Sell your superfluous speech and buy sacrifice of life and sacrifice of position and sacrifice of gold,
گفت افزون را تو بفروش و بخر ** بذل جان و بذل جاه و بذل زر
That the grace of Him (Hú) may utter praise of you, so that Heaven will be envious of your high estate.
تا ثنای تو بگوید فضل هو ** که حسد آرد فلک بر جاه تو
When ye have regard for the hearts (feelings and wishes) of the physicians, ye will see yourselves and will become ashamed of yourselves.2730
چون طبیبان را نگه دارید دل ** خود ببینید و شوید ازخود خجل
’Tis not in the power of created beings to remove this blindness, but the honouring of the physicians (by you) is from Divine guidance.
دفع این کوری بدست خلق نیست ** لیک اکرام طبیبان از هدیست
Become devoted to these physicians with (all your) soul, that ye may be filled with musk and ambergris.
این طبیبان را به جان بنده شوید ** تا به مشک و عنبر آکنده شوید
How the people suspected the prophets.
متهم داشتن قوم انبیا را
The people said, “All this is fraud and deceit: how should God make a vicar of Zayd and Bakr?
قوم گفتند این همه زرقست و مکر ** کی خدا نایب کند از زید و بکر
Every king's messenger must be of his (the king's) kind: where are water and clay in comparison with the Creator of the heavens?
هر رسول شاه باید جنس او ** آب و گل کو خالق افلاک کو
Have we eaten ass's brains that we, like you, should deem a gnat to be the confidant of the humá?2735
مغز خر خوردیم تا ما چون شما ** پشه را داریم همراز هما
Where is a gnat in comparison with the humá? Where is earth in comparison with God? What relation to the mote has the sun in the sky?
کو هما کو پشه کو گل کو خدا ** ز آفتاب چرخ چه بود ذره را
What resemblance is this, and what connexion is this, that it should enter into any mind and brain?
این چه نسبت این چه پیوندی بود ** تاکه در عقل و دماغی در رود
Story of the hares who sent a hare as ambassador to the elephant, bidding him say, ‘I come to thee as the ambassador of the Moon in heaven to bid thee beware of (drinking from) this water-spring,’ as is told in full in the Book of Kalíla (and Dimna).
حکایت خرگوشان کی خرگوشی راپیش پیل فرستادند کی بگو کی من رسول ماه آسمانم پیش تو کی ازین چشمه آب حذر کن چنانک در کتاب کلیله تمام گفته است
This (claim made by you) resembles the saying of a certain hare—‘I am the ambassador of the Moon and companion to the Moon.’
این بدان ماند که خرگوشی بگفت ** من رسول ماهم و با ماه جفت
For all the beasts of chase were in woe on account of a herd of elephants (dwelling) beside that limpid spring;
کز رمه‌ی پیلان بر آن چشمه‌ی زلال ** جمله نخجیران بدند اندر وبال
All were deprived (of water) and (were kept) far from the spring by dread: since (their) strength was inferior, they made a plot.2740
جمله محروم و ز خوف از چشمه دور ** حیله‌ای کردند چون کم بود زور
From the mountain-top the old hare cried towards the elephants on the first night of the new-moon—
از سر که بانگ زد خرگوش زال ** سوی پیلان در شب غره‌ی هلال
‘Come on the fourteenth, O king elephant, that thou mayst find within the spring the proof of this (assertion).
که بیا رابع عشر ای شاه‌پیل ** تا درون چشمه یابی این دلیل
O king elephant, I am the ambassador in thy presence. Stop! Ambassadors are not subjected to imprisonment and violence and wrath.
شاه‌پیلا من رسولم پیش بیست ** بر رسولان بند و زجر و خشم نیست
The Moon says, “O elephants, depart! The spring is mine, turn aside from it;
ماه می‌گوید که ای پیلان روید ** چشمه آن ماست زین یکسو شوید
And if (ye depart) not, I will make you blind. I have declared the wrong (which ye are doing) and have thrown off my neck (all responsibility for what will happen if ye trespass farther).2745