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6
4423-4472

  • The office (business) that veils me from (the sight of) thy face is the very essence of unemployment, though it is called ‘office.’
  • The cause of (his) delay in coming hither was lack of capability and defect of skill.”
  • (If) you go into a mine without (having) capability, you will not gain possession of a single grain (of gold), 4425
  • Tanquam vir veneri inhabilis qui virginem emit: ea, etsi pectus argenteum (candidum) sit, frui quo pacto poterit? [Like an impotent man who buys a virgin (for a slave): even if she is a silver-breasted (beauty), how can he enjoy (her sexually)?]
  • (The incapable man is) like a lamp without oil or wick that gets neither much nor little from the (flaming) taper.
  • (If) one who cannot smell enter a garden, how should his brain (nose) be delighted by the fragrant herbs?—
  • Tanquam formosa et venusta hospita viri debilis; (and) like the sound of a harp or lute in the ears of the deaf; [Like a beautiful (and) charming woman (who is) the guest of a feeble (impotent) man; (and like) the sound of a harp or lute in the ears of the deaf;]
  • (And) like the land-bird that falls into great waters: what should it find there but death and perdition? 4430
  • (And) like one who, having no wheat, goes to a mill: nothing will be given to him except the whitening of his beard and hair (with flour).
  • The celestial mill bestows on those who have no wheat (only) whiteness of hair and weakness in the loins;
  • But on those who bring wheat with them this mill bestows empire and gives them sovereign power.
  • You must first be qualified for Paradise in order that from Paradise the (everlasting) life may be born to you.
  • What pleasure has the new-born child in wine and roast-meat and palaces and domes? 4435
  • These parables have no limit: do not seek (more) words (of this kind): go and acquire capability!
  • (The announcer said), “He tarried until now for the sake of capability (qualification), (but) ere it was acquired his longing burst (all) bounds.”
  • He (the prince) said, “Capability too is imparted by the King: how should the body be made capable without (the intervention of) the soul?”
  • (Then) the favours of the King did away with his anguish: he had gone to hunt the King: he became the King's prey.
  • (The announcer said), “Whosoever goes in chase of a quarry like thee does not catch his quarry till he is himself caught.” 4440
  • ’Tis certain that every seeker of princedom is thrown into captivity before (he gains) it.
  • Know that what is depicted on this mundane frontispiece is preposterous: every slave to the world is named “lord of the world.”
  • O wrong-thinking perversely-acting body, thou that hast enthralled a hundred thousand freemen,
  • Abandon this guileful plotting for a time: live free a few moments ere thou die;
  • For if, like the (heavily-laden) ass, thou hast no way of attaining to freedom, thy movement, like that of the bucket, can only be (down) into the well. 4445
  • Go, take leave of my spirit for awhile: go, seek another companion instead of me.
  • My turn is finished: set me free, espouse another, (beguile) some one else.
  • O body with thy hundred (worldly) concerns, bid me farewell: thou hast taken my life: (now) seek another (victim).
  • How a cadi was infatuated with the wife of Júhí and remained (hidden) in a chest, and how the cadi's deputy purchased the chest; and how next year (when) Júhí's wife came again, hoping to play the same trick (which had succeeded) last year, the cadi said (to her), “Set me free and seek some one else”; and so on to the end of the story.
  • Every year, on account of poverty, Júhí would artfully turn to his wife and say, “O sweetheart,
  • Since thou hast the weapons, go, catch some game in order that we may get milk (profit) from thy prey. 4450
  • Wherefore has God given thee the bow of thine eyebrow, the arrow of thy amorous glance, and the snare of thy craftiness? For hunting.
  • Go, lay the snare for a big bird: show the bait, but do not let him eat it.
  • Show him his wish, but disappoint him: how can he eat the bait when he is imprisoned in the snare?”
  • His wife went to the cadi to complain, saying, “I appeal (to thee) for help against my faithless husband.”
  • (To) cut the tale short, the cadi fell a prey to the (pleading) words and beauty of the fair woman. 4455
  • He said, “There is such a noise in the court of justice (that) I cannot understand this complaint;
  • (But) if you will come to my private house, O cypress-slender one, and describe to me the injurious behaviour of your husband”—
  • “In thy house,” she replied, “there will be a (constant) coming and going of every sort of people, good and bad, for the purpose of making complaints.”
  • (If) the house of the head be wholly filled with a mad passion, the breast will be full of anxiety and commotion.
  • The rest of the (bodily) members are undisturbed by thinking, while those breasts are consumed by thoughts that return. 4460
  • Take refuge in the autumn gale of fear of God: let last year's flowers be shed;
  • (For) these flowers prevent the new buds (from blossoming), and it is (only) for the sake of their growth that the tree of the heart exists.
  • Put thyself to sleep (and escape) from this (vain) thinking: (then) lift up thy head from sleep into (spiritual) wakefulness.
  • Like the Men of the Cave (the Seven Sleepers), pass quickly, O Khwája, into (the state of those who are) awake, though thou wouldst deem them asleep.
  • “O adorable one,” said the cadi, “what can be contrived?” She answered, “This (thy) handmaid's house is quite empty. 4465
  • The enemy has gone into the country, and the caretaker is not there either: it is a very good place for meeting in private.
  • Come there to-night if possible: what one does by night is (done) without (the intention of) making (people) hear of it or see it;
  • (At that time) all the spies are intoxicated with the wine of sleep: all have been beheaded (and left as though lifeless) by the negro, Night.”
  • The sugar-lipped (damsel) chanted wondrous spells over the cadi—and then with what (bewitching) lips!
  • How often did Iblís palaver with Adam!—but when Eve told him to eat, then (and not till then) did he eat. 4470
  • The first blood (shed) in this world of iniquity and justice was shed by Qábíl (Cain) for the sake of a woman.
  • Whenever Noah was frying meat in the frying-pan, Wáhila (his wife) would throw stones at the frying-pan,