Number 19

Iraqi style
English

Number 19

I have never seen a thirty-year-old still passing for a smooth-faced boy like you. Such a freak can only belong to the end of days. If they tied both your hands behind your back for a week, by the next week your beard would grow down to your waist.
Explanation: The joke mocks a grown man pretending to be a beardless youth; the tied-hands line implies he only stays smooth-faced by constantly plucking or shaving.

Original · Persian

شمارهٔ ۱۹

ندیدم اَمرد سی ساله چون تو در عالم عجوبه‌ای چنین، آخرالزّمان باشد
‌اگر دو دست تو یک هفته در قَفا بندند ‌به هفتهٔ دگرت ریش تا میان باشد