Listen to a story from a historian
So you can smell some of this sealed secret

A snake catcher went towards a highland
So that he can catch a snake with his tricks

If he is resistant and swift
He who seeks, will ultimately find

Always grasp desire with both hands
That on the way (to something), desire is a good leader

--

Wars bring reconciliation rightly
The snake catcher sought the snake's companionship

Humans seek the companionship of the snake
They are sorrowful for the sake of a sorrowless opponent

He sought a rare snake
Around the mountain and in the days of snow

He saw a dead dragon there, great in size
From whose countenance his heart filled with fear

A snake catcher, for people's amusement
Catches snakes, how great is people's foolishness

A human is akin to a mountain, why should they be spellbound?
Why would a mountain be spellbound by a snake?

Poor humanity has not known itself
It came from bounty and became little

Humanity sold itself for a cheap price
They were a silken cloth, and sewed themselves to animal skin

Hundreds of thousands of snakes and mountains are spellbound by it
Why has humanity then become spellbound and a snake lover?

The snake catcher took that dragon
He went towards Baghdad to amaze people

A dragon like the pillar of a house
He was pulling it for a pittance

He said: "I have brought a dead dragon
In its hunt, I have suffered incredibly"

He thought it dead, however
It was alive and he could not tell

It was depressed because of the cold and the snow
It was alive and only looked like it was dead

The world is depressed and is called "solid"
Whatever is solid is depressed, O master!¹

Wait until the sun of the Last Day arrives bare
So you can see the movements of the universe's body

--

This speech has no end; the snake catcher
Was pulling that serpent with great effort

Until he came to Baghdad, that crowd-seeker
So he can have a crowd on all four sides

By the river, the man drew a crowd
There was a murmur in the city of Baghdad:

"A snake catcher has brought a dragon
Good God! What a unique quarry he got"

Gathered were a hundred thousand dullards
His hunt, like him, was made out of foolishness

Waiting for him and he also waiting
So that the people who are spread out would all gather

If the crowd of people grow larger
The beggar will get more funds

Gathered were they, a hundred thousand blatherers
Crowding around and densely packed

Men and women all together, in density
Commoner and noble sewn together, like the Judgement Day

When he started his showing of the dragon
The crowd outstretched their necks and watched

And the dragon, who was depressed from the frozen wastes
Was bound in a hundred strings and clothes

He had tied it with thick ropes
He had done so as a precaution, that guard (the snake catcher)

In the tarry, while waiting for the event
Iraq's sun shone on that serpent

The hot sun warmed it
From its body went away the cold humours

It was dead and turned alive from surprise
The dragon started moving its body

The people, from the dead serpent's movements
Were terrified, one hundred thousand

With horror they started screaming
They all ran away because of its movements

It broke free from its bounds and the crowd's loud noise
Went to every side of the city, a cacophony

It broke its bounds with great strength and was free
A hideous dragon, roaring like a lion

In their escape, many people were killed
From the corpses of the killed, a hundred mounds

The snake catcher was frozen with fear
That: "What did I bring from the highlands and plains?"

The blind ewe woke up the wolf
It went towards its own Azrael with foolishness

The dragon made a square meal of that bewildered man
Drinking blood is easy for the likes of Hajjaj²

It twined itself around a pillar and locked in place
And broke the eaten man's bones

Your self³ is a dragon, since when has it died?
It's depressed from sadness and lack of means

If it finds the means of Pharaoh*
So that if it wills, the river will start moving

Then it will institute itself as a Pharaoh
It will destroy the paths of a hundred Moses and a hundred Aarons

It is a small worm, that dragon, from poverty
A mosquito, with position and wealth, becomes an eagle

Keep the dragon in the snow of separation
Beware! Do not bring it to Iraq's sun

Until it is depressed, your dragon
You are its meal if it should find rescue

Befuddle your dragon and keep yourself from befuddlement
Show little mercy, it is not deserving of kindness

--

Because that man brought that dragon
Into warm weather, the disobedient creature became well

Therefore, it caused much sedition, O great one!
Twenty more like the ones we described, also

You desire to, without any anguish
Keep it bound with dignity and troth?

How can just any straw be capable of such a thing?
There need be a Moses to kill dragons

Hundreds of thousands of people, because of his dragon
Were killed in their escape, from his idea

--

Notes:

¹Referring to how being away from means and such will bring depression and, ultimately, stagnancy, turning the mind solid and useless; it has a double usage here since it both compares such a state to worldly materials, and also sets up for the verse about the Last Day, which not only serves well as a standalone verse, but can be thought of as another comparison as well

²Hajjaj refers to Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, a particularly ruthless and bloodthirsty governor of the Umayyad caliphate.

³Self, or nafs, in Middle Eastern, Islamic and Sufi literature, typically refers to what is known as an-nafs as-sayyiah, or "the evil self", and also an-nafs al-ammarah, "the inciting self". It is regarded as the part of a human being's personality/mind/soul that has all of their most evil and selfish desires and thus, this part of the personality must never be given free reign and always kept in check so that one does not harm themselves and others through their inane desires. At the same time, this does not state that one's entire "self" should be killed and to lead an ascetic life (which is against Islamic principles), just to not be attached to worldly desires, similar to how the Buddha teaches. Thus, one should always try to moderate themselves and keep a good balance. It is an important part of building character in Islam, and is particularly noted in the Islamic discipline of gnosis, Irfan.

*As in, the one Pharaoh who opposed Moses