1Cademy - بخش ۱۴ - معارضه حکیم و لئیمی که صورت این چون سیرت آن آراسته بود و صورت آن چو سیرت این ناپیراسته / Section 14 - The Contest Between a Wise Man and a Base Man, Whose Form Was Adorned Like the Character of the Other, While the Others Form Was Unadorned Like the Character of This One

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Haft Awrang

Poem

بخش ۱۴ - معارضه حکیم و لئیمی که صورت این چون سیرت آن آراسته بود و صورت آن چو سیرت این ناپیراسته / Section 14 - The Contest Between a Wise Man and a Base Man, Whose Form Was Adorned Like the Character of the Other, While the Other's Form Was Unadorned Like the Character of This One

Original content

حکیمی نه بر صورت دلپسند
ز سرمایه حسن نابهره مند

ز حد تناسب برون پیکرش
به هم ناملایم ز پا تا سرش

قدی راست چون همت سفله پست
رخی همچو زلف بتان پر شکست

ز آسیب لنگی ش پا پر خلل
ز نیروی گیراییش دست شل

ز قوت تهی ، حقه مشت او
به فرمان او نی یک انگشت او

فضولی بدو گفت دور از قبول
که ای طبع دانا ز شکلت ملول

بدین شکل ناخوش ز حکمت ملاف
ندیده کس از تیره گل آب صاف

هر آن میوه کش نیست خوش رنگ و بوی
ز شیرینی طعم او دست شوی

به چشم عنایت مشو ناظرش
که عنوان باطن بود ظاهرش

بخندید از آن هرزه گویی حکیم
بدو گفت کای هرزه گوی سلیم

ز من این هنر بس که جان کاستم
به نقش حقایق دل آراستم

مصیقل شد آیینه سان سینه ام
دو عالم مصور در آیینه ام

ز من یافت اجناس عالم نوی
شدم عالمی نو ولی معنوی

به تکمیل معنی که مقدور بود
قصور تکاسل ز من دور بود

چو تحسین صورت به تدبیر من
نیامد ، مزن طعن تقصیر من

به صنع از تو گر طعنه ای راجع است
به تحقیق آن طعنه بر صانع است

به این طعنه کم ده زبان را گشاد
مده خرمن دین و دانش به باد

بیا ساقی آن باده عیب شوی
که از خم فتاده به دست سبوی

بده تا دمی عیب شویی کنم
درون فارغ از عیب جویی کنم

بیا مطرب و پرده ای خوش بساز
وز آن پرده کن چشم عیبم فراز

که تا گردم از عیب جویی خموش
شوم بر سر عیب ها پرده پوش

English translation

A wise man, not of a pleasing form, / bereft of any share of the capital of beauty. His frame beyond the bounds of proportion, / discordant with itself from foot to head. A stature stooped low like a base man's aspiration, / a face full of creases like the curls of idols. From the affliction of lameness his foot was full of flaw, / for lack of gripping power his hand was palsied. Empty of strength was the casket of his fist, / not a single finger of his at his own command. A meddler said to him — far from acceptance — / 'O wise nature, wearied by your shape, With this unpleasant form, boast not of wisdom; / none has ever seen clear water from murky clay. Any fruit that has no fine color and scent — / wash your hands of the sweetness of its taste. Gaze not upon it with the eye of favor, / for the outward is the title-page of the inward.' The wise man laughed at that idle prattle, / and said to him, 'O simple prattler, This art is enough from me: that I wore my soul thin, / and adorned my heart with the imprint of truths. My breast was burnished mirror-like, / and the two worlds are figured within my mirror. From me the kinds of the world found renewal; / I became a new world, but a spiritual one. In perfecting meaning, as far as lay in my power, / the failing of sloth was far from me. Since the beautifying of form did not come by my devising, / cast not upon me the reproach of shortcoming. If a reproach from you rebounds upon the craft, / in truth that reproach falls upon the Maker. Open not your tongue so wide in this reproach; / give not the harvest of faith and knowledge to the wind. Come, cupbearer, that fault-washing wine / which has slipped from the vat into the pitcher's hand. Give it, that for a moment I may wash faults away, / and make my inner self free of fault-seeking. Come, minstrel, and strike up a pleasant strain, / and with that veil draw closed my fault-seeing eye, That I may fall silent from fault-finding, / and become a veil-drawer over faults.

Updated 2026-07-20

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