V. The Lion and the Beasts.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana and Redhouse, James W. (James William), Sir
A well there was not far off, which the hare had seen.
This pit he destined for the lion’s last death-scene.
They journeyed thus, the two, towards the well in haste,
The scheming, plotting hare’s fell stratagem to taste.
A stream of water freely bears the chaff away;
But how it undermines a mountain’s hard to say.
All single-handed, Moses,—Red Sea at command,—
Can drown pursuing Pharaoh’s vast ungodly band.
A gnat, by God’s behest, a Nimrod may annul;
Its feeble wings may burst the sutures of his skull.164305
The doom of him who acts on what a foe adjusts,
Is like the end of one his envier who trusts.
The punishment of Pharaoh’s listening to Haman,165
Resembles Nimrod’s, who faith pinned upon Satan.166
A foe who talks in friendly guise, a false game plays;
He vaunts the bait; but be thou sure, a trap he lays.
His proffered sugarcandy poison will conceal.
His seeming kindly offices are treachery’s veil.
Should God ordain thy fall, thy sight will blinded be;
’Twixt friend and foe the difference thou’lt fail to see.310
Since thus it is, betimes betake thyself to prayer;
Fast, supplicate, entreat thee gracious God to spare.
Thus pray: “O Thou, to whom all secrets well are known,
Crush not Thy trusting servant ’neath sore trial’s stone.
If doglike acts I’ve acted, Thou who lions formest,
O let not loose upon me lions Thou informest.
O Lord of mercy, Pardoner of sin, All-just,
Upon me vengeance wreak not, or succumb I must.
Cause not Thy pleasant waters me to burn like fire;
Let not the fiery furnace form of stream acquire.315
If Thou me madden with the vials of dismay,
Thou’lt make nonentities the parts of things to play.”
What’s madness? ’Tis a bandage to the eye of faith.
A stone we see as pearl, an island as a frith.
What’s madness? False to judge of every stick and straw.
To seek the violet’s perfume in hip and haw.
One day, when Solomon a camp had formed afield,
The birds all flocked around him, homage due to yield.
They found he spake their language, all their secrets knew.
With pleasure, birds of every kind about him flew.320