گفت راه اوسط ار چه حکمت است ** لیک اوسط نیز هم با نسبت است‏

He said, “Although the middle path is (the way of) wisdom, yet the middle path too is relative.

آب جو نسبت به اشتر هست کم ** لیک باشد موش را آن همچو یم‏

Relatively to a camel, the water in the stream is little, but to a mouse it is like the ocean.

هر که را باشد وظیفه چار نان ** دو خورد یا سه خورد هست اوسط آن‏

If any one has an allowance of four loaves and eats two or three, that is the mean;

ور خورد هر چار دور از اوسط است ** او اسیر حرص مانند بط است‏

But if he eat all the four, it is far from the mean: he is in bondage to greed, like a duck.

هر که او را اشتها ده نان بود ** شش خورد می‏دان که اوسط آن بود 3535

If one has appetite for ten loaves and eats six, know that that is the mean.

چون مرا پنجاه نان هست اشتهی ** مر ترا شش گرده هم دستیم نی‏

When I have appetite for fifty loaves, and you for (no more than) six scones, we are not equivalent.

تو به ده رکعت نماز آیی ملول ** من به پانصد در نیایم در نحول‏

You may be tired by ten rak‘as (of prayer), I may not be worn thin by five hundred.

آن یکی تا کعبه حافی می‏رود ** و آن یکی تا مسجد از خود می‏شود

One goes bare-foot (all the way) to the Ka‘ba, and one becomes beside himself (with exhaustion in going) as far as the mosque.

آن یکی در پاکبازی جان بداد ** وین یکی جان کند تا یک نان بداد

One in utter self-devotion gives his life, one is agonised at giving a single loaf.

این وسط در با نهایت می‏رود ** که مرا آن را اول و آخر بود 3540

This mean belongs to (the realm of) the finite, for that (finite) has a beginning and end.