His heart seeks the darkness of perplexity in order that his acquirements may seem greater (than they are),
ظلمت اشکال زان جوید دلش ** تا که افزون‌تر نماید حاصلش
So that he may preoccupy you with that difficult question and make you oblivious of his own evil nature.
تا ترا مشغول آن مشکل کند ** وز نهاد زشت خود غافل کند
The marks of the wholly intelligent and the half-intelligent and the whole man and the half-man and the deluded worthless wretch doomed to perdition.
علامت عاقل تمام و نیم‌عاقل و مرد تمام و نیم‌مرد و علامت شقی مغرور لاشی
The intelligent man is he who hath the lamp: he is the guide and leader of the caravan.
عاقل آن باشد که او با مشعله‌ست ** او دلیل و پیشوای قافله‌ست
That leader is one who goes after his own light: that selfless traveller is the follower of himself.
پیرو نور خودست آن پیش‌رو ** تابع خویشست آن بی‌خویش‌رو
He is the one that puts faith in himself; and do ye too put faith in the light on which his soul has browsed.2190
مومن خویشست و ایمان آورید ** هم بدان نوری که جانش زو چرید
The other, who is the half-intelligent, deems an (entirely) intelligent person to be his eye,
دیگری که نیم‌عاقل آمد او ** عاقلی را دیده‌ی خود داند او
And has clutched him as the blind man clutches the guide, so that through him he has become seeing and active and illustrious.
دست در وی زد چو کور اندر دلیل ** تا بدو بینا شد و چست و جلیل
But (as for) the ass who had not a single barley-corn's weight of intelligence, who possessed no intelligence himself and forsook the intelligent (guide),
وآن خری کز عقل جوسنگی نداشت ** خود نبودش عقل و عاقل را گذاشت
(Who) knows neither much nor little of the way (and yet) disdains to go behind the guide,
ره نداند نه کثیر و نه قلیل ** ننگش آید آمدن خلف دلیل
He is journeying in a long wilderness, now limping in despair and now (advancing) at a run.2195