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
He hath neither a candle, that he should make it his leader, nor half a candle, that he should beg a light.
شمع نه تا پیشوای خود کند ** نیم شمعی نه که نوری کد 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.
نیست عقلش تا دم زنده زند ** نیم‌عقلی نه که خود مرده کند