دید صد چندان که وصفش کرده بود ** کی بود خود دیده مانند شنود 3905
He saw (her to be) a hundred times as beautiful as he (the informer) had described her: how in sooth should seeing be like hearing?
وصف تصویرست بهر چشم هوش ** صورت آن چشم دان نه زان گوش
Description is a picture (drawn) for the eye of intelligence: know that the (sensible) form belongs to the eye, not to the ear.
کرد مردی از سخن‌دانی سال ** حق و باطل چیست ای نیکو مقال
A certain man asked an eloquent person, “What are truth and falsehood, O man of goodly discourse?”
گوش را بگرفت و گفت این باطلست ** چشم حقست و یقینش حاصلست
He took hold of his ear and said, “This is false: the eye is true and possesses certainty.”
آن به نسبت باطل آمد پیش این ** نسبتست اغلب سخنها ای امین
The former is relatively false as compared with the latter: most sayings are relative, O trusty one.
ز آفتاب ار کرد خفاش احتجاب ** نیست محجوب از خیال آفتاب 3910
If the bat screens itself from the sun, (yet) it is not screened from the fancy (idea) of the sun.
خوف او را خود خیالش می‌دهد ** آن خیالش سوی ظلمت می‌کشد
Even the fancy (idea) of it (the sun) puts fear into it (the bat): that fancy leads it towards the darkness.
آن خیال نور می‌ترساندش ** بر شب ظلمات می‌چفساندش
That fancy (idea) of the light terrifies it and causes it to become attached to the night of gloom.
از خیال دشمن و تصویر اوست ** که تو بر چفسیده‌ای بر یار و دوست
’Tis from the fancy (idea) and the picture (thou hast formed) of thy enemy that thou hast become attached to thy comrade and friend.
موسیا کشفت لمع بر که فراشت ** آن مخیل تاب تحقیقت نداشت
O Moses, the revelation given to thee illumined the mountain, (but) the fancy conceiving (mountain) could not endure thy real experience (of the revelation).