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5
2855-2879

  • There is in the world a green island where a sweet-mouthed cow lives alone. 2855
  • She feeds on the whole field till nightfall, so that she grows stout and big and choice.
  • During the night she becomes thin as a hair from anxiety, because she thinks, “What shall I eat to-morrow?”
  • At rise of dawn the field becomes green: the green blades and grain have grown up to (a man's) middle.
  • The cow falls to ravenously: till night she feeds on that (vegetation and devours it) entirely.
  • Again she becomes stout and fat and bulky: her body is filled with fat and strength. 2860
  • Then again at night she (is stricken) by panic (and) falls into a fever (of anxiety), so that from fear of seeking (vainly) for fodder she becomes lean,
  • Thinking, “What shall I eat to-morrow at meal-time?” This is what that cow does for (many) years.
  • She never thinks, “All these years I have been eating from this meadow and this pasture;
  • My provender has never failed (even) for a day: what, (then), is this fear and anguish and heart-burning of mine?”
  • (No); when night falls that stout cow becomes lean again, thinking, “Alas, the provender is gone.” 2865
  • The cow is the carnal soul, and the field is this world, where she (the carnal soul) is made lean by fear for her daily bread,
  • Thinking, “I wonder what I shall eat in the future: whence shall I seek food for to-morrow?”
  • Thou hast eaten for years, and food has never failed: leave the future and look at the past.
  • Bring to mind the food and viands thou hast eaten (already): do not regard what is to come, and do not be miserable.
  • How the lion made the ass his prey, and being thirsty after his exertions went to the spring to drink. Before his return the fox had eaten the liver together with the lungs, heart, and kidneys, which are the choicest parts. The lion looked for the heart and liver, and when he did not find them asked the fox where they were. The fox replied, “If he had possessed a heart and liver, how should he have come back to thee after receiving such a stern lesson on that day and (only) saving his life by means of a thousand devices?” “If we had hearkened or considered with understanding we should not have been among the fellows of Hell-fire.”
  • The little fox brought the ass into the presence of the lion: the courageous lion tore him to pieces. 2870
  • The King of the Beasts was made thirsty by his exertions and went to the spring to drink some water.
  • Meanwhile the little fox, having got an opportunity, ate his (the ass's) liver, lungs, and heart.
  • When the lion returned from the spring to eat (his prey), he looked in the ass to find the heart, (but) there was neither heart nor liver.
  • He said to the fox, “Where is the liver? What has become of the heart?—for no animal can do without these two (organs).”
  • He (the fox) replied, “If he had possessed a heart or liver, how should he have come here a second time? 2875
  • He had experienced that tremendous agony and turmoil, the scramble down the mountain, the terror, and the flight;
  • If he had had a liver or heart, how could he have come a second time into thy presence?”
  • When there is no light in the heart, ’tis no heart; when there is no spirit (in the body), ’tis naught but earth.
  • The (heart resembling) glass that hath no spiritual light is (like) urine and the urine-phial: do not call it a lamp.