Your intellect is like the camel-driver, and you are the camel: it drives you in every direction under its bitter control.
عقل تو همچون شتربان تو شتر ** می‌‌کشاند هر طرف در حکم مر
The saints are the intellect of intellect, and (all) intellects (from the beginning) to the end are (under their control) like camels.
عقل عقلند اولیا و عقلها ** بر مثال اشتران تا انتها
Come now, look upon them with (profound) consideration: there is (but) one guide, and a hundred thousand souls (following him).
اندر ایشان بنگر آخر ز اعتبار ** یک قلاووز است جان صد هزار
What is the guide and what the camel-driver? Get thee an eye that may behold the Sun!2500
چه قلاووز و چه اشیربان بیاب ** دیده‌ای کان دیده بیند آفتاب
A world has been left nailed fast in night, waiting expectantly, depending on the sun and the day.
نک جهان در شب بمانده میخ دوز ** منتظر موقوف خورشید است و روز
Here is a sun hidden in a mote, a fierce lion in the fleece of a lamb.
اینت خورشیدی نهان در ذره‌‌ای ** شیر نر در پوستین بره‌‌ای
Here is an ocean hidden beneath straw: beware, do not step on this straw with hesitancy.
اینت دریایی نهان در زیر کاه ** پا بر این که هین منه با اشتباه
(But) a feeling of hesitancy and doubt in the heart (of the foolish) is a Divine mercy in regard to the (spiritual) guide.
اشتباهی و گمانی در درون ** رحمت حق است بهر رهنمون
Every prophet came alone into this world: that Guide was inwardly alone, and (yet) he had a hundred unseen worlds within him.2505
هر پیمبر فرد آمد در جهان ** فرد بود و صد جهانش در نهان
By his power he enchanted the macrocosm (universe), he enfolded himself in a very small frame.
عالم کبری به قدرت سحر کرد ** کرد خود را در کهین نقشی نورد
The foolish deemed him to be lonely and weak: how is he weak who has become the King's companion?
ابلهانش فرد دیدند و ضعیف ** کی ضعیف است آن که با شه شد حریف
The foolish said, “He is a man, nothing more”: woe to him that recks not of the end!
ابلهان گفتند مردی بیش نیست ** وای آن کاو عاقبت اندیش نیست
How the eyes of (external) sense regarded Sálih and his she-camel as despicable and without a champion; (for) when God is about to destroy an army He makes their adversaries appear despicable and few in their sight, even though the adversary be superior in strength: “and He was making you few in their eyes, that God might bring to pass a thing that was to be done.”
حقیر و بی‌‌خصم دیدن دیده‌‌های حس صالح و ناقه‌‌ی صالح را، چون خواهد که حق لشکری را هلاک کند در نظر ایشان حقیر نماید خصمان را و اندک اگر چه غالب باشد آن خصم و يقللکم فی أعينهم ليقضي الله أمرا کان مفعولا
The she-camel of Sálih was in (outward) form a camel: that bitter (graceless) tribe hamstrung (and slaughtered) her in their folly.
ناقه‌‌ی صالح به صورت بد شتر ** پی بریدندش ز جهل آن قوم مر
When they became her foes on account of the water (which she shared with them), they were blind to bread and blind to water (ungrateful for the blessings of God).2510
از برای آب چون خصمش شدند ** نان کور و آب کور ایشان بدند
God's she-camel drank water from brook and cloud: they (really) withheld God's water from God.
ناقة الله آب خورد از جوی و میغ ** آب حق را داشتند از حق دریغ
The she-camel of Sálih became, like the bodies of righteous men, an ambush for the destruction of the wicked,
ناقه‌‌ی صالح چو جسم صالحان ** شد کمینی در هلاک طالحان
That (you may see) what (the Divine command), Let God's she-camel have her portion of water, wrought against that people, through the ordainment of death and woe.
تا بر آن امت ز حکم مرگ و درد ** ناقة الله و سقیاها چه کرد
The vengeance, which is God's minister, demanded from them an entire town as the blood-price of a single camel.