V. The Lion and the Beasts.
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Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana and Redhouse, James W. (James William), Sir
His daily ration ready always should be found;
And he should have no cause to trespass on their ground.
Lots they would cast among themselves from day to day.
On whom the lot should fall, he’d be the lion’s prey.
But lo, at length the lot upon the hare did light.
He found it very hard, and wailed his awful plight.
The other beasts remarked: “We each have had our turn;
And none of us refused th’ agreement to confirm.
By breach of faith on us fresh infamy bring not.
Begone forthwith; the lion must not be forgot.”105
The hare replied: “Dear friends, a respite to me grant.
A stratagem I’ll plan, and cheat this grim tyrant.
My wily plan shall save the souls of all alive;
And safety heirloom be your children shall derive.
Thus every prophet’s promised to his sect, at least,
Salvation from the doom o’erhanging man and beast.
They found a ready way to ’scape beyond the spheres,
So soon as to reflect they turned their minds from fears.
Man sees another’s eye is but a wee, wee thing;
He knows how great a service can th’ eye’s pupil bring.”110
The beasts in answer: “Jackass! Prate to us no more.
Consider. Thou’rt a hare; a beast of no great store.
What talk is this? Thy betters ne’er have used such speech.
They never would have dared to think as thou dost preach.
It must be thou’rt o’erweening, or our fate’s at hand.
For otherwise, pretensions such as thine can’t stand.”
To them as a rejoinder puss spoke: “My dear friends,
My inspiration’s God’s; small means effect great ends.
The wisdom God hath taught the little honey-bee,
You do not find possessed by lion, or by me.115
We see its cells arranged, with liquid sweetness filled,
The portals of such art to open God hath willed.
Then see the silkworm, how it’s taught by God to spin.
Have elephants the power to draw out threads so thin?
The earthy Adam was by God taught all our names.150
His knowledge was the admiration of heaven’s frames.
Th’ angelic choir were silenced; they knew not so much.
The fiend be cursed. He’d not confess the fact was such.
That fasting hermit of six hundred thousand years151
Became the new-born babe’s dire muzzle,—source of tears.120