Story

(OF THE PHYSICIAN AND THE PEASANT).

A peasant one night could not sleep from an ache
In his side. A physician who practised there spake :
"From his habit of eating vine leaves this ache springs;
'Twill be strange, if the night to a finish he brings!
For a Tartar's hard arrow-head, stuck in the chest,
Is better than eating what will not digest.

In a twist of the gut should a morsel be caught,'
The whole of the life of the fool comes to naught."
It occurred that the doctor expired that same night;
Forty years have elapsed and the swain is all right.

Story

(OF THE ASS'S SKULL).

The unfortunate ass of a villager died;

He its skull as a charm to a vine sapling tied.

An experienced old man chanced to pass near the head; To the vineyard protector he, smiling, thus said:

"Oh life of your father! don't think this ass' bone,

Can the evil eye drive from the field you have sown!

For the stick from his own head and ears, though he tried, He repelled not, and helpless and wounded he died.

What knows the physician of people diseased,

Since he himself, helpless, by Death will be seized."

Story

(OF THE LOST DINĀR).

A Dinar, I have heard, from a needy man fell,
And the poor fellow searched all around for it well.
His head in despair he averted at last;

It was found by another, unsought for, who passed.
With good and bad fortune the pen travelled round,
And we in the womb of the mother still bound.
Mankind by their strength daily food do not eat,
For the strong, the most needy, you often will meet !

Story

(OF THE FATHER CHASTISING HIS SON).

With a stick an old man beat his son on the head;
"I am guiltless, oh father! don't beat me!" he said;
At the harshness of men I can weep before you ;
But if you treat me harshly what then can I do?”
The possessor of wisdom to God sends his cry,
But does not complain of the Maker on high.

Story

(OF THE BEGGAR AND HIS WIFE).

A fortunate person, whose name was Bakhtyar,1
Was exalted in rank and had wealth on a par.

Bakhtyar, a man's name. It means fortunate.

He alone possessed money and stores in the place ;
All the others were poor and showed grief in their face.
A woman presumed with her husband to fight,
Because he came home empty-handed at night.

"Like you," she exclaimed, "there's no poor, blighted thing!
Like the wasp, you are only possessed of a sting!
From your neighbours some manliness try to acquire!
For at any rate, I'm not a wife without hire.
Gold and silver and property others possess ;
Why don't you, like them, smiling Fortune caress?"
The pure-hearted man in a woollen robe dressed,
Like a drum, brought a cry from his desolate breast:
"No power have I over things that exist;

With your fingers, the strong hand of Fate do not twist!
On my hand of selecting, the Fates placed a bar,
Else I'd have created myself a Bakhtyar."

1

Story

(OF THE POOR MAN AND HIS UGLY WIFE).

A man who in Kish1 suffered poverty's yoke, To his vile-visaged wife, thus, with truthfulness spoke : "Since ugly is writ by Fate's hand on your face,

On your cheeks void of beauty, rose-pink do not place!' Who is able to master good fortune by might?

To the eyes of the blind, who with salve can give sight? Good works the malevolent never have shown,

And union 'mong dogs is a thing quite unknown.

The whole of the Sages of Greece and of Rome,

Could not honey extract from the thorny Zakom."

Kish, an island at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, shaped like a quiver. Kish means a quiver.

2

Zakom, a thorny tree, from the fruit of which an oil is extracted.

A wild beast is not likely to change into man;
Instruction is lost on it, strive as you can.
One can polish a mirror that rusty has grown,
But a mirror can never be made out of stone.
Effort makes not a rose from a willow to grow;
A warm-bath will not whiten a negro like snow.
Since nought can the arrow of destiny brave,
Resignation's the shield that is left to God's slave.

Story

(OF THE VULTURE AND THE KITE).

?"

In this manner a vulture conversed with a kite : "No bird has like me such a far-reaching sight." "We must settle this point!" said the kite, in reply. "On the desert's expanse, tell me what you can spy I have heard that a day's journey distant, or so, He looked from above on the desert below; And said, "I can see, if you credit the feat, That on yonder vast plain there is one grain of wheat!" The kite was of patience bereft, from surprise;

They directed their heads to the plains from the skies.
When the vulture arrived at the grain on the ground,
In a long, stretching snare he was twisted and bound.
From eating that grain he was little aware,

That Fate would entangle his neck in a snare.
Not always in pearl shells are pearls found to lie ;

An archer can't always transfix the bull's eye.

Said the kite, "What acquire you from seeing that grain, When no sight of the snare of your foe you obtain ?"

I have heard that he said, with his neck in the noose,

Against Fate's decrees, caution proves of no use."

When Death caused his hand for his murder to rise,
Fate instantly darkened his clear seeing eyes.
In a sea where the opposite coast is concealed,
The swimmer's proud boast will no benefit yield.

Story

(OF THE GOLD-CLOTH WEAVER'S APPRENTICE).

How nicely a weaver's apprentice did state—
While sketching giraffes, birds and elephants great-
"A single design does not come from my hand,
That the 'Teacher above' has not previously planned."
If your outward appearance be hideous, or fine,
Has it not been portrayed by the Artist Divine?
In this person some hid infidelity see,

Who declares, "Zaid1 afflicted and Omar smote me."
If the Lord of command will vouchsafe to you eyes,
Not again will you see Zaid and Omar arise.
If a man remain silent, I do not suppose

That his means of subsistence the Maker will close.
May the Maker of Earth keep it open for thee!
If He closes food's portal it cannot ope'd be.

Story

(OF THE CAMEL AND HER COLT).

The colt of a camel its mother addressed

After trav'lling, "Oh, come! for a time let us rest!"

1 Zaid and Omar are fictitious persons who figure in Mohamedan literature, and refer to creatures in contradistinction to the Creator.