Original content

English translation

There are four sayings that four kings composed, as though they were a single arrow shot from four bows:

Kesra (Khosrow) said: I have never regretted what I did not say, yet many a thing I said has left me lying in dust and blood from regret.

Sit silent, for to sit together in silence is better than a speech that brings on turmoil. No one has ever regretted a secret kept sealed; many a disclosed secret has brought on regret.

Qaisar (Caesar) decreed: My power over the unsaid is greater than over the said; that is, what I have not said I am able to say, and what I have said I am unable to conceal.

Whatever is hard to disclose, do not tell to your companions lightly; for what you keep hidden can still be spoken, but what you have spoken you can no longer hide.

The Khaqan of China spoke on this theme thus: It is often the case that the distress of speaking is harsher than the regret of concealing.

Every sealed secret that falls into your mind, do not rush to inscribe it on the tablet of expression; I fear the penalty of revealing it will prove for you harder than the remorse of keeping it covered.

The king of India loosed his tongue on this point: Every word that has leapt from the tongue has tied down my hand of control over it, while whatever I have not said, I am its master—if I wish I speak it, and if I wish I do not.

Concerning the secret disclosed and the secret hidden, a wise man has set a fine simile upon his tongue: that this is like an arrow still held in the grip, and that is like an arrow gone from the bow.