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زانک آن صاحب دل با کر و فر ** هست در بازار ما معیوب‌خر
- Because the august owner of the Heart is a buyer of damaged goods in our bazaar.
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صاحب دل جو اگر بی‌جان نه‌ای ** جنس دل شو گر ضد سلطان نه‌ای
- Seek the owner of the Heart, if thou art not soulless: become a congener of the Heart, if thou art not an adversary of the (spiritual) Sultan.
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آنک زرق او خوش آید مر ترا ** آن ولی تست نه خاص خدا
- (But) that one whose hypocrisy pleases thee, he is (only) thy saint, (he is) not the elect of God.
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هر که او بر خو و بر طبع تو زیست ** پیش طبع تو ولی است و نبیست
- Whosoever lives in accordance with thy disposition and nature seems to thy (carnal) nature to be a saint and a prophet.
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رو هوا بگذار تا بویت شود ** وان مشام خوش عبرجویت شود 905
- Go, renounce sensuality in order that the (spiritual) scent may be thine and that the sweet ambergris-seeking organ of smell may be thine.
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از هوارانی دماغت فاسدست ** مشک و عنبر پیش مغزت کاسدست
- Thy brain (organ of smell) is corrupted by sensual indulgence: to thy (olfactory) sense musk and ambergris are unsalable.
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حد ندارد این سخن و آهوی ما ** می‌گریزد اندر آخر جابجا
- This discourse hath no bound, and (meanwhile) our gazelle is running to and fro in flight in the stable.
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بقیه‌ی قصه‌ی آهو و آخر خران
- The remainder of the Story of the gazelle in the donkey-stable.
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روزها آن آهوی خوش‌ناف نر ** در شکنجه بود در اصطبل خر
- During (many) days the sweet-navelled male gazelle was in torment in the donkey-stable,
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مضطرب در نزع چون ماهی ز خشک ** در یکی حقه معذب پشک و مشک
- Like a fish wriggling in the death-agony from (being kept on) dry ground, (or like) dung and musk tortured (by being kept) in the same box.
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یک خرش گفتی که ها این بوالوحوش ** طبع شاهان دارد و میران خموش 910
- One donkey would say to his neighbour, “Ha! this wild fellow has the nature of kings and princes. Hush!”