The Marks of the Wise Man, of the Half Wise, and of the Fool
By Rumi

The wise man is he who possesses a torch of his own;
He is the guide and leader of the caravan.
That leader is his own director and light;
That illuminated one follows his own lead.

He is his own protector; do ye also seek protection
From that light whereon his soul is nurtured.
The second, he, namely, who is half wise,
Knows the wise man to be the light of his eyes,
He clings to the wise man like a blind man to his guide,

So as to become possessed of the wise man’s sight.
But the fool, who has no particle of wisdom,
Has no wisdom of his own, and quits the wise man.
He knows nothing of the way, great or small,
And is ashamed to follow the footsteps of the guide.

He wanders into the boundless desert,
Sometimes halting and despairing , sometimes running.
He has no lamp where with to light himself on his way,
Nor half lamp which might recognize and seek light/
He lacks wisdom, so as to boast of being alive,

And so half wisdom, so as to assume to be dead.
That half wise one became as one utterly dead
In order to rise up out of his degradation.
If you lack perfect wisdom, make yourself as dead
Under the shadow of the wise, whose words give life.

The fool neither alive so as to companion with Isa,
Nor yet dead so as to feel the power of Isa’s breath.
His blind soul wanders in every direction,
And at last makes a spring, but springs not upward.