- If you look on the door for that chink, you will not find it: (it is) extremely unapparent, though (there are) so many processions through it.
- بر در ار جویی نیابی آن شکاف ** سخت ناپیدا و زو چندین زفاف
- Explaining (what is signified by) the far-sighted blind man, the deaf man who is sharp of hearing, and the naked man with the long skirts.
- شرح آن کور دوربین و آن کر تیزشنو و آن برهنه دراز دامن
- Know that Hope is the deaf man who has (often) heard of our dying, (but) has not heard of his own death or regarded his own decease.
- کر امل را دان که مرگ ما شنید ** مرگ خود نشنید و نقل خود ندید
- The blind man is Greed: he sees other people's faults, hair by hair, and tells them from street to street,
- حرص نابیناست بیند مو بمو ** عیب خلقان و بگوید کو بکو
- (But) his blind eyes do not perceive one mote of his own faults, albeit he is a fault-finder. 2630
- عیب خود یک ذره چشم کور او ** مینبیند گرچه هست او عیبجو
- The naked man is afraid that his skirt will be cut off: how should they (any one) cut off the skirt of a naked man?
- عور میترسد که دامانش برند ** دامن مرد برهنه چون درند
- The worldly man is destitute and terrified: he possesses nothing, (yet) he has dread of thieves.
- مرد دنیا مفلس است و ترسناک ** هیچ او را نیست از دزدانش باک
- Bare he came and naked he goes, and (all the while) his heart is bleeding with anxiety on account of the thief
- او برهنه آمد و عریان رود ** وز غم دزدش جگر خون میشود
- At the hour of death when a hundred lamentations are (being made) beside him, his spirit begins to laugh at its own fear.
- وقت مرگش که بود صد نوحه بیش ** خنده آید جانش را زین ترس خویش
- At that moment the rich man knows that he has no gold; the keen-witted man, too, knows that he is devoid of talent. 2635
- آن زمان داند غنی کش نیست زر ** هم ذکی داند که او بد بیهنر
- (’Tis) like (as when) a child's lap (is) filled with potsherds, for he (the child) is trembling for them, like the owner of riches.
- چون کنار کودکی پر از سفال ** کو بر آن لرزان بود چون رب مال