Masnavi · 11th–12th century

The Blind Men and the Elephant

Sanaiسنایی

آنکه دستش بسوی گوش رسید

The one whose hand had reached the ear

دیگری حال پیل ازو پرسید

was asked by another what the elephant was like.

گفت شکلیست سهمناک عظیم

He said, ‘It is a shape, fearsome and huge,

پهن و صعب و فراخ همچو گلیم

broad and rough and wide, like a rug.’

وانکه دستش رسیدی زی خرطوم

And the one whose hand had reached the trunk

گفت گشتست مر مرا معلوم

said, ‘It has become clear to me:

راست چون ناودان میانه تهیست

it is just like a drainpipe, hollow in the middle,

سهمناکست و مایه تبهیست

fearsome, and a thing of ruin.’

وانکه را بد ز پیل ملموسش

And the one who, of the elephant, had touched

دست و پای سطبر پر بوسش

the thick legs, and felt them all over,

گفت شکلش چنانکه مضبوط است

said, ‘Its shape, as I have it fixed,

راست همچون عمود مخروط است

is just like a tapering pillar.’

هریکی دیده جزوی از اجزا

Each had seen one part of the parts;

همگان را فتاده ظن خطا

every one of them had fallen into a false notion.

هیچ دل را ز کلی آگه نی

No heart had any knowledge of the whole;

علم با هیچ کور همره نی

knowledge walked with none of the blind.

From: The Walled Garden of Truth (Hadiqat al-Haqiqa)
Translation: Persiahaus Editors
Source: Draft translation from the Ganjoor text
Persian text: Ganjoor

A note for readers

From the first chapter of the Hadiqat al-Haqiqa, on the Oneness of God: a king camps outside a city of the blind, and some of them go out to feel his elephant and come back to describe it. Sanai uses the parable to show that human minds grasp only parts and cannot know God as a whole. Rumi later retold the story in the third book of his Masnavi, with the elephant in a dark house. The excerpt gives the descriptions and the moral that follows.