Page 379 of 1116

Then I gave thanks to Allah and said, "My eye and not my life!"

and before leaving the place I entered the bath and shaved my

poll and beard and mustachios and eyebrows; and cast ashes on my

head and donned the coarse black woollen robe of a Kalandar. Then

I fared forth, O my lady, and every day I pondered all the

calamities which had betided me, and I wept and repeated these

couplets:-

"I am distraught, yet verily His ruth abides with me, * Tho'

round me gather hosts of ills, whence come I cannot see: Patient

I'll be till Patience self with me impatient wax; * Patient for

ever till the Lord fulfil my destiny: Patient I'll bide without

complaint, a wronged and vanquisht man; * Patient as sunparcht

wight that spans the desert's sandy sea: Patient I'll be till

Aloe's[FN#254] self unwittingly allow * I'm patient under

bitterer things than bitterest aloe: No bitterer things than

aloes or than patience for mankind, * Yet bitterer than the twain

to me were Patience' treachery: My sere and seamed and seared

brow would dragoman my sore * If soul could search my sprite and

there unsecret secrecy: Were hills to bear the load I bear they'd

crumble 'neath the weight, * 'Twould still the roaring wind,

'twould quench the flame-tongue's flagrancy, And whoso saith the

world is sweet certes a day he'll see * With more than aloes'

bitterness and aloes' pungency."