IV. Another Jewish King, Persecutor of Christians.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana and Redhouse, James W. (James William), Sir
A second Jewish king, descendant of the first,
To persecute the Christians showed hate’s fiercest thirst.
If information’s sought about this wicked king,
That chapter of the Qur’ān read: “Heaven’s Girdle-Ring.”121
A sorry rite it was the first had introduced;
With cruel zeal this wicked rite the last abused.
The introducer of a rule that tends to ill,
Draws on his head deep curses, morn and even, still.
The good decease; their bright example serves as guide;
The wicked soon decay; their name all men deride.5
The children of those sinners, till the trump of doom,
Are cursed as soon as born; no lot more full of gloom.
How many springs burst forth, one salt, the other sweet;
Their savour changes, while the days and nights compete.
The good are promised their inheritance aloft,
Of waters sweet;122 in Scripture mentioned oft and oft.123
The seeker’s wish, if rightly we consider it,
A scintillation is of flame from holy writ.
No flame exists apart from body whence it burns;
Where’er the burning body hies, the flame, too, turns.10
A window-light will wander all around a room;
Because the rising sun to sunset tends, and gloom.
That which to any constellation’s stars pertains,
Must move with it, rise, set, south, as its place ordains.
The man who under Venus’ influence was born
Is joyous, amorous, ambitious, with greed torn.
If Mars his planet be, his temper’s bellicose;
War, scandal, litigation,—these he most does choose.
But other stars there are, the planets, seven, beside;
And unto men from them nor good, nor ills betide.15
Revolving in another firmament than they,
Above the spheres that bear the orbs of night and day.
Bright through the moral splendour lent them by the Lord;
Not bound together quite, nor yet in disaccord.
The man whose soul is influenced by one of those,
Like meteors, still shall drive away the spirit’s foes.
His disposition feeleth not the rage of Mars;
He temporises;—meekly acts in prosperous wars.
His light’s triumphant;—darkness it shall never know.
Between two fingers holdeth he the truth, I trow.20