The conquering, foe-subjugating Ameer,
Full of wisdom and sense, his reply stated clear.
I have heard that a man at the conference said:
"Oh perfection of goodness! you've erred on this head!" The magnanimous lion raged not at the man,
But replied, "State it better than this, if you can!"
He explained what he knew in an elegant way-
It becomes not to hide the sun's splendour with clay-
The monarch of men liked his lucid reply,
Saying, "He is correct, and in error was I.
He better explained; and the Maker is one!
And knowledge more noble than His there is none."
Had you been a person of rank in those days,
From hauteur you would not have deigned him a gaze.
Your slaves would have quickly expelled him the hall,
And beaten him down, for no reason at all;
Saying, "Do not hereafter disgracefully walk!
It is rude in the presence of nobles to talk!
If in any one's head self-conceit should appear,
Do not fancy that always the truth he will hear.
From his learning comes grief; at advice shame is shown-
Rain cannot cause tulips to spring from a stone—
Don't you see that from Earth, which humility shows,
The spring season comes and the rose blossom blows.
Oh, philosopher, scatter your pearls not too free,
When the buyer stuffed full of himself you can see!
A person seems little in other men's eyes,
Who to publish his greatness continually tries.
Do not lecture that thousands of thanks you may gain! When you've eulogized self, hope in others is vain!
Story of Omar, Commander of the Faithful.
Saint Omar,1 I've heard, in a rough, narrow road,
On a poor beggar's instep by accident trode.
Who he was, the poor beggar distressed did not know,
For a sufferer knows not a friend from a foe.
"You surely are blind!" in a passion, he cried.
Saint Omar, the chief of the just, thus replied:
"I'm not blind; yet a fault I've committed to-day,
Without my intending; forgive me! I pray."
What judges the chiefs of religion were then,
Since they acted like this towards poor, subject men.
In the man choosing wisdom, humility's found;
The branch bearing fruit bends its head to the ground.
Those who practise abasement are happy at last;
The heads of the haughty from shame are downcast.
If concerning the day of account you have fear,
Overlook the defects of those dreading you here!
By oppression, oh Brave! make not subjects repine !
For a hand, too, exists that is higher than thine.
(OF THE GOOD MAN SEEN IN A DREAM).
A beneficent man who a good nature had,
Spoke kindly of people whose natures were bad.
After death, by a man in a dream he was seen,
Who said, "Kindly tell what your trials have been ?"
1 Omar, a descendant of the Prophet.
A mouth like a rose, smiling sweetly, ope'd wide;
In a voice like the nightingale's notes, he replied:
"They did not address me with harshness of tone,
For harshness to any I never had shown."
Story of Zunun of Egypt.
(ON HIM BE MERCY!)
I thus recollect that the clouds did not deign
For the space of a year upon Egypt to rain.
To the mountainous regions a multitude fled;
Lamenting and praying for showers they sped.
They wept, and from weeping the tears, flood-like, fell,
In the hope that the sky would perchance weep, as well.
One of these, to Zunun 1 the intelligence bore,
That the people were grieved and distressed very sore.
"For those in affliction, do thou intercede,
Since the words of the righteous avail when there's need."
I have heard that Zunun to Medain quickly ran,
And very soon after the raining began.
The news to Medaina in twenty days crept,
That the black-hearted clouds on the people had wept. The old man soon resolved to return back again, For the pools were all filled by the torrents of rain. A pious man, privately, asked on this head : "In your going, what virtue existed ? " He said: “I had heard that on birds, ants and animals, all, Through the deeds of the wicked, great hardships would fall.
1 Zunun, Zu-al-nun, Abul-Fazl, an Egyptian saint.
2 Medain, Medaina, where Mohamed died,
In this land, I have thought of it well in my mind,
And a man more distressed than myself, could not find.
I hurried away, lest through my sinful state,
On the face of the crowd had been shut welfare's gate."
By your own fellow men you'll be highly esteemed,
When yourself as of little account you have deemed.
To the great man who reckoned his merits as small,
In this world and the next will supremacy fall.
From this Earth went the Slave1 in a sanctified state,
Who before his inferiors was humble in gait.
Oh thou wandering over my ashes, take care!
By the dust of the holy, in memory bear!
That if changed into dust why should Sádi be sad,
Since in life he abundant humility had?
Unresisting his body to dust he resigned,
Although he had circled the world, like the wind.
In a very short time, Earth will make him its own,
And then by the wind through the world he'll be blown.
Observe: Since the garden of meaning upsprung,
So sweetly as this, not a Bulbul has sung
'Twould be strange were a nightingale such to take wing, And a rose from the bones of his corpse not to spring.
1 Slave here means a servant of God.
2 Bulbul, a nightingale.
I was burning the oil of reflection one night,
And Rhetoric's lamp I had kindled up bright.
To my sayings a frivolous talker gave ear;
Save expressing approval, no way he saw clear.
From a word, too, detracting, he could not refrain,
For groaning unconsciously rises from pain:
"His thoughts are mature and his judgment is nice,
On the topics of piety, mystics, advice;
Not on spears, iron maces, and truncheons of weight,
For these are fit subjects for others to state."
He knows not that I have no liking for fight,
Else to speak on these matters my pow'r is not slight.
The sword of the tongue I can draw from its case,
And a world of grandiloquence quickly efface.
Come, let us this topic of war undertake!
For the head of the foe a stone-pillow I'll make.
On Patience, Resignation, and Submission to the
Felicity dwells in God's favour alone;
In war and the arm of the strong, it's unknown.
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