46
If all the thanks I speak come short of that which is your due, Say for whom else my verse and prose I make except for you?
You have indeed prevented me with many an unasked boon, Blest me, unhindered of excuse, with favours not a few.
How then should I omit to give your praise its full desert And celebrate with heart and voice your goodness ever new?
I will indeed proclaim aloud the boons I owe to you, Favours, that, heavy to the back, are light the thought unto.
And also the following:
Avert thy face from trouble and from care And trust in God to order thine affair.
Rejoice in happy fortune near at hand, In which thou shalt forget the woes that were.
Full many a weary and a troublous thing Is, in its issue, solaceful and fair.
God orders all according to His will: Oppose Him not in what He doth prepare.
And these also:
Trust thine affairs to the Subtle, to God that knoweth all, And rest at peace from the world, for nothing shall thee appal.
Know that the things of the world not, as thou wilt, befall, But as the Great God orders, to whom all kings are thrall!
And lastly these:
Take heart and rejoice and forget thine every woe, For even the wit of the wise is eaten away by care.
What shall thought-taking profit a helpless, powerless slave? Leave it and be at peace in joy enduring fore’er!
When he had finished, the King said to him, “Dost thou know why I have sent for thee?” And the physician answered, “None knoweth the hidden things save God the Most High.” Quoth the King, “I have sent for thee to kill thee and put an end to thy life.” Douban wondered greatly at these words and said, “O King, wherefore wilt thou kill me and what offence have I committed?” “I am told,” replied Younan, “that thou art a spy and comest to kill me, but I will kill thee first.” Then he cried out
