- Unless he (the king) had seen advantage to him (the goldsmith) in doing violence to him, how should that absolute Mercy have sought to do violence?
- گر ندیدی سود او در قهر او ** کی شدی آن لطف مطلق قهر جو
- The child trembles at the barber's scalpel (but) the fond mother is happy at that moment.
- بچه میلرزد از آن نیش حجام ** مادر مشفق در آن غم شاد کام
- He takes half a life and gives a hundred lives (in exchange): he gives that which enters not into your imagination. 245
- نیم جان بستاند و صد جان دهد ** آن چه در وهمت نیاید آن دهد
- You are judging (his actions) from (the analogy of) yourself, but you have fallen far, far (away from the truth). Consider well!
- تو قیاس از خویش میگیری و لیک ** دور دور افتادهای بنگر تو نیک
- The story of the greengrocer and the parrot and the parrot's spilling the oil in the shop.
- حکایت بقال و طوطی و روغن ریختن طوطی در دکان
- There was a greengrocer who had a parrot, a sweet-voiced green talking parrot.
- بود بقالی و وی را طوطیی ** خوش نوایی سبز و گویا طوطیی
- (Perched) on the bench, it would watch over the shop (in the owner's absence) and talk finely to all the traders.
- بر دکان بودی نگهبان دکان ** نکته گفتی با همه سوداگران
- In addressing human beings it would speak (like them); it was (also) skilled in the song of parrots.
- در خطاب آدمی ناطق بدی ** در نوای طوطیان حاذق بدی
- (Once) it sprang from the bench and flew away; it spilled the bottles of rose-oil. 250
- جست از سوی دکان سویی گریخت ** شیشههای روغن گل را بریخت
- Its master came from the direction of his house and seated himself on the bench at his ease as a merchant does.
- از سوی خانه بیامد خواجهاش ** بر دکان بنشست فارغ خواجهوش
- (Then) he saw the bench was full of oil and his clothes greasy; he smote the parrot on the head: it was made bald by the blow.
- دید پر روغن دکان و جامه چرب ** بر سرش زد گشت طوطی کل ز ضرب
- For some few days it refrained from speech; the greengrocer, in repentance, heaved deep sighs,
- روزکی چندی سخن کوتاه کرد ** مرد بقال از ندامت آه کرد
- Tearing his beard and saying, “Alas! the sun of my prosperity has gone under the clouds.
- ریش بر میکند و میگفت ای دریغ ** کافتاب نعمتم شد زیر میغ
- Would that my hand had been broken (powerless) at the moment when I struck (such a blow) on the head of that sweet-tongued one?” 255
- دست من بشکسته بودی آن زمان ** که زدم من بر سر آن خوش زبان
- He was giving presents to every dervish, that he might get back the speech of his bird.
- هدیهها میداد هر درویش را ** تا بیابد نطق مرغ خویش را
- After three days and three nights, he was seated on the bench, distraught and sorrowful, like a man in despair,
- بعد سه روز و سه شب حیران و زار ** بر دکان بنشسته بد نومید وار
- Showing the bird every sort of hidden (unfamiliar) thing (in the hope) that maybe it would begin to speak.
- مینمود آن مرغ را هر گون شگفت ** تا که باشد کاندر آید او بگفت
- Meanwhile a bare-headed dervish, clad in a jawlaq (coarse woollen frock), passed by, with a head hairless as the outside of bowl and basin.
- جولقیی سر برهنه میگذشت ** با سر بیمو چو پشت طاس و طشت
- Thereupon the parrot cried to the dervish, as rational persons (might have done). 260
- طوطی اندر گفت آمد در زمان ** بانگ بر درویش زد که هی فلان
- How were you mixed up with the bald, O baldpate? Did you, then, spill oil from the bottle?”
- از چه ای کل با کلان آمیختی ** تو مگر از شیشه روغن ریختی
- The bystanders laughed at the parrot's inference, because it deemed the wearer of the frock to be like itself.
- از قیاسش خنده آمد خلق را ** کو چو خود پنداشت صاحب دلق را
- Do not measure the actions of holy men by (the analogy of) yourself, though shér (lion) and shír (milk) are similar in writing.
- کار پاکان را قیاس از خود مگیر ** گر چه ماند در نبشتن شیر و شیر
- On this account the whole world is gone astray: scarcely any one is cognisant of God's Abdál (Substitutes).
- جمله عالم زین سبب گمراه شد ** کم کسی ز ابدال حق آگاه شد
- They set up (a claim of) equality with the prophets; they supposed the saints to be like themselves. 265
- همسری با انبیا برداشتند ** اولیا را همچو خود پنداشتند
- “Behold,” they said, “we are men, they are men; both we and they are in bondage to sleep and food.”
- گفته اینک ما بشر ایشان بشر ** ما و ایشان بستهی خوابیم و خور
- In (their) blindness they did not perceive that there is an infinite difference between (them).
- این ندانستند ایشان از عمی ** هست فرقی در میان بیمنتها