Hare & Lion: On the shallow interpretation of the fly

Rumi-Jawid Mojaddedi translation…

I wanted to share this with you all as I recently got it, and realize just how close the persian is to the couplets of shakespear…we are all so close with barks versions, it's a nice way to shake things up  ; )

A fly in donkey's urine, perched on straw,
     Just like a boatman gazing at the shore,
Said, 'Straw and urine are my boat and sea,
     I've contemplated this fact recently:
I'm in the sea, the captain of my boat,
     Following maps and methods leanred by rote'
In urine it would steer it's straw-made raft
    As if in boundless seas, for it was daft:
It thought a single drop could stretch so far
     Unable to observe things as they are,
Its world stretched out as far as it could view,
     Small eyes count as a sea a drop or two!
Narrow interpreters are like this fly,
     With straw and urine they all falsify,
If you stop reading from your own small view,
    The phoenix will grant kingdoms then to you!
Still, those who've worked this out aren't really flies,
    Spirits don't correspond to body-size: