Darius, for all his thousands of servants and thanes, alone
Had to depart and abandon the chattels he deemed his
own.
For the world is a thievish game, from which no man may
save
Himself, be he Sultan or subject; his goods, be he master
or slave.
^10. That is the day when all men the guerdon they've earned
shall win;

The just the fruits of his justice, the tyrant his wage of
sin.
In the sight of the Holy Martyrs, in the midst of that
fierce dismay,
Will I grasp the robe of Zahrá * on that fearful Judgement
Day,
And God, the Judge Almighty, shall avenge to the full the
woes
I have suffered so long at the hands of the House of the
Prophet's foes.'

“How can the Heavens rest on thee bestow,
When they themselves nor pause nor peace may know?
This world's the ladder to that world, O Friend;
To mount, thou needs must climb it to the end.
In these two roofs, one whirling and one still, *
Behold that Secret-knowing Power and Skill;
How, unconstrained, in one harmonious whole
He blended Matter gross and subtle Soul;
How He did poise this dark stupendous Sphere
In Heaven's hollow dome of emerald clear.
What say'st thou? ‘Endlessly recurring day
And month at last shall wear that dome away!’
Nay, for he hath exempted from such wear
The circling Sky, the Water, and the Air.
^20. The canvas of His Art are Time and Place;
Hence Time is infinite, and boundless Space. *
Should'st thou object, ‘Not thus the Scriptures tell,’
I answer that thou hast not conned them well.
And o'er the Scriptures is a Guardian set
From whom both man and jinn must knowledge get.
God and His Prophet thus desired: but No!
You ‘much prefer the views of So-and-so.’
Thy meat in man begetteth human power;
To dog-flesh turns the meat that dogs devour.”

“Were the turns of the Wheel of Fortune proportioned to
worth alone
O'er the Vault of the Lunar Heaven would have been my
abode and throne.
But no! For the worth of Wisdom is lightly esteemed in
sooth,
By fickle Fate and Fortune, as my father warned me in
youth.
Yet knowledge is more than farms, and estates, and rank,
and gold;
Thus my dauntless spirit, whispering, me consoled:
‘With a heart more brightly illumined than ever the Moon
can be
What were a throne of glory o'er the Sphere of the Moon
to thee?’
To meet the foeman's falchion and Fate's close-serried
field
Enough for me are Wisdom and Faith as defence and
shield.

^30. My mind with its meditations is a fair and fruitful tree,
Which yieldeth its fruit and blossom of knowledge and
chastity.
Would'st thou see me whole and completed? Then look,
as beseems the wise,
At my essence and not my seeming, with keen and dis-
cerning eyes.
This feeble frame regard not; remember rather that I
Am the author of works which outnumber and outshine
the stars in the sky.
God, to whose name be glory! me hath exempted and freed
In this troubled life of transit from the things that most
men need.
I thank the Lord Almighty, who plainly for me did trace
The way to Faith and Wisdom, and opened the Door of
Grace,
And who, in His boundless mercy, in this world hath made
me one
Whose love for the Holy Household is clear as the noon-
day sun.

O dark and ignoble body, never on earth have I seen
A fellow-lodger so hurtful as thee, or a mate so mean !
Once on a time my lover and friend I accounted thee,
And thou wast my chosen comrade in travel by land and
sea.
But fellest of foes I found thee, spreading thy deadly
snare
To entrap me, whilst I of thy scheming was heedless and
unaware,
Till finding me all unguarded, and free from all fear of
guile,
You strove to take me captive by treachery base and vile.
^40. And surely, but for the Mercy of God and His Gracious
Will,
Thy rascally schemes had wrought me a great and endur-
ing ill.
But not the sweetest nectar could tempt me now, for I
know
What to expect at the hands of so fierce and deadly a foe.
Sleep, O senseless body, and food are thy only care,
But to me than these is Wisdom better beyond compare!
'Tis the life of a brute, say the sages, to dream but of
water and grass,
And shall I, who am dowered with reason, live the life of
a soulless ass?
I will not dwell, O Body, with thee in this World of Sense;
To another abode God calls me, and bids me arise from
hence.
There are talent and virtue esteemed, not food and sleep;
Then enjoy thy food and slumber, and let me my virtue
keep!
Ere me from their earthly casings uncounted spirits have
fled,
And I, though long I linger, may be counted already dead.
Through the lofty vault of Ether with the wings of
obedience I
One day shall soar to the heavens as the sky-lark soars to
the sky.
Fearful of God's Fore-knowledge, quaking at God's Decree,
Is the mass of my fellow-creatures, yet these are as guides
to me:
‘Speak of the first as “Reason,” call the latter “the Word”’—
Such was the explanation that I from a wise man heard.

^50. Being myself in essence a rational, logical soul,
Why should I fear myself? Shall the Part be in fear of
the Whole?
O man who dost rest contented to claim the Determinist's
view,
Though you lack a brute's discernment, must I lack dis-
cernment too?”

“Bear from me to Khurásán, Zephyr, a kindly word,
To its scholars and men of learning, not to the witless
herd,
And having faithfully carried the message I bid thee bear,
Bring me news of their doings, and tell me how they fare.
I, who was once as the cypress, now upon Fortune's wheel
Am broken and bent, you may tell them; for thus doth
Fortune deal.
Let not her specious promise you to destruction lure:
Ne'er was her covenant faithful; ne'er was her pact secure.

Look at Khurásán only: she is crushed and trodden still
By this one and then by that one, as corn is crushed in
the mill.
You boast of your Turkish rulers:¹ * remember the power
and sway
Of the Záwulí Sulṭán Maḥmúd * were greater far in their
day.
The Royal House of Faríghún * before his might did bow,
And abandon the land of Júzján; * but where is Maḥmúd
now?

'Neath the hoofs of his Turkish squadrons the glory of
India lay,
While his elephants proudly trampled the deserts of far
Cathay.

And ye, deceived and deluded, before his throne did sing:
‘More than a thousand summers be the life of our Lord
the King!
Who, on his might relying, an anvil of steel attacks,
Findeth the anvil crumble under his teeth like wax!’
The goal of the best was Záwul, as it seems, but yesterday,
Whither they turned, as the faithful turn to Mecca to pray.
Where is the power and empire of that King who had
deemed it meet
If the heavenly Sign of Cancer had served as a stool for
his feet?
Alas! Grim Death did sharpen against him tooth and claw,
And his talons are fallen from him, and his teeth devour
no more!

Be ever fearful of trouble when all seems fair and clear,
For the easy is soon made grievous by the swift-transform-
ing sphere.
Forth will it drive, remorseless, when it deemeth the time
at hand,
The King from his Court and Castle, the lord from his
house and land.
^70. Ne'er was exemption granted, since the Spheres began to
run,
From the shadow of dark eclipses to the radiant Moon
and Sun.
Whate'er seems cheap and humble and low of the things
of earth
Reckon it dear and precious, for Time shall lend it worth.
Seek for the mean in all things, nor strive to fulfil your
gain,
For the Moon when the full it reacheth is already about
to wane.