{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mes/mes20.htm","path":"isl/mes/mes20.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mes/mes20.htm","text":"The Mesnavi and The Acts of the Adepts, by Jelal-'d-din Rumi and Shemsu-'d-Din Ahmed, tr. by James W. Redhouse, [1881]\nKal\u012bl\u2019 and Dimna's book relates a charming tale,\u00a01\n From which males may a moral draw;\u2014and eke, female.\n Within a shelter\u2019d vale, four-footed game in droves,\n Were kept in tremor by a lion from its groves.\n So frequently had he borne victims off from thence,\n The vale a prison had become in every sense.\n A consultation held, they fair proposals state,\n To satisfy the lion's hunger by a rate;\n But on condition that he rapine lay aside,\n And not prolong disquiet in that valley wide. 5\n The lion gave consent, if they'd perform their part;\n Remarking: \"I've a victim been to wily art.\n Man persecutes me with his deadly stratagems;\n The snake and scorpion sting me;\u2014rancour's true emblems.\n But worse than any man, in venom and in spleen,\n The fleshly lust within me traitor's always been.\n But I've grown wary. Has not Ahmed said: 'Rely!\n Believers are not twice caught by the self-same lie?'\"\u00a02\n Their answer was: \"O most sagacious, knowing guide,\n Thy caution pray dismiss; decree of God abide. 10\nSuspicion, caution, ever is corroding ill.\n Put trust in Providence; and God thy maw will fill.\n Strive not with Providence, however strong thou be;\n Lest Providence should take offence, and war with thee.\"\nHe answered them: \"Sure! Sure! Trust Providence we must.\n His prophets in the Lord have always placed their trust.\n To trust in God, and yet put forth our utmost skill,\n The surest method is, to work His holy will.\n The Prophet plainly said to his disciple train:\n 15 'Put trust in God, and bind thy camel's shank amain?'\u00a01\n Remember the old saw: 'The friend of God must work.'\u00a02\n Through trust in God, neglect not ways and means, O clerk.\"\nAbashed they were not; answer thus they promptly made:\n \"To gain aught from the poor is fraud; a trick of trade.\n There is no gain so good as trust placed in the Lord.\n What more praiseworthy than to build upon His word?\n How many flee this danger, falling into that!\u00a0\n From fryingpan leaps one, to light in fire right pat.\u00a03\n Man plans a stratagem; in it is caught himself.\n 20 That which he took for health, he finds is death itself.\n He locks his door when treason's lurking in his house.\n So Pharaoh deemed he'd danger shun ere it should rouse.\n How many thousand infants did he doom to death;\n While Moses, whom he feared, his own roof was beneath.\n Our eyes afflicted are with various kinds of ills.\n Then go and make them blind, by seeing God \u2019tis wills.\n God's sight of providence is keener than men's eyes.\n By seeing with His sight, thou\u2019lt find all thou wilt prize.\n An infant, that can neither grasp nor walk as yet,\nTakes seat upon his father's neck, and runs. Sweet pet. 25\n Some seasons past, he scarcely gains some strength of limb;\n When sorrow fastens on him;\u2014sharp, and ghastly grim.\n The hearts of men, before they gain or power or wealth,\n Decline away from duty, pleasures seek by stealth.\n And since by God's decree from paradise they're rent,\n They prisoners become to rage, lust, discontent.\n We are the household of that Householder, whose word\n Thus spake: 'Creation's all as children of the Lord.'\u00a01\n He that doth send the fattening rain upon the earth,\n In mercy, too, can feed His creatures from their birth.\" 30\nThe lion thus replied: \"\u2019Tis true. But still, the Lord\n A ladder sets before our feet to be explor\u2019d.\n Step after step we have to mount unto the roof.\n Th\u2019 idea of compulsion's quite devoid of proof.\n Two feet thou hast. Then why thyself hold to be lame?\n Two hands also. Why maimed account thyself in name?\n Whene\u2019er a master puts a spade in hand of slave,\n He has no need to speak; the act expression gave.\n Our hands just so are given; spades they are to us.\n Think out this problem well; it needs not any fuss. 35\n When thou hast laid this unction to thy soul amain,\n In duty's path to lay down life thou\u2019lt count as gain.\n Those symbols indices are, whence are secrets known.\n Responsibility's from thee withdrawn; work shown.\n Thou\u2019rt surely burdened. Borne also most truly art.\n Recipient; hence accepted;\u2014fully on His part.\n Recipient be of God's command; content thou\u2019lt be.\n Seek unto Him; and to Him joined thyself thou\u2019lt see.\n To strive to give thanks power provides this to perform.\n Allege compulsion. Gratitude's ground thou\u2019lt deform. 40\n Thanks for thy powers the power of thanks tenfold expands.\nTake favour for compulsion. Power will leave thy hands.\n Compulsion dost affirm? That's sleeping by the way.\n Go not to sleep until thou\u2019st fairly won the day.\n Sleep not, Compulsionist? Thou man, with folly rife\n Until thou reach the goal, the fruitful Tree of Life.\n The cool breeze there will rustle through its leaves profuse,\n Each moment scattering fruits for food and future use.\n Compulsion's creed is sleep among the highwaymen;\n 45 Unseasonable bird is mercilessly slain.\u00a01\n If thou at God's signs carp and peek, so finding fault,\n Though man thou count thyself, \u2019tis womanlike assault.\n The little sense thou hadst has really taken flight;\n A head that has no brains is tail turn\u2019d round to sight.\n Ungrateful men are ever cursed of God on earth;\n And after death are flung to hell-fire's vengeful hearth.\n If thou repose thy trust in God's almighty pow\u2019r,\n Sow first thy seed; and then, await the harvest hour.\"\nThe beasts a clamour raised; they would not be repressed:\n 50 \"They who on means depend, are urged by greed confessed.\n The millions upon millions, man and womankind,\n Are pinched by want; they suffer need; they food scarce find.\n By millions and by millions, since creation's day,\u2014\n Insatiate dragons,\u2014they their gaping jaws display.\n A crowd of would-be wise men stratagems invent,\n Enough to upset mountains, could they give them vent.\n So God himself described in His most holy book\n Their arts: 'By which they'd tear away the hills.'\u00a02 Just look.\n Except the lot decreed by Providence of yore,\n 55 By hunting or by toiling none can swell his store.\n Device of man, his plans, shall all be brought to naught.\n God's dispensations sole will stand, with wisdom fraught.\nStrive not then, man of sense; except good name to leave.\n Exertion's a delusion. Out! Thou sottish knave!\"\nA simpleton one morning rushing came in haste,\n Where Solomon his court of justice then had placed.\n His cheeks were blanched, his lips were blue; effects of fright.\n Said Solomon to him: \"What ails thee? Say aright.\"\n Him answer\u2019d that poor wretch: \"The angel, Lord, of death,\u00a01\n Upon me fixed, just now, a look that stopped my breath.\" 60\n Said Solomon: \"What wilt thou I should do for thee?\"\n He answered: \"That the wind may now commanded be\u00a02\n To carry me away forthwith to Hind\u016bst\u0101n.\n Perchance by fleeing thither, save my life I can.\"\nSee how mankind do shun the garb of poverty.\n Hence they're a prey to greed and dire necessity.\n This fear of poverty is like that man's dismay,\n Its Hind\u016bst\u0101n, remark, is greed and grasping's sway.\nSo Solomon the wind commanded, him, forthwith,\n To bear to Hind\u016bst\u0101n; and land him near some frith. 65\nAnother day as Solomon his court did hold,\n Death's angel came; the king to him the matter told:\n \"Thy wrathful look, the other day, upon that man,\n Has driven him his home to quit for Hind\u016bst\u0101n.\n Didst thou in wrath survey the pious man that way,\n That he might wander forth a waif, like sheep astray?\n Or was thy look's intent, so dreadful to behold,\n His soul to separate from its corporeal fold?\"\nTo him replied the angel: \"King of sprites and men!\n His fancy him misled; he'll ne\u2019er do so again. 70\n\u2019Twas not in anger then that I did look on him;\n \u2019Twas wonder him to see here, looking hale and prim.\n For God had me commanded: 'Go this very day,\n And take his soul in Hind\u016bst\u0101n, his debt to pay.'\n In wonder, then, I said within myself: 'Had he\n A hundred wings, in Hind\u016bst\u0101n he could not be.'\n But going, still, by God's command, to Hind\u016bst\u0101n,\n Him there I found, and took his soul with my own hand.\"\nSo thou, good reader, understand, the things of earth\n 75 \u2019Tis God ordains. Reflect. \u2019Twas written ere his birth.\n From whom to flee? From self? Oh! That's absurd!\n From whom to steal? From God? Worse, worse! No word!\nThe lion now remarked: \"The words you speak are true.\n But just consider how the prophets, saints, ensue.\n What they have wrought hath God blessed, made to prosper still;\n Their joys and griefs, their sufferings, pains, were by His will.\n Their stratagems dictated by their God were, all.\u00a01\n 'Who comes of gentle blood, will gentle words let fall.'\u00a02\n Their traps have taken angels with the baits they placed.\n 80 Their seeming slips and faults were all by wisdom traced.\n Exert thyself, O man; put shoulder to the wheel,\n The prophets and the saints to imitate in zeal.\n Exertion's not a struggle against Providence.\n \u2019Twas Providence enjoined it,\u2014made it our defence.\n Blasphemer may I be, if ever single man\n Bestowed in vain one effort to fulfil God's plan.\n Thou hast no broken bones; why bind thy limbs in splints?\n Have patience yet awhile; then laugh; we're not mere flints.\nIt is a bad investment to seek worldly gain.\u00a01\n Whose hope is placed in heaven never shall see pain.\u00a02 85\n The stratagems employed for worldly gain are vile,\n But stratagems for gaining heaven are worth our while.\n Blest stratagem is that which bursts a prison door.\n Curst stratagem is one that spreads a dungeon floor.\n The world's a dungeon. We are all in prison here.\n Burst, then, thy prison gate, and free thyself from fear.\n What is the world? Unmindful of our God to be;\n Not gold or silver, wife or children, things we see.\n The wealth we hold at service of our God is blest.\n 'The riches of the just are pure,' Ahmed confess\u2019d. 90\n The water from a leak is danger to a ship;\n The sea beneath her keel is just what makes her skip.\n Great Solomon despised wealth, sway, with all his heart.\n With countless treasures poor he named himself. Best part!\n An empty jar will float upon a raging sea,\n The air that fills it will not let it sunken be.\n Th\u2019 afflatus of true poverty man's soul will buoy.\n Above the troubles of the world he rides. Ahoy!\n Should all earth's boundless riches by him be possessed;\n The whole is viewed in his pure sight as naught at best. 95\n Close then the inlet to thy heart; seal it with love;\n First filling it with wisdom's spirit from above.\n Endeavour is from God; so sickness, and its balm.\n He vainly strives who would deny this truthful psalm.\"\nOf this complexion, many proofs the lion brought;\n No answer those compulsionists in dispute sought.\n The fox, the deer, the hare, and eke the sly jackal,\n Were fain to quit compulsion's cause, for good and all.\nA treaty they concluded with the forest king,\n That he, by this concession, should not lose a thing. 100\nHis daily ration ready always should be found;\n And he should have no cause to trespass on their ground.\n Lots they would cast among themselves from day to day.\n On whom the lot should fall, he'd be the lion's prey.\nBut lo, at length the lot upon the hare did light.\n He found it very hard, and wailed his awful plight.\n The other beasts remarked: \"We each have had our turn;\n And none of us refused th\u2019 agreement to confirm.\n By breach of faith on us fresh infamy bring not.\n 105 Begone forthwith; the lion must not be forgot.\"\nThe hare replied: \"Dear friends, a respite to me grant.\n A stratagem I'll plan, and cheat this grim tyrant.\n My wily plan shall save the souls of all alive;\n And safety heirloom be your children shall derive.\n Thus every prophet's promised to his sect, at least,\n Salvation from the doom o\u2019erhanging man and beast.\n They found a ready way to \u2019scape beyond the spheres,\n So soon as to reflect they turned their minds from fears.\n Man sees another's eye is but a wee, wee thing;\n 110 He knows how great a service can th\u2019 eye's pupil bring.\"\nThe beasts in answer: \"Jackass! Prate to us no more.\n Consider. Thou\u2019rt a hare; a beast of no great store.\n What talk is this? Thy betters ne\u2019er have used such speech.\n They never would have dared to think as thou dost preach.\n It must be thou\u2019rt o\u2019erweening, or our fate's at hand.\n For otherwise, pretensions such as thine can't stand.\"\nTo them as a rejoinder puss spoke: \"My dear friends,\n My inspiration's God's; small means effect great ends.\n The wisdom God hath taught the little honey-bee,\n 115 You do not find possessed by lion, or by me.\nWe see its cells arranged, with liquid sweetness filled,\n The portals of such art to open God hath willed.\n Then see the silkworm, how it's taught by God to spin.\n Have elephants the power to draw out threads so thin?\n The earthy Adam was by God taught all our names.\u00a01\n His knowledge was the admiration of heaven's frames.\n Th\u2019 angelic choir were silenced; they knew not so much.\n The fiend be cursed. He'd not confess the fact was such.\n That fasting hermit of six hundred thousand years\u00a02\n Became the new-born babe's dire muzzle,\u2014source of tears. 120\n Lest it should suck the milk religion's teachings give,\u2014\n Lest it should soar on high around heaven's towers, and live,\u2014\n The learning of external sense a muzzle lies,\u2014\n The milk of truth sublime's denied to all its cries.\n But God hath planted in man's heart a precious pearl.\n Nor seas, nor skies, such gem enclose within their whirl!\n How long of form thy talk\u2014form-worshipper\u2014vain man?\n Cannot thy senseless soul cast off form's deadening ban?\n Did human form alone suffice a man to make,\n Ahmed and Ab\u016b-Jahl were one in grade, in stake. 125\n A painting on a wall may show the human form.\n But look and see what lacks, the figure to inform.\n \u2019Tis life it wants, and soul;\u2014the pretty-looking thing!\n Ask for its life. No! No! Though portrait of a king.\n The heads of all earth's lions bowed down meek and low,\n When God the Seven Sleepers\u2019\u00a03 dog applauded. How!\n To call it dog, to charge it with defect of race,\n No harm can do it; God in heaven hath given it place.\n\u2019Twas not the pen prescrib\u2019d the qualities of form;\n 130 Th\u2019 Omniscient, the Just, \u2019twas, made it multiform.\n Th\u2019 Omniscient, the Just, a Spirit is, All-Blest;\n Him no place holds; He's not before, behind, east, west.\n He influences matter from His high abode;\n But heaven of heavens cannot contain the Spirit's mode.\"\nThat theme is endless. Let us then just turn away.\n Let's ask about the hare; hear what he has to say.\n Sell off thy ass\u2019 ears; with the price a fresh pair buy.\n An ass's ears will never understand this cry.\u00a01\n Go to. Examine well the hare's most foxy wile,\u2014\n 135 The subtle stratagem that did the lion foil.\nWisdom's the seal by which great Solomon did rule.\n The whole world's but a frame, and wisdom is its soul.\n Hence \u2019tis, by wisdom's spell, as clay on potter's wheel,\n The seas, the hills, the plains, are made man's power to feel.\n The lion, tiger, leopard, dread him as does mouse;\n The shark, the crocodile, he follows to their house.\n The demon and the fairy, both constrained to flight,\n Have hid themselves from him,\u2014are only seen by night.\n The human being has his foes hid every side.\n 140 A prudent man by caution may in safety bide.\n Those hidden foes,\u2014the hideous, and the fair as well,\u2014\n By day and night affect his heart with charm and spell.\nThou enterest a river, just to have a bathe;\n A hidden thorn may pierce thy foot, bared of its swathe.\n Thou seest it not. \u2019Tis hid at bottom of the stream.\n Thou feel\u2019st it in thy foot; thou knowest it's not a dream.\n Plagues, troubles, fears, and cares, of various degree,\n All spring from many sides, and fix themselves in thee.\nBear all with patience; slowly thou\u2019lt experience gain.\n Thou\u2019lt recognise the truth; the dark will be made plain. 145\n At length thou\u2019lt scout the vagaries of learned men,\n And take unto thyself, as patterns, saints of ken.\nThe beasts on second thoughts resolved to hear puss out.\n \"Explain,\" said they, \"what \u2019tis thou\u2019dst have us set about.\n Let's hear; \u2019tis with the lion we shall have to do.\n Set forth thy plan; let's see what stratagem's in view.\n Deliberation's ever wisdom's truest friend;\n Two heads than one are better,\u2014lead to safer end.\n The prophet spake: 'O ruling judge, ere thou decide,\n Take counsel; for \u2019tis said: \"In councillors confide.\"'\" 150\nThe hare objects: \"A secret's not for ev\u2019ry clod.\n Odd even is at times; and sometimes even's odd.\n Too closely with a mirror shouldst thou converse hold,\n From prudery it umbrage takes, grows dull; the scold.\n On matters three, allow not oft thy lips to speak:\n First, going; gold, next; third, the path thou hast to seek.\n These all have sundry enemies and deadly foes,\n Who'll lie in ambush, each, if he thy purpose knows.\n If thou 'Adieu' to only one or two shouldst call,\n Remember: 'Two's a secret; three is none at all.' 155\n If fast together thou shouldst bind birds, two or three,\n They'll quiet lie on earth, nor strive themselves to free.\n Men hold it best to ask for counsel in wide terms.\n Beware; and wrangle not with perverse pachyderms.\n The Prophet covertly men's counsel used to seek.\n His answer he'd obtain; his purpose did not leak.\n He'd speak in parables, and so convey his wish,\n That foes might hear, but not suspect its purport. Pish!\n He'd ferret out in answers all he wished to learn;\n And still not give an inkling of his thought's real turn.\" 160\nEnough we've said of this. Now turn we to our tale.\n By puss the lion's held right hungry in the vale.\n And so it was; the hare his counsel did conceal;\n He would not let his comrades learn how he would deal.\n Some hours he now let pass before he took his leave;\n Then to the lion went, their honour to retrieve.\nHe found the brute impatient, chafing at delay,\n From hunger's pangs fierce howling, tearing every spray;\n And roaring in his rage: \"I knew it so would be!\n 165 Those vile, time-serving rascals! Thus they worry me!\n They're plausible, smooth-speaking, bland, calm, mild; and still\n They've cheated me! Alas! Who will be cheated, will!\n A too complaisant prince most foully is let in!\n Who sees no farther than his nose, none heeds a pin!\"\nThe path is smoothed beneath which lurks a deadly trap.\n A missive's filled with compliments; all mere clap-trap.\n Bland messages, smooth words, are but a hook or snare.\n Civility's a sandbank; life's bark's oft wrecked there,\n The sand from which a spring of water's seen to flow\n 170 Is rare to find. Go, seek such. Where? I do not know.\nYes, yes! Be sure that sand's a holy man of God,\n Unto himself lost, rapt, in union with his Lord.\n Religion's crystal waters flow from him apace;\n Disciples thence are edified and grow in grace.\n A worldling is a sandbank, void of moisture quite,\n On which you may make shipwreck, lose all chance of light.\n Seek wisdom, then, from wisdom's sons, the pure of mind;\n So mayest thou learn the way salvation's port to find.\nA seeker after wisdom, is, of wisdom, fount.\n 175 \"Humanities\" he shuns; them, he does trash account.\nA memory replete with holy Qur\u2019\u0101n's lore\n A \"hidden tablet\" is;\u00a01 its mind is wisdom's store.\n If man begin as pupil to good common sense,\n He'll end by being teacher,\u2014mind, his audience.\n Man's mind declares, as Gabriel to Ahmed there,\u00a02\n \"One step beyond due limit leaves me ashes sere.\n Go forward, man of God; leave me; I know my place.\n To every one's not given to see God face to face.\"\nWhoever, out of sloth, endeavour's path shall quit,\n And patience lose, compulsion's creed must needs admit. 180\n Whoe\u2019er affirms compulsion, brings woe on himself,\n Until his troubles to the grave conduct the elf.\nThe Prophet said: \"My mission, \u2019s truth to preach to man.\n Much trouble will surround it during my life's span.\"\n Compulsion's but the setting of a broken bone,\u00a03\n Or binding of a muscle, torn, asunder gone.\n Thou hast not broke thy leg in travelling God's path.\n Why put thy leg in splints? Cast off the idle swath.\n He that shall really lose a leg in God's just fight,\n To him Bur\u0101q shall come, a chariot of light.\u00a04 185\n Religion's carrier was he; carried then he'll be.\n God's precepts he accepted; accepted now is he.\n The Great King's orders has he bravely carried out.\n Henceforward he's a herald;\u2014shall God's judgments shout.\n The planets until now may have affected him;\n Above the planets now he rests, and rules their trim.\nIf forms material find much honour in thy sight,\n Thou\u2019lt doubt the truth of writ: \"The moon clave,\" left and right.\u00a01\n Renew thy faith at heart, not merely with mouth's gust,\n 190 O hypocrite, who covertly dost worship lust.\n While lust is dominant, faith cannot be so strong;\n For lust \u2019s a bolt to close the door, lest faith should throng.\n The virgin text of God explain not thou away;\n Reform thyself; deform not what the Lord Both say.\n As suits thy lusts thou comments makest on God's Qur\u2019\u0101n.\n Vile, as by thee perverted, is its sense, base man.\n Thy case resemblance has with one of silly fly,\n Who once upon a time himself thought very high.\n Intoxicated was he, though he'd sipp\u2019d no wine.\n 195 Like sunbeam's mote he saw himself most gaily shine.\n He'd heard of noble falcons scorning lure and cage;\n And straightway dubbed himself the ph\u0153nix of the age.\nOur fly on scrap of straw, in pool from ass's ease,\n Had poised himself, as though a sailor on the seas.\n Then cried: \"Lo! I've called forth a sea and ship at will.\n Long since I \u2019ve had a notion, pleasure's cup to fill.\n Behold a sea and ship of which I captain am,\n Imbued with naval science, bold as any ram.\"\nImagination thus had conjured up a sea.\n 200 To him it boundless seemed, dwarfing credulity.\n Compared with him it was a truly boundless pool.\n When people see with their own eyes, call them not fool.\n His universe was measured by his power of sight.\n To such an eye such pool a sea was. He was right.\nA false interpreter of scripture is such fly.\n His fancy is the urine pool on which straws ply.\nIf flies in fancy thus explain the things they see,\n By fortune's freaks, in turn, a ph\u0153nix each may be.\n He's less than fly, of whom this tale example lends;\n His soul unworthy is ev\u2019n of the frame it tends. 205\n Just like the hare who'd lion undertake to fight,\n How should his soul remain in his poor carcase, slight?\nThe lion growled in tones of anger and of rage:\n \"My ear it was bewrayed me; war my foes did wage.\n Compulsionists\u2019 false wiles placed bandage on my eyes.\n Their wooden swords it was that stung my skin, like flies.\n Henceforward I'll not list to such cajoleries,\u2014\n Of elves and demons, in the wilderness, mere cries.\n Tear, rend them; O my heart, pay no regard to them.\n Strip off their skins; there's naught beneath; mere stratagem.\" 210\nWhen words deceitful are employed as wraps for guile,\n They're bubbles on the water, only last a while.\n Such words are merely shell; th\u2019 intent their kernel is;\u2014\n Or coloured portraiture of man; no life is his.\n A shell may often cover kernel of foul smell.\n A kernel sound can well afford to lose its shell.\nIf mind be pen; if page be water, in thy hands;\n Be not surpris\u2019d when all that's written quick disbands.\n On water \u2019tis to write, t\u2019 expect good faith from bail.\n Regret must follow. Shrug your shoulders. What avail! 215\nMan with desires is oft puffed up, and wishes vain.\n Put out desire; you'll find Jehovah's endless reign.\n His messages are peace, and sweet to pious soul;\n For He alone's eternal, free from change, and whole.\nMen's prayers for kings and princes change full oft in tone.\n The prayers of saints and prophets call on God alone.\nTh\u2019 existence of earth's sovereign's empty pomp and pride,\n The glories of a prophet in his God abide.\n The names of kings on coins are used a little while;\n 220 The name of Ahmed there is ever seen to smile.\u00a01\n That name of Ahmed covers all the prophets still;\u00a02\n As hundred, when \u2019tis said, ninety includes as well.\nReflections such as these would never have an end.\n So turn we through our hare and lion's tale to wend.\nThe hare but slowly towards the lion took his way.\n Wiles in his brain he hatched; weighed what he had to say.\n Procrastination served him his design to fill;\n He'd secrets, one or two, the royal mind to still.\nHow many worlds there are that hang on wisdom's worth.\n 225 How vast an ocean wisdom! Compasses the earth.\n A shoreless ocean is the subtle mind of man\n A fearless diver sounds its depths; as who else can?\n Our bodies drift about in mind's strong eddies still,\n Like basins on the water, at the stream's sole will.\n Until they fill, they float like bowls, on ocean's brink;\n And, like the bowls, when full, they cannot choose but sink.\nThe wind's invisible; a world without, we see.\n Our bodies are the waves or drops of that vast sea.\n Whatever means our bodies seek to grasp, anon,\n 230 A billow drives it far; no sooner seen than gone.\nUntil our hearts perceive the Giver of all good,\n The swiftly-flying bolt shot far from o\u2019er the flood,\n They hold their coursers to be lost; and out of spite,\n They push their roadsters hastily, as thoughts invite.\n They hold their coursers to be lost; and all the while\n Like noble courser, roadster's borne them many a mile.\nThey now begin to wail, distress\u2019d, and ask the way.\n They knock at ev\u2019ry door they see, they beg, they pray:\n \"The stealer of our courser was a little child.\n What horse is this, my master? Seems it not too wild?\" 235\n \"O yes, a horse it is; but not the horse you want.\n Come to your senses, man; to some one else go chant.\"\nThe soul is void of patency and fellowship.\n Thou, like a wine-jar, full within, hast parched lip.\n How shouldst thou e\u2019er distinguish red from green or brown,\n When these are all the colours unto thee well known?\n And when thy mind is dazed by colour's magic round,\n All colour's lost in one bright light diffused around.\n Those colours, too, all vanish from our view by night.\n We learn from this, that colour's only seen through light. 240\nThe sense of colour-seeing's not from light distinct.\n So, too, the sudden rainbow of our mind's instinct.\n From sunlight, and the like, all outer colours rise;\n The inward tints that mark our minds, from God's sunrise.\n The light that lights the eye's the light that's in the heart.\n Eye's light is but derived from what illumes that part.\n The light that lights the heart's the light that comes of God,\n Which lies beyond the reach of sense and reason, clod!\nBy night we have no light; no colour can we see.\n Thus, light we learn by darkness, its converse. Agree! 245\n A seeing of the light, perception is of tints;\n And these distinguished are through darkness\u2019 gloomy hints.\n Our griefs and sorrows were by God first introduced,\n That joy to sense apparent thence should be reduced.\n Occult things, thus, by converse, grow apparent, all.\n Since God has no converse, apparent He can't fall.\n Sight first saw light, and then the colours saw.\n From converse\u00a0converse stands forth, as Frank from Negro.\n By converse of the light, distinguish we the light;\n A converse \u2019tis that converse shows unto our sight. 250\nThe light of God no converse has in being's bound;\n By converse, then, man has not its distinction found.\n Our eyes cannot distinguish God, decidedly;\n Though He distinguish Moses and the Mount from thee.\nForm and ideal, gnat and lion, word and sense,\n Sound of the voice and thought, learnst thou by dissidence,\n The words and sounds take rise from exercise of thought.\n The sea of thought is where? Of this thou knowest naught.\n Words, as thou seest, rise as waves upon the sea.\n 255 The sea of thought thou knowest great, immense to be.\n The waves of thought arise, by breath of knowledge raised;\n They take the forms of words, of sounds, which ear has seized.\n Through words have forms arisen, and passed away again;\n As waves still lose themselves beneath the ocean's main.\n From realm of formlessness, existence doth take form;\n And fades again therein.: \"To Him we must return.\"\u00a01\n Each moment, then, for thee death and return await,\n As Ahmed hath declared: \"Life's transitory.\"\u00a02 Wait!\n Thoughts, bolts are, shot by God into the air like dust.\n 260 Whose thoughts can reach to God, through densest air of lust?\nThe world's renewed each moment, though we still remain\n In ignorance that permanence can change sustain.\n Life, like a river, ceaselessly, is still renewed;\n And apes persistency, in forms by change subdued,\n Through fleetness it puts on continuity's shape;\n Like squib when \u2019tis revolved in dark by boy with tape.\n A flash of flame, through motion's necessary speed,\n Appears unto our eyes a fire of size, indeed.\nIts length and its extension, through quickness of fact,\n Appear to be effects of God's creative act. 265\n A student of this mystery, a doctor of great skill,\n Is our Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn,\u00a01 whose praises books would fill.\nThe lion, now enraged with hunger's gnawing pain,\n Perceived the hare was coming, bounding o\u2019er the plain.\n All carelessly, in confidence, he frisking came,\n The lion all the while growled, gnashed his teeth from shame.\n No consciousness of fault was visible, no fear;\n But confidence, sure sign his conscience he felt clear.\nWhen he'd reached hearing range, the lion him addressed\n In tones of wrath: \"Thou demon, insolent, possessed! 270\n Know I'm a lion; elephants my prey I make.\n The tigers, spotted pards, by me are caused to quake.\n A petty hare am not I, slighted thus to be,\n Or see my just dominion spurned by likes of thee.\n Cast off assumed prim innocence, awake to fact;\n Thou hear\u2019st the lion's roar; forget not thus the pact.\"\nThe hare replied: \"Gramercy! Hear my poor excuse.\n Let me explain. Your Majesty will ne\u2019er refuse.\"\nThe lion now: \"Excuse? Thou basest of the base!\n Is this the time to pay thy court? A pretty case! 275\n Unseasonably crowing cock art thou! Reprieved?\n Excuse from simpleton can never be received.\n A simpleton's excuse is worse than was his fault.\n Excuse of ignorance were science to assault.\n Excuse from thee, thou hare, were quite devoid of sense.\n Take thou me not for hare; with me strive not to fence.\"\nThe hare to him: \"O prince! Have pity on the weak!\n Lend ear unto the tales of them who justice seek.\nThankoffering let it be for thy august estate.\n 280 Poor supplicant like me, thou\u2019lt not drive from thy gate.\n Great river like, thy boons stream aye through all canals;\n Each flower that decks thy hair in price rich pearls excels.\n The sea is not dried up by yielding showers of rain.\n Thy ease will not decrease by lessening of my pain.\"\nThe lion then: \"My clemency I show to those\n Who\u2019ve it deserved. \u2019Tis stature rules the length of clothes.\"\nThe hare: \"Give ear. Should I of grace unworthy prove,\n I'm at thy feet. My life is thine, I cannot move.\n At morning's early hour I set out for thy court.\n 285 Companion had I with me. True, the way is short.\n That second hare I speak of, food was for thy maw;\n By lot selected, as the pact lays down the law.\n Upon the road, a lion on us onslaught made.\n The savage, strange invader, rendered us afraid.\n I remonstrated with him; told him our intent;\n Said we were coming here; by treaty were we sent.\nHe answered: 'Prate not to me. Treaty such as this\n No value has. I'm king. He a usurper is.\n Thy paltry king and thee I'll quickly rend in two,\n 290 If thou and thy companion will not with me go.'\n I craved of him permission, him to leave awhile,\n Till I could come and tell thee of his claim and guile.\n He granted leave; but kept my fellow as a pledge;\n Saying otherwise he'd kill me, as his privilege.\n We strove to coax and pacify the sturdy brute.\n \u2019Twas no avail. My mate he'd keep; me he'd depute.\n My comrade three times was in bulk more full than I;\n More plump, more sleek, more toothful. Dare I tell a lie?\n Henceforward, through that lion, who can come this way?\n 295 The case is so. I've told thee truly all my say.\nFrom hence, for evermore, thy ration's lost, forsooth.\n The truth I speak to thee. Unpleasant oft is truth.\n Wouldst thou thy ration have, arise and clear the way.\n Come on. I'll guide. Let's see, then, who shall win the day.\"\nThe lion now: \"In God's name! Come! Where is the beast?\n Go thou before, if thou speak truth. Take heed at least.\n I'll treat him as he merits, and a hundred such.\n But should this prove a lie, thou\u2019lt rue it very much.\"\nThe hare set out in front, so acting as a guide,\n That he might lead the lion as he should decide. 300\n A well there was not far off, which the hare had seen.\n This pit he destined for the lion's last death-scene.\n They journeyed thus, the two, towards the well in haste,\n The scheming, plotting hare's fell stratagem to taste.\nA stream of water freely bears the chaff away;\n But how it undermines a mountain's hard to say.\n All single-handed, Moses,\u2014Red Sea at command,\u2014\n Can drown pursuing Pharaoh's vast ungodly band.\n A gnat, by God's behest, a Nimrod may annul;\n Its feeble wings may burst the sutures of his skull.\u00a01 305\nThe doom of him who acts on what a foe adjusts,\n Is like the end of one his envier who trusts.\n The punishment of Pharaoh's listening to Haman,\u00a02\n Resembles Nimrod's, who faith pinned upon Satan.\u00a03\nA foe who talks in friendly guise, a false game plays;\n He vaunts the bait; but be thou sure, a trap he lays.\n His proffered sugarcandy poison will conceal.\n His seeming kindly offices are treachery's veil.\nShould God ordain thy fall, thy sight will blinded be;\n 310 \u2019Twixt friend and foe the difference thou\u2019lt fail to see.\n Since thus it is, betimes betake thyself to prayer;\n Fast, supplicate, entreat thee gracious God to spare.\n Thus pray: \"O Thou, to whom all secrets well are known,\n Crush not Thy trusting servant \u2019neath sore trial's stone.\n If doglike acts I've acted, Thou who lions formest,\n O let not loose upon me lions Thou informest.\n O Lord of mercy, Pardoner of sin, All-just,\n Upon me vengeance wreak not, or succumb I must.\n Cause not Thy pleasant waters me to burn like fire;\n 315 Let not the fiery furnace form of stream acquire.\n If Thou me madden with the vials of dismay,\n Thou\u2019lt make nonentities the parts of things to play.\"\nWhat's madness? \u2019Tis a bandage to the eye of faith.\n A stone we see as pearl, an island as a frith.\n What's madness? False to judge of every stick and straw.\n To seek the violet's perfume in hip and haw.\nOne day, when Solomon a camp had formed afield,\n The birds all flocked around him, homage due to yield.\n They found he spake their language, all their secrets knew.\n 320 With pleasure, birds of every kind about him flew.\n The birds with Solomon all left their twit-twit-twee,\n And spake a tongue articulate; as one might see.\nSynglottism is a link, a very potent spell;\u00a01\n Among mere strangers, man's a captive in a cell.\n How many Turks and Hind\u016bs synglottise with us;\n How many pairs of each are strange as incubus!\n A synglottist is then a man's another self;\n But syncardism, than synglottism's much closer, elf.\nBesides our words, our signs, our written characters,\n From hearts, there rise by hundreds mute interpreters. 325\nThe birds about their secrets one by one communed;\n About their knowledge, sciences, and voices tuned.\n To pay their court to Solomon their notes they raised;\n Revealed their capabilities; skill of each praised.\n Not out of pride and vanity; excess \u2019twould seem;\n But solely to please Solomon, gain his esteem.\nSo slaves that seek for favour at a master's hand\n Exert themselves to name the talents they command.\n But if they feel ashamed of one would them purchase,\n Straightway they're sick, halt, deaf, or something still more base. 330\nThe turn then came for hoopoe's setting forth his skill,\n To say what he could do, what office he could fill.\n Said he: \"O King, one little talent's all I own.\n I'll tell it in few words; succinctness is a crown.\"\nSaid Solomon: \"Let's hear it. What then is thy skill?\"\n The hoopoe answered: \"This.\u2014I perch where\u2019er I will.\n From my seat I look down like plumbline on the ground,\n And see if hidden water under it is found;\n Where is it; at what depth; what are its qualities;\n Whence takes its rise; from rock, sand, clay's varieties. 335\n O Solomon, whene\u2019er thou send\u2019st thy armies forth,\n Me call to mind; my skill is surely notice worth.\"\nTo him replied then Solomon: \"Esteemed good friend,\n Thee I will name Purveyor-General on land.\n Whene\u2019er my troops go forth, through sandy deserts sent,\n With them thou\u2019lt journey; so, ne\u2019er will be water scant.\"\nThe crow on hearing this with jealousy was stung.\n Addressing Solomon, he said: \"This bird a lie has sung.\nHis insolence is great to boast thus to the king.\n 340 Such falsehood's quite disgusting. Who's heard such a thing?\n Had he possessed this very wonderful insight,\n Would he be caught in springes barely out of sight?\n He cannot see those traps beneath a little mound;\n So caught he is, and caged. High dudgeon thence is found.\"\nSaid Solomon: \"O hoopoe, true is this remark.\n A gulp of vanity has set thee raving, stark.\n How is it thou\u2019rt so tipsy early in the day,\n To come and prate of things so far out of the way?\"\nThe hoopoe then replied: \"Great King, against poor me,\n 345 For love of God, believe not all my foes' false plea.\n If untruth I have spoken,\u2014cannot prove my tale,\u2014\n I cast myself before thee; kill me without fail.\n The crow denies the rule of Providence on earth;\n With all his cunning, he's a miscreant from birth.\"\nOf miscreants\u2019 defects, if any one in us\n Exist, it's sure to spread,\u2014a plague-spot cancerous.\nA snare man may detect in every lust of flesh,\n If God's decree will not he fall into its mesh.\n By God's decree our reason ceases clear to see,\n 350 As moon, when darkened all, can hide the sun from me.\n Whoever dares deny God's ruling providence,\n \u2019Tis Providence decrees his blindness, want of sense.\nThe Father of Mankind, Lord Nomenclator first,\u00a01\n In every nerve possess\u2019d a vein of knowledge nursed.\n He knew the names of all things, right, without default.\n From first to last his mind could hold them from revolt.\n Whatever name he gave, that name endured unchanged.\n If he said: \"This thing's active,\" slothful it ne\u2019er ranged.\nHe knew at first who was believer in God's word.\n He from the first, too, knew the miscreant toward his Lord. 355\nFrom one who knows them well, of things seek thou the fames,\n And mystery of the symbol: \"God taught him the names.\"\u00a01\n The name of everything, with us, is what it seems;\n With God, the name of everything, what He it deems.\n By Moses was his staff a simple rod proclaimed;\n By its Creator, God, a dragon was it named.\n \u2018Umer\u00a02 idolater was classed by each array;\n God him believer called upon creation's day.\n What is by man termed seed upon this transient heath,\n Impressed by God was with the seal: \"Father of death.\"\u00a03 360\n In realm of nullity that seed received a form,\n Existent with its God; nor less, nor more; a worm.\n Result thereof sprung forth the essence of our name\n With the Creator, who will be our final aim.\n He each one names according to his last estate,\n Not with respect to that which is but passing fate.\nSo soon as mind of man with light has gained its strength,\n It spies the soul, and mysteries of every name, at length.\n When man perceives therein the kingdom of truth's rays,\n He falls in adoration, worships, spends his days. 365\n That Adam's praise, whose blessed name we're proud to bear,\u00a04\n Should I recite till judgment-day, would not end there.\nDecree of Providence so willed, with all his lore,\n One single prohibition known, cost him right sore.\n He asked: \"Was prohibition laid, joy to prevent;\n Or can, by gloss, evasion unto it be lent?\"\nTo his mind, explanation having been inferred,\n His appetites, perplexed, to taste the wheat preferred.\u00a01\n A thorn the foot of Eden's gardener thus rent.\n 370 A thief the chance perceived, the garden robbed, and went.\n Amazement o\u2019er, the gardener's himself again.\u00a02\n He saw the thief had carried off th\u2019 unguarded train.\n He sobbed aloud: \"My God, I've deeply sinned;\" and sighed:\n \"A darkness came, and from the road I turn\u2019d aside.\"\nDecree of God was thus a cloud the sun to veil.\n A lion, dragon, were a mouse beneath that bale.\n When judgment's needed, should I not detect a snare,\n Not I alone am blind, my weakness others share.\n Blest he, whose steadfast feet have never gone astray!\n 375 Who waywardness has shunned, and taught his tongue to pray!\nShould God's decree encompass thee with blackest night,\n The same decree will readily help set thee right.\n Should Providence at times thy life to menace seem,\n \u2019Twas Providence that gave it, can prolong its gleam.\n Should life's events appear to threaten every way,\n God can in heaven prepare a home for thee to stay.\n What \u2019tis thou tremblest at, a special favour count,\n Designed to bring thee safe to Zion's holy mount.\nAnd now we turn again from morals,\u2014they've no end,\u2014\n 380 To see how fares it with our lion and his friend.\nThey came to where the well was. Here the lion saw\n The hare his pace had slackened, backward \u2018gan to draw.\nAt this he remonstrated: \"What art thou about!\n Come forward still. The enemy we must find out.\"\nThe hare replied: \"I have no power to move a foot.\n From fear I faint. I tremble; courage has ebbed out.\n Thou seest how pale my face; like ashes I've become;\n An indication sure of fear, most troublesome.\n God hath the countenance the mind's true index named.\n The adept keeps his eye on countenance enchained. 385\n A face's colour tell-tale is, like tinkling bell.\n A horse's neigh of other steeds\u2019 approach will tell.\n A sound from anything attention brings to pass;\n \u2019Tis thus we know the creak of door from bray of ass.\n The Prophet said, no point of character t\u2019 asperse:\n 'Enigma is a man until he's heard converse.'\n The colour in man's face makes known how stands the heart.\n Compassion take on me; thy sympathy impart.\n Enjoyments sensual give man a rosy face;\n The fame of pale-faced men reports good sense and grace. 390\n I feel within me what makes all my joints seem weak;\n It's borne away my colour, strength, and power to speak.\n It casts down whomsoe\u2019er it chances to attack;\n As tempest uproots trees it meets upon its track.\n I'm subjected to that by which both men and beasts\n Are turned to stocks and stones;\u2014to say the very least.\n They are but parts; that thing a universal is.\n It makes men's faces pale; gives ashiness where \u2019tis;\n As long as nature mournful is, or full of glee;\u2014\n As long as fields now verdant, naked then we see. 395\n The sun each morning rises, joying in his course;\n At eve sinks down again, and goes from bad to worse.\n The planets circulating, each within its sphere,\n Are subject to immersion when the sun they near.\n The moon in splendour far excels each tiny star.\nBut near its change it dwindles almost to a hair.\n The very earth, that in firm steadfastness doth sit,\n When subject to an earthquake, shakes as in a fit.\n How many regions in the world, encroaching sands\n 400 Have changed from gardens into bare and sterile lands.\n The air, that with its breezes gives new life to all,\n When Providence ordains, brings pestilence and thrall.\n Sweet water's running stream, a very source of life,\n In pond confined, turns fetid, black, and poison-rife.\n The fire, so arrogant when fed with breezes long,\n With one puff is extinguished by a breath too strong.\n The sea, now boisterous with waves and swelling tide,\n At times is like a mirror, shrinking from land's side.\n The sky, revolving night and day, is never still;\n 405 The seven planets like, it works its Maker's will.\n Those planets, too, in apogee and perigee,\u2014what not,\u2014\n Auspicious, inauspicious are in several lot.\n Thyself consider;\u2014little part, of universals mixed;\u2014\n And thou\u2019lt divine the state of all extended, fixed.\n Since universals are by no means free from toil,\n How should a petty part escape from trouble's moil?\n A part, too, that's compound of every opposite,\u2014\n Of fire, and air, and water; adding earth its mite.\n If sheep from wolf should flee, there's really wonder none;\n 410 To see them herd together \u2019d \u2019stonish every one.\n Life springs from concord of th\u2019 ingredient opposites.\n And death results when discord their pact disunites.\n God's mercy hath appointed every lion's mate;\n And unto each wild ass a fit associate.\n But since the world in trouble prison-like offends,\n What wonder that all's transient,\u2014that all suffering ends?\"\n\u2019Twas thus the hare the lion tricked with specious lies;\n And added: \"Hence the reason why I cannot rise.\"\nThe lion answered: \"I see naught to cause thy fear.\n Point out to me the object seems to thee so drear.\" 415\nThe hare then: \"In this well thy foe takes his repose.\n His stronghold is this pit, where he's secure from woes.\n A wise man hides himself at bottom of a well;\n For \u2019tis in solitude heart's choicest raptures dwell.\n Seclusion's gloom is easier borne than wrongs from men.\n Who craves a victor's mercy, saves his life just then.\"\nThe lion muttered: \"Onward come. My arm is strong.\n Go look. At home is he? He'll not live long.\"\n The hare: \"Alas! Already I've endured his gaze.\n Take me unto thy breast. My mind is all amaze. 420\n From off thy back, most potent lord and prince,\n I'll look down in the well. I'll neither blink nor wince.\"\nThe lion took him on his back without more fuss.\n So, under this protection to the well went puss.\n They both looked down; and in the water there\n Reflection shadowed forth a lion and a hare.\n The lion saw his own shape in the water shine:\n \"Another lion,\" thought he, \"with fat hare on chine.\"\n His foe he fancied, thus, that in the well he'd spied.\n The hare he set down safely; in leapt he with pride. 425\nHe thus fell in the pit he had for others dug.\n Iniquity will visit those who drink out of her mug.\n Iniquity's a pit into which tyrants fall.\n Such is the firm conviction of our wise men all.\n The wickeder a man, the deeper does he sink.\n So justice wills; and so, the wrong\u2019d will doubtless think.\nO thou who in thy might injustice dost commit,\n For thy own self a pit thou diggest; our tale to wit.\n Thou weavest round thyself a web, as does silkworm;\n Thou\u2019lt not escape unless to justice thou conform. 430\nLook not upon the weak as quite without a friend.\n Reflect; \u2019tis said: \"When God's help comes.\"\u00a01 Where's then thy end?\n If thou\u2019rt an elephant in strength, the weak will flee\n To his Protector. Then the Lord's wrath shalt thou see.\n Whenever wrong's weak victim on his God doth call,\n A clamour rises from the ranks in heaven's hall.\n If with his blood, in pride, thou stain thy teeth just now,\n The toothache shall avenge him; dentist's victim thou.\nThe lion saw himself reflected in the well.\n 435 Through blindest rage himself from foe he could not tell.\n He thought his own reflection was his hated foe,\n And slew himself while seeking on him to work woe.\nSo tyrant, when thou seest injustice in the world,\n Thyself behold. Those deeds thy banner have unfurled.\n Thine are included with them in God's just decree.\n Thy rage, greed, lust's reward most certainly thou\u2019lt see.\n They are thy very self; in them thou art condemned.\n Thou judgest them; in selfsame manner thou\u2019rt contemned.\n In thy own acts thou seest not the sin thou work\u2019st;\n 440 Or otherwise thy own self's foe thou\u2019dst be from first.\n It is thyself against whom thou mak\u2019st thy attack;\n Just as the lion took the hare upon his back.\n If thou\u2019d sound deep to bottom of the moral well.\n Thyself thou\u2019dst find there; thy own acts would plainly tell.\nThe lion at the bottom found out who was there.\n Let him as likeness serve of many who are here.\n Whoe\u2019er beats out the teeth of weaker than himself,\n Commits the lion's error;\u2014springs upon himself.\nO thou who loath\u2019st a mole upon thy neighbour's cheek,\n 445 Reflect. \u2019Tis but an image. Thy own features seek.\nBelievers are as mirrors; each sees self in each.\n So said the Prophet. His words to us truth may teach.\nThou wearest spectacles, of blue, or red, or green;\n And thence thou judgest all is tinged with that sheen.\n If thou wilt use a window glazed with coloured glass,\n Thou may\u2019st expect the sun will seem of that same class.\n If thou\u2019rt not mad, thou\u2019lt know the colour is thy own.\n Thyself call evil. Henceforth others leave alone.\nBelievers see with eye of faith the light of God.\n How else to them were visible all things\u2019 synod? 450\n If thou examine things with hell-fire in thy heart,\n How canst thou see distinct the good and bad apart.\n Seek by degrees to drown that fire in holy light.\n So shalt thou, sinner, soon, thy weakness change for might.\nAnd do Thou, Lord, asperge from mercy's cleansing stream,\n To change the fire of sin to light of faith supreme.\n The ocean's waters are a mere drop in Thy hand;\n The streams of mercy, fire of wrath, at Thy command.\n If Thou so will, the fire a pleasant stream may be.\n And at Thy word, a lake a fiery pit we'd see. 455\n From Thee spring our devotions, supplications, prayers.\n \u2019Tis Thou deliverest the victims from their slayers.\n Without our supplication, Thou entreaty gayest.\n The stores of Thy great mercy for all men Thou savest.\nThe hare, for his deliverance, jubilant set out,\n To join his fellows, scattered in their homes about.\n He saw the lion prone at bottom of the well;\n Then rapidly went back his stratagem to tell.\n He clapped his hands for joy at his escape from death,\n Exuberant as plant sprouts from the earth beneath. 460\n Its stalk and leaf break forth from prison underground.\n It rears itself apace, makes friends with th\u2019 air around.\nThe leaves burst from the stem, and spread themselves abroad;\n Until by growth a tree, whose grace all men applaud.\n It now expands in thanks for favours of the Lord;\n Each leaf, flower, fruit intones a hymn of praise, like bard.\n \"Thou, Giver of all good things, nourishedst my root.\n And madest me become a strongly growing shoot.\"\nOur souls, shut up in prison in our frames of clay,\n 465 So break forth into raptures when they're called away.\n They dance for very joy, from love of God All-wise,\n When, like full moon perfected, they in glory rise.\n Material beings, thus, their dance perform, and souls.\n Ask not of them the subject of their hyperboles.\nThe hare had lodged the lion in a dungeon safe.\n More shame for lion was it, hare should make him chafe.\n Just so a shame it is, and subject for surprise,\n The state in which he's left, who Fakhru-\u2019d-D\u012bn would rise.\u00a01\n O, he's a lion, sure, at bottom of a well.\n 470 His pride of flesh the hare that cast him down to hell.\n His pride, the hare, at large, disporting as it will;\n Himself down in the pit. O, what a bitter pill!\nThe lion-slaying hare now scampered to his friends,\n Exclaiming: \"Good news bring I; let joy know no ends\n Good news! Good news! Festivities bring into play!\n The hell-cat's gone to hell, from which he came our way.\n Good news! Good news! That foe to all our lives, and peace.\n Has had his teeth extracted, through our Maker's grace.\n He who so many crushed with paw of tyranny,\n 475 Like rubbish has been swept by death's broom clean away.\"\nA convocation now was held by all the beasts,\n Hilarity and joy enlivened all their breasts.\n About the hare, as candle, they, moths-like, all flocked.\n All their respects presented; none were found who mocked.\n They all declared: \"Thou art an angel by heaven sent\n (Angel of death, however, he to lion went).\n Whatever thou may\u2019st be, our souls thy sacrifice!\n Thou\u2019st triumphed. For such prowess praise will not suffice.\n Our God it was endowed thee with such wondrous skill.\n May God be praised! Deliverance is by His will. 480\n Pray, tell us all about it. How was such thing done?\n How couldst thou compass to deceive th\u2019 experienced drone?\n Relate in full. \u2019Twill comfort give to all our souls.\n Detail the facts; balm will they be for bygone doles.\n Recount at length; for, ah, how many tyrannies\n Did we not suffer from him, who now stark dead lies!\"\nQuoth he: \"Most venerable Sirs! God's grace did all.\n What could a hare accomplish without Him at call?\n He strength of purpose gave me, light from heaven above.\n That light it was that nerved me in my every move. 485\n God granteth crowning grace, to further cause of truth,\n \u2019Tis God also who sends vicissitudes on earth.\n He, \u2019tis, alternately, who parties makes prevail.\n Now mere opinionists, now men of light avail.\n If then, in turn, thou now thyself find uppermost,\n Why let hypocrisy, presumption, make thee boast?\"\nJoy not o\u2019er great prosperity. It does not last.\n Airs give not thou thyself; thou\u2019rt but a passing guest.\n They whose eternal kingship lasts beyond all times,\u00a01\n Who sing God's praise beyond the seven spheres and climes, 490\nThey more endure than transient reigns of kings\u2019 short rolls.\n They are the never-failing feeders of men's souls.\nIf thou the pleasures of the world short time forego,\n Eternal bliss may compensate th\u2019 imbroglio.\n Know that this nether world but for a period lasts.\n T\u2019 abandon it, eternal rest to man forecasts.\n Give ear. Forsake all mundane ease, all earthly rest;\n Then will thy soul enjoy heaven's cup with double zest.\n Cast thou the carcase vile of earthly pomp to dogs.\n 495 The cup of mere surmise reject; the soul it clogs.\nm67:1 Kal\u012bla and Dimna is the Arabic version of P\u012blp\u0101y's fables.\nm67:2 This proverb is given in Freytag's \"Proverbia Arabica,\" ii. p. 488, n. 278, as an answer from Muhammed to a foe twice made prisoner.\nm68:1 Equivalent to tethering a horse, \"Keep your powder dry.\"\nm68:2 The original says: \"The earner is God's friend.\"\nm68:3 The original has: \"Flees the snake, and meets a dragon.\"\nm69:1 The words as given in the original, in Arabic, are not in the Qur\u2019\u0101n.\nm70:1 A cock that crows out of season, in the night.\nm70:2 Qur\u2019\u0101n xiv. 47.\nm71:1 Azr\u0101\u2019\u012bl, the angel of death, who takes men's souls.\nm71:2 Solomon is related in the Qur\u2019\u0101n xxi. 81, and xxxiv. 11, to have possessed power over the wind.\nm72:1 In Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 47, and viii. 30, God is styled \"the best of stratagem-makers.\"\nm72:2 I do not find this proverb in Freytag's \"Proverbia.\"\nm73:1 Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 15.\nm73:2 See Qur\u2019\u0101n xlviii. 29; lix. 8; and lxxiii. 20.\nm75:1 In Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 29, the account of this is given. Compare Gen. ii. 19.\nm75:2; Was Satan this very old hermit? His successful temptation was the muzzle. The original says \"calf,\" where I have said \"babe;\"\u2014meaning Adam, when first created. Instructed by God, he named all things, which the angels were unable to do, and so were silenced.\nm75:3 The story of the dog of the Sleepers is told in Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 27-21.\nm76:1 The Persian name for the hare is \"ass-ear;\" hence the pun.\nm79:1 The \"hidden tablet\" of God's decrees; mentioned in Qur\u2019\u0101n lxxxv. 22.\nm79:2 At the \"extreme lote-tree\" in the highest heaven, on the night of the ascension. Gabriel could go no further. Muhammed went on, to God's presence.\nm79:3 The word that signifies \"compulsion\" also means \"reduction\" in a surgical sense, and \"algebra\" mathematically.\nm79:4 \"Bur\u0101q\" is the name of the angelic steed on which Muhammed mounted to heaven in his night journey. Not found in the Qur\u2019\u0101n.\nm80:1 \"The moon clave\" in twain as a sign of the near approach of the day of judgment. Qur\u2019\u0101n liv. 1.\nm82:1 Muhammed's name is put on most Muslim coins.\nm82:2 Muhammed is held to be the supplement of all the prophets.\nm84:1 Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 151.\nm84:2 Not in Freytag's \"Proverbia.\"\nm85:1 See note in the Author's Preface, and Chapter vi. in the Anecdotes.\nm87:1 The commentators on Qur\u2019\u0101n xxi. 69, mention Nimrod's gnat.\nm87:2 Qur\u2019\u0101n xxviii. 5, mentions Haman with Pharaoh.\nm87:3 He is said to have believed Satan rather than Abraham.\nm88:1 The translator has ventured to coin the expressions \"synglottism,\" \"synglottist,\" and \"syncardism\" as specimens of a whole class used in Persian.\nm90:1 A title designating Adam,\u2014who named all things.\nm91:1 Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 29.\nm91:2 Omar.\nm91:3 A very doubtful clause; it may be rendered: \"Thou art with me.\"\nm91:4 Adam, in most languages, has come to signify man.\nm92:1 Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 33, mentions merely a \"caulescent plant;\" \"wheat \"is one of several glosses by commentators, like our \"apple.\"\nm92:2 Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 22, makes Adam confess sin with contrition, together with Eve, thereby meriting God's eventual pardon.\nm96:1 Qur\u2019\u0101n cx. 1.\nm98:1 Evidently the name of a rival.\nm99:1 These are sainted spiritualists, true and pious dervishes.","title":"The Mesnavi and The Acts of the Adepts: The Book of the M...","type":"page"}