Hinting at Someone

QitʿaIraqi style
English

Hinting at Someone

If your judgment goes wrong in the science of numbers, why blame anyone else? What fault is theirs? The mistake is yours, my friend, so think this through better: you read the letter nun as one hundred and six, when in fact it stands for one hundred and ten.
Explanation: The poem plays on the abjad system, where Arabic letters carry numerical values. The letter nun equals fifty, and its miscounting becomes a metaphor for careless judgment.

Original · Persian

شمارهٔ ۸ - در کنایه به کسی

در علم حساب ار زانک رای تو تبه باشد بر کس چه نهی تهمت کس را چه گنه باشد
سهو است ترا ای جان اندیشه از این به کن نون را صد و شش خوانی لیکن صدوده باشد