عفو کرد آن شاه دریادل ولی ** آمده بد تیر اه بر مقتلی
The King, whose heart was like an ocean, pardoned him; but, alas, the arrow had struck a vital spot.
کشته شد در نوحه‌ی او می‌گریست ** اوست جمله هم کشنده و هم ولیست 4870
He was slain, and the King wept in mourning for him, (for) he (the King) is all: he is both the slayer and the next of kin;
ور نباشد هر دو او پس کل نیست ** هم کشنده‌ی خلق و هم ماتم‌کنیست
For if he be not both, then he is not all; (but) he is both the slayer of people and a mourner (for them).
شکر می‌کرد آن شهید زردخد ** کان بزد بر جسم و بر معنی نزد
(Meanwhile) the pale-cheeked martyr was thanking (God) that it (the arrow) had smitten his body and had not smitten that which is real.
جسم ظاهر عاقبت خود رفتنیست ** تا ابد معنی بخواهد شاد زیست
The visible body is doomed to go at last, (but) that which is real (the pure spirit) shall live rejoicing for ever.
آن عتاب ار رفت هم بر پوست رفت ** دوست بی‌آزار سوی دوست رفت
If that punishment was inflicted, yet it fell only on the skin: the lover went unscathed to the Beloved.
گرچه او فتراک شاهنشه گرفت ** آخر از عین الکمال او ره گرفت 4875
Although he laid hold of the Emperor's saddle-strap, (yet) in the end he was (only) admitted (to union with his Beloved) by the eye whose glances kill.
و آن سوم کاهل‌ترین هر سه بود ** صورت و معنی به کلی او ربود
And the third (brother) was the laziest of the three: he won (the prize) completely—the form (appearance) as well as the reality.
وصیت کردن آن شخص کی بعد از من او برد مال مرا از سه فرزند من کی کاهل‌ترست
The injunctions given by a certain person that after he died his property should be inherited by whichever of his three sons was the laziest.
آن یکی شخص به وقت مرگ خویش ** گفت بود اندر وصیت پیش‌پیش
Long ago a certain person, in giving injunctions on his death-bed, had spoken (as follows)—
سه پسر بودش چو سه سرو روان ** وقف ایشان کرده او جان و روان
(For) he had three sons like three moving cypresses: to them he had devoted his (vital) soul and his (rational) spirit.