Born for each other are Medschnun and Lily;Loving, though old and grey, Dschemil saw Boteinah.
Love's sweet caprice anon, Brown maid + and Solomon!
If thou dost mark them well, Stronger thy love will swell.
1817.
(+ Brown maid is the Queen of Sheba.)
ONE PAIR MORE.
LOVE is indeed a glorious prize!
What fairer guerdon meets our eyes?--Though neither wealth nor power are thine, A very hero thou dost shine.
As of the prophet, they will tell, Wamik and Asia's tale as well.--They'll tell not of them,--they'll but give Their names, which now are all that live.
The deeds they did, the toils they proved No mortal knows! But that they loved This know we.Here's the story true Of Wamik and of Asia too.
1827.
LOVE's torments sought a place of rest,Where all might drear and lonely be;They found ere long my desert breast,And nestled in its vacancy.
1827.
IV.TEFKIR NAME.
BOOK OF CONTEMPLATION.
FIVE THINGS.
WHAT makes time short to me?
Activity!
What makes it long and spiritless?
'Tis idleness!
What brings us to debt?
To delay and forget!
What makes us succeed?
Decision with speed How to fame to ascend?
Oneself to defend!
1814
FOR woman due allowance make!
Form'd of a crooked rib was she,--By Heaven she could not straightened be.
Attempt to bend her, and she'll break;
If left alone, more crooked grows madam;
What well could be worse, my good friend, Adam?--For woman due allowance make;
'Twere grievous, if thy rib should break!
1819.
FIRDUSI (Speaks).
OH world, with what baseness and guilt thou art rife!
Thou nurtures, trainest, and illest the while.
He only whom Allah doth bless with his smile Is train'd and is nurtured with riches and life.
1819.
SULEIKA (Speaks).
THE mirror tells me, I am fair!
Thou sayest, to grow old my fate will be.
Nought in God's presence changeth e'er,--Love him, for this one moment, then, in me.
1819.
V.RENDSCH NAME
BOOK OF GLOOM.
IT is a fault oneself to praise,And yet 'tis done by each whose deeds are kind;And if there's no deceit in what he says,The good we still as good shall find.
Let, then, ye fools, that wise man tasteOf joy, who fancies that he s wise, That he, a fool like you, may wasteTh' insipid thanks the world supplies.
1816.
VI.HIKMET NAME.
BOOK OF PROVERBS.
CALL on the present day and night for nought, Save what by yesterday was brought.
THE sea is flowing ever, The land retains it never.
BE stirring, man, while yet the day is clear;The night when none can work fast Draweth near.
WHEN the heavy-laden sigh, Deeming help and hope gone by, Oft, with healing power is heard, Comfort-fraught, a kindly word.
How vast is mine inheritance, how glorious and sublime!
For time mine own possession is, the land I till is time!
UNWARY saith,--ne'er lived a man more true;The deepest heart, the highest head he knew,--"In ev'ry place and time thou'lt find availing Uprightness, judgment, kindliness unfailing."
THOUGH the bards whom the Orient sun bath bless'd Are greater than we who dwell in the west, Yet in hatred of those whom our equals we find.
In this we're not in the least behind.
WOULD we let our envy burst,Feed its hunger fully first!
To keep our proper place,We'll show our bristles more;With hawks men all things chase,Except the savage boar.
BY those who themselves more bravely have fought A hero's praise will be joyfully told.
The worth of man can only be taught By those who have suffer'd both heat and cold.
"WHEREFORE is truth so far from our eyes, Buried as though in a distant land?"None at the proper moment are wise!
Could they properly understand,Truth would appear in her own sweet guise, Beauteous, gentle, and close at hand.
WHY these inquiries make,Where charity may flow?
Cast in the flood thy cake,--Its eater, who will know?
ONCE when I a spider had kill'd,Then methought: wast right or wrong?
That we both to these times should belong, This had God in His goodness willed.
MOTLEY this congregation is, for, lo!
At the communion kneel both friend and foe.
IF the country I'm to show, Thou must on the housetop go.
A MAN with households twainNe'er finds attention meet, A house wherein two women reignIs ne'er kept clean and neat.
BLESS, thou dread Creator,Bless this humble fane;Man may build them greater,--More they'll not contain.
LET this house's glory rise,Handed to far ages down,And the son his honour prize.
As the father his renown.
O'ER the Mediterranean seaProudly hath the Orient sprung;Who loves Hafis and knows him, heKnows what Caldron hath sung.
IF the ass that bore the SaviourWere to Mecca driven, heWould not alter, but would be Still an ass in his behavior.
THE flood of passion storms with fruitless strife'Gainst the unvanquished solid land.--It throws poetic pearls upon the strand, And thus is gain'd the prize of life.
WHEN so many minstrels there are,How it pains me, alas, to know it!
Who from the earth drives poetry far?
Who but the poet!
VII.TIMUR NAME.
BOOK OF TIMUR.
THE WINTER AND TIMUR.
So the winter now closed round them With resistless fury.Scattering Over all his breath so icy, He inflamed each wind that blithe To assail them angrily.
Over them he gave dominion To his frost-unsharpened tempests;Down to Timur's council went he, And with threat'ning voice address'd him:--"Softly, slowly, wretched being!
Live, the tyrant of injustice;
But shall hearts be scorch'd much longer By thy flames,--consume before them?
If amongst the evil spirits Thou art one,--good! I'm another.
Thou a greybeard art--so I am;
Land and men we make to stiffen.
Thou art Mars! And I Saturnus,--Both are evil-working planets, When united, horror-fraught.
Thou dost kill the soul, thou freezes E'en the atmosphere; still colder Is my breath than thine was ever.
Thy wild armies vex the faithful With a thousand varying torments;Well! God grant that I discover Even worse, before I perish!
And by God, I'll give thee none.
Let God hear what now I tell thee!
Yes, by God! from Death's cold clutches Nought, O greybeard, shall protect thee, Not the hearth's broad coalfire's ardour, Not December's brightest flame."1814.
