{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/arp/arp072.htm","path":"isl/arp/arp072.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/arp/arp072.htm","text":"Arabian Poetry, by W. A. Clouston, [1881]\n[\"UPON a certain festival,\" says Ebn Khocan, a contemporary writer, \"during the confinement of Motammed, he was waited upon by his children, who came to receive his blessing, and to offer up their prayers for his welfare. Amongst these some were females, and their appearance was truly deplorable. They were naturally beauteous as the moon, but, from the rags which covered them, they seemed like the moon under an eclipse: their feet were bare and bleeding, and every trace of their former splendour was completely effaced. At this melancholy spectacle their unfortunate father gave way to his sorrow in the following verses.\"]\nWhile these dear maids, in beauty's bloom,\n \u00a0\u00a0With want oppressed, with rags o\u2019erspread,\n By sordid labours at the loom\n \u00a0\u00a0Must earn a poor, precarious bread.\nThose radiant cheeks are veiled in woe,\n \u00a0\u00a0A shower descends from every eye;\n And not a starting tear can flow\n \u00a0\u00a0That wakes not an attending sigh.\nFortune, that whilom owned my sway,\n \u00a0\u00a0And bowed obsequious to my nod,\n Now sees me destined to obey,\n \u00a0\u00a0And bend beneath oppression's rod.\nYe mortals, with success elate,\n \u00a0\u00a0Who bask in Hope's delusive beam,\n Attentive view Motammed's fate,\n \u00a0\u00a0And own that bliss is but a dream.","title":"Arabian Poetry: Shorter Pieces of Arabian Poetry: Verses Addressed to His Daughters, During His Imprisonment, by Motammed Ben Abad, Sultan Of Seville","type":"page"}