیذقی ** نیم اسپم در رباید بی حقی