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The mirage is their lustre of teeth, and to their eyes The horror of all darkness the kohl that keeps them bright.
My crime against them (hateful their nature is!) is but The sword’s crime, when the sworder sets on into the fight.
Then he sobbed and said:
O thou that seeketh the worthless world, give ear to me and know The very net of ruin it is and quarry of dole and woe;
A stead, whom it maketh laugh to-day, to-morrow it maketh weep: Out on it then for a dwelling-place, since it is even so!
Its raids and its onsets are never done, nor can its bondsman win To free himself from its iron clutch by dint of stress and throe.
How many an one in its vanities hath gloried and taken pride, Till froward and arrogant thus he grew and did all bounds o’ergo!
Then did she[1] turn him the buckler’s back and give him to drink therein Full measure and set her to take her wreak of the favours she did show.
For know that her blows fall sudden and swift and unawares, though long The time of forbearance be and halt the coming of fate and slow.
So look to thyself, lest life in the world pass idle and profitless by, And see that thou fail not of taking thought to the end of all below.
Cast loose from the chains of the love and the wish of the world and thou shalt find Guidance and help unto righteousness and peace of heart, I trow.
When he had made an end of these verses, he clipped his brother in his arms, till they seemed as it were one body, and the treasurer, raising his sword, was about to strike them, when, behold, his horse took fright at the wind of his upraised hand and breaking its tether, fled into the desert. Now the horse was worth a thousand dinars and on his back was a splendid saddle, worth much money: so the treasurer threw down his sword, in great concern, and ran after him, to catch him. Night ccxxiii.The horse galloped on, snorting and neighing and pawing the earth in his fright, till he raised a cloud of dust, and presently coming to a wood, fled into the midst of it, whither
- ↑ i.e. fortune. The word dunya (world) is constantly used in poetry to signify “fortune” or “the fortune of this world.”
