RUDAKI

True Manhood

گر بر سر نفس خود امیری، مردی

بر کور و کر ار نکته نگیری، مردی

مردی نبود فتاده را پای زدن

گر دست فتاده‌ای بگیری، مردی

If you’re the king of your own self, you’re a good man,

If you don’t fault the deaf and blind, you’re a good man,

If you don’t kick a fallen one whilst he’s down,

And support him instead, you’re a good man.’

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Rubā‘i

چون کشته ببینی‌ام، دو لب گشته فراز

از جان تهی این قالب فرسوده به آز

بر بالینم نشین و می‌گوی بناز :

کای من تو بکشته و پشیمان شده باز

When you find me dead, my lips apart,

A shell empty of life, worn out by want,

Sit by my bedside and say, with charm:

“ It is I who killed you, I regret it now.”

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Shahid’s caravan

Shahid’s caravan left before ours.

Believe me, ours will also leave.

Count the eyes, there is one pair less,

Measure the wisdom, thousands less.

Reap all that enriches your soul

Before death comes to bind your legs.

All you have struggled to find,

You must not lose easily.

Profit turns friends into strangers.

Pay him less to ward off that day.

No wolf is as fierce as a lion.

The sparrow’s cry does not reach the hawk