Rumi's Masnavi - O thou that art in this prison and amidst this stench and these lice, beware lest any one hear! Thou hast escaped (from prison): be silent!”

ای درین حبس و درین گند و شپش ** هین که تا کس نشنود رستی خمش
O thou that art in this prison and amidst this stench and these lice, beware lest any one hear! Thou hast escaped (from prison): be silent!”

چون کنی خامش کنون ای یار من ** کز بن هر مو بر آمد طبل‌زن
How shouldst thou keep silence now, O my beloved, when a drummer has appeared from the root of every hair (in thy body)?

آن‌چنان کر شد عدو رشک‌خو ** گوید این چندین دهل را بانگ کو
The jealous foe has become so deaf (that) he says, “Where is the sound of all these drums?”

می‌زند بر روش ریحان که طریست ** او ز کوری گوید این آسیب چیست
The fresh sweet basil is touching his face, (but) in his blindness he says, “What is this annoyance?”

می‌شکنجد حور دستش می‌کشد ** کور حیران کز چه دردم می‌کند 1105
The houri is nipping his hand and drawing (him towards her): the blind man is distraught and says, “Wherefore is he (some one) hurting me?

این کشاکش چیست بر دست و تنم ** خفته‌ام بگذار تا خوابی کنم
What is this (painful sense of) having my hand and body pulled hither and thither? I am asleep, let me sleep awhile.”

آنک در خوابش همی‌جویی ویست ** چشم بگشا کان مه نیکو پیست
He whom thou seekest in thy slumbers, this is He! Open thine eye, (thou wilt see) ’tis that auspicious Moon.

زان بلاها بر عزیزان بیش بود ** کان تجمش یار با خوبان فزود
Tribulations were (laid) more (heavily) upon (His) dear ones because the Beloved showed more coquettishness towards the beauteous (lovers).

لاغ با خوبان کند بر هر رهی ** نیز کوران را بشوراند گهی
He sports with the beauteous ones in every path; sometimes, too, he throws the blind into frenzy.

خویش را یک‌دم برین کوران دهد ** تا غریو از کوی کوران بر جهد 1110
For a moment He gives Himself to the blind, so that a great uproar arises from the street of the blind.

قصه‌ی هلال کی بنده‌ی مخلص بود خدای را صاحب بصیرت بی‌تقلید پنهان شده در بندگی مخلوقان جهت مصلحت نه از عجز چنانک لقمان و یوسف از روی ظاهر و غیر ایشان بنده‌ی سایس بود امیری را و آن امیر مسلمان بود اما چشم بسته داند اعمی که مادری دارد لیک چونی بوهم در نارد اگر با این دانش تعظیم این مادر کند ممکن بود کی از عمی خلاص یابد کی اذا اراد الله به عبد خیرا فتح عینی قلبه لیبصره بهما الغیب این راه ز زندگی دل حاصل کن کین زندگی تن صفت حیوانست
Story of Hilal, who was a devoted servant to God. (He was) possessed of spiritual insight and (in his religion) was not a mere imitator (of others). He had concealed himself in (the disguise of) being a slave to (God's) creatures, not from helplessness but for good reason, as Luqmán and Joseph and others (did, who were slaves) in appearance. He was a groom in the service of a certain Amír, and that Amír was a Moslem, but (spiritually) blind. “The blind man knows that he has a mother, but he cannot conceive what she is like.” If, having this knowledge, he show reverence towards his mother, it is possible that he may gain deliverance from blindness, for (the Prophet has said that) when God wills good unto a servant (of His) He opens the eyes of his heart, that He may let him see the Invisible (World) with them.