The fox that is backed by those lions will break the skulls of the leopards with his fist.
روبهی که هست زان شیرانش پشت ** بشکند کله‌ی پلنگان را به مشت
How Ja‘far, may God be well-pleased with him, advanced alone to capture a fortress, and how the king of the fortress consulted (his vizier) as to the means of repelling him, and how the vizier said to the king, “Beware! Surrender (it) and do not be so foolhardy as to hurl thyself upon him; for this man is (Divinely) aided and possesses in his soul a great collectedness (derived) from God,” etc.
آمدن جعفر رضی الله عنه به گرفتن قلعه به تنهایی و مشورت کردن ملک آن قلعه در دفع او و گفتن آن وزیر ملک را کی زنهار تسلیم کن و از جهل تهور مکن کی این مرد میدست و از حق جمعیت عظیم دارد در جان خویش الی آخره
When Ja‘far advanced against a certain fortress, the fortress (seemed) to his dry palate (to be no more than) a single gulp.
چونک جعفر رفت سوی قلعه‌ای ** قلعه پیش کام خشکش جرعه‌ای
Riding alone, he charged up to the fortress, so that they (the garrison) locked the fortress-gate in dread.3030
یک سواره تاخت تا قلعه بکر ** تا در قلعه ببستند از حذر
No one dared to meet him in battle: what stomach have the ship's crew (to contend) with a leviathan?
زهره نه کس را که پیش آید به جنگ ** اهل کشتی را چه زهره با نهنگ
The king turned to his vizier, saying, “What is to be done in this crisis, Counsellor?”
روی آورد آن ملک سوی وزیر ** که چه چاره‌ست اندرین وقت ای مشیر
He replied, “(The only remedy is) that you should bid farewell to pride and cunning, and come to him with sword and shroud.”
گفت آنک ترک گویی کبر و فن ** پیش او آیی به شمشیر و کفن
“Why,” said the king, “is not he a single man (and) alone?” He (the vizier) replied, “Do not look with contempt on the man's loneliness.
گفت آخر نه یکی مردیست فرد ** گفت منگر خوار در فردی مرد
Open your eye: look well at the fortress: it is trembling before him like quicksilver.3035
چشم بگشا قلعه را بنگر نکو ** هم‌چو سیمابست لرزان پیش او
He sits (alone) on the saddle, (but) his nerve is just as unshaken as if an (army of the) East and West were accompanying him.
شسته در زین آن‌چنان محکم‌پیست ** گوییا شرقی و غربی با ویست
Several men rushed forward, like Fidá’ís (desperate assassins), and flung themselves into combat with him.
چند کس هم‌چون فدایی تاختند ** خویشتن را پیش او انداختند