دیگری که نیم‌عاقل آمد او ** عاقلی را دیده‌ی خود داند او
The other, who is the half-intelligent, deems an (entirely) intelligent person to be his eye,
دست در وی زد چو کور اندر دلیل ** تا بدو بینا شد و چست و جلیل
And has clutched him as the blind man clutches the guide, so that through him he has become seeing and active and illustrious.
وآن خری کز عقل جوسنگی نداشت ** خود نبودش عقل و عاقل را گذاشت
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),
ره نداند نه کثیر و نه قلیل ** ننگش آید آمدن خلف دلیل
(Who) knows neither much nor little of the way (and yet) disdains to go behind the guide,
He is journeying in a long wilderness, now limping in despair and now (advancing) at a run.
شمع نه تا پیشوای خود کند ** نیم شمعی نه که نوری کد کند
He hath neither a candle, that he should make it his leader, nor half a candle, that he should beg a light.
نیست عقلش تا دم زنده زند ** نیم‌عقلی نه که خود مرده کند
He hath neither (perfect) intelligence, that he should breathe the breath of the living, nor hath he a half-intelligence, that he should make himself dead.
مرده‌ی آن عاقل آید او تمام ** تا برآید از نشیب خود به بام
He (the half-intelligent one) becomes wholly dead in (devotion to) the man of (perfect) intelligence, that he may ascend from his own low place to the (lofty) roof.
عقل کامل نیست خود را مرده کن ** در پناه عاقلی زنده‌سخن
(If) you have not perfect intelligence, make yourself dead under the protection of an intelligent man whose words are living.
زنده نی تا همدم عیسی بود ** مرده نی تا دمگه عیسی شود2200
He (the man devoid of intelligence) is not living, that he should breathe in accord with (a) Jesus, nor is he dead, that he should become a channel for the (life-giving) breath of (a) Jesus.