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    "endpoint": "/api/sources/sufism/saadi-gulistan/05-chapter-v-love-and-youth.json"
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  "work": {
    "slug": "saadi-gulistan",
    "name": "Gulistan (Saadi)"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "sufism",
      "name": "Sufi Poets",
      "url": "/sources/sufism/"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 6,
    "slug": "05-chapter-v-love-and-youth",
    "title": "Chapter V: Love and Youth",
    "of": 9,
    "words": 6145,
    "text": "## Chapter V: Love and Youth\n\n\nON LOVE AND YOUTH\n\n Story 1\n\n Hasan Maimundi was asked that, as the Sultan Mahmud possesses so\nmany beautiful slaves, each of whom is a marvel in the world, how it\nhappens that he manifests towards none of them so much inclination and\nlove as to Iyaz, although he is not more handsome than the others.\nHe replied: 'Whatever descends into the heart appears good to the\neye.'\n\n He whose murid' the sultan is\n If he does everything bad, it will be good.\n But he whom the padshah throws away\n Will not be cared for by anyone in the household.\n\n If anyone looks with an unfavourable eye\n Even the figure of Joseph will indicate ugliness\n And if he looks with the eye of desire on a demon,\n He will appear an angel, a cherub in his sigh].\n\n Story 2\n\n It is said that a gentleman possessed a slave of exquisite beauty,\nwhom he regarded with love and affection. He nevertheless said to a\nfriend: 'Would that this slave of mine, with all the beauty and good\nqualities he possesses, had not a long and uncivil tongue!' He\nreplied: 'Brother, do not expect service, after professing friendship;\nbecause when relations between lover and beloved come in, the\nrelations between master and servant are superseded':\n\n When a master with a fairy-faced slave\n Begins to play and to laugh\n What wonder if the latter coquets like the master\n And the gentleman bears it like a slave?\n\n A slave is to draw water and make bricks.\n A pampered slave will strike with the fist.\n\n Story 3\n\n I saw a religious man, who had fallen in love with a fellow to\nsuch a degree that he had neither strength to remain patient nor to\nbear the talk of the people but would not relinquish his attachment,\ndespite of the reproaches he suffered and the grief he bore, saying:\n\n I shall not let go my hold of thy skirt\n Even if thou strike me with a sharp sword.\n After thee I have no refuge nor asylum.\n To thee alone I shall flee if I flee.\n\n I once reproached him, asking him what had become of his exquisite\nintellect so that it had been overcome by his base proclivity. He\nmeditated a while and then said:\n\n 'Wherever love has become sultan\n Piety's arm has no strength left.\n How can a helpless fellow live purely\n Who has sunk up to his neck in impurity?'\n\n Story 4\n\n One had lost his heart and bidden farewell to his life because the\ntarget which he aimed at was in a dangerous locality, portending\ndestruction and no chance promising a morsel easily coming to the\npalate nor a bird falling into the trap.\n\n When thy sweetheart's eye has no regard for gold\n Mud and gold are of equal value to thee.\n\n I once advised him to abandon his aspiration to a fancy impossible\nof realization because many persons are enslaved by the same passion\nlike himself, the feet of their hearts being in chains. He lamented\nand said:\n\n 'Tell my friends not to give me advice\n Because my eyes are fixed on her wishes.\n By the strength of fist and shoulders warriors\n Slay enemies but sweethearts a friend.'\n\n It is against the requirements of love to renounce affection to\nour sweethearts for fear of losing our lives.\n\n Thou who art a slave to thy selfishness\n Art mendacious in the game of love.\n If there be no way to reach the friend\n Friendship demands to die in pursuit of it.\n\n I rise as no other source is left to me\n Though the foe may smite me with arrow and sword.\n If chance serves me I shall take hold of her sleeve.\n Or else I shall go and die on her threshold.\n\n His friends, who considered his position, pitied his state, gave him\nadvice and at last confined him but all to no purpose.\n\n Alas, that the physician should prescribe patience,\n Whereas this greedy lust requires sugar.\n\n Hast thou heard that the mistress secretly\n Told him who had lost his heart:\n 'As long as thou possessest thy own dignity,\n What will mine amount to in thy eyes?'\n\n It is related that the royal prince who was the object of his\naffection had been informed to the effect that a good-natured and\nsweet-spoken youth was constantly attending on the plain, uttering\ngraceful words; and strange tales having been heard of him, it\nappeared that his heart is inflamed and that he has a touch of\ninsanity in his head. The boy knew that his heart had become\nattached to him and that he had raised this dust of calamity.\nAccordingly he galloped towards him. When the youth perceived the\nprince approaching him, he we and said:\n\n 'He who has slain me has come back again.\n It seems his heart burns for him whom he has slain.'\n\n Although he accosted the youth graciously, asking him whence he came\nand what his occupation was, he was so plunged in the depths of the\nocean of love that he could not breathe:\n\n If thou recitest the seven portions of the lesson by heart,\n When thou art demented by love thou knowest not the A, B, C.\n\n The prince said: 'Why speakest thou not to me? I also belong to\nthe circle of dervishes; nay I am even in their service.' In\nconsequence of the force of the friendly advances of his beloved, he\nraised his head from the dashing waves of love and said:\n\n 'It is a marvel that with thy existence mine remains\n That when thou speakest words to me remain.'\n\n Saying these words he uttered a shout and surrendered his life.\n\n It would not be strange if he had been slain at his tent door\n But it would be strange that if alive he should escape safe.\n Story 5\n\n A schoolboy was so perfectly beautiful and sweet-voiced that the\nteacher, in accordance with human nature, conceived such an\naffection towards him that' he often recited the following verses:\n\n I am not so little occupied with thee, O heavenly face,\n That remembrance of myself occurs to my mind.\n From thy sight I am unable to withdraw my eyes\n Although when I am opposite I may see that an arrow comes.\n\n Once the boy said to him: 'As thou strivest to direct my studies,\ndirect also my behaviour. If thou perceivest anything reprovable in my\nconduct, although it may seem approvable to me, inform me thereof that\nI may endeavour to change it.' He replied: 'O boy, make that request\nto someone else because the eyes with which I look upon thee behold\nnothing but virtues.'\n\n The ill-wishing eye, be it torn out\n Sees only defects in his virtue.\n But if thou possessest one virtue and seventy faults\n A friend sees nothing except that virtue.\n\n Story 6\n\n I remember that one night a dear friend of mine entered when I\njumped up in such a heedless way that the lamp was extinguished by\nmy sleeve. A vision appeared in the night and by its appearance the\ndarkness was illuminated.\n\n I was amazed at my luck exclaiming whence this felicity?\n\n He took a seat and began reproving me saying that when I beheld\nhim I extinguished the lamp. I said: 'I thought the sun had risen\nand wits have said:\n\n When an ugly person comes before the lamp\n Arise to him and pull him into the assembly\n But if it be a sugar-smiled, sweet-lipped one\n Pull him by the sleeve and extinguish the lamp.'\n\n Story 7\n\n One who had for a considerable time not seen his friend asked him\nwhere he had been and said he had been longing. He replied: 'To be\nlonging is better than to be satisfied.'\n\n Thou hast come late, O intoxicated idol,\n We shall not soon let go thy skirt from the hand.\n He who sees his sweetheart at long intervals\n Is after all better off than if he sees too much of her.\n\n When thou comest with friends to visit me\n Although thou comest in peace thou art attacking.\n\n If my sweetheart associates one moment with strangers\n It wants but little and I die of jealousy.\n She said smiling: 'I am the lamp of the assembly, O Sa'di,\n What is it to me if a moth kills itself?'\n\n Story 8\n\n I remember how in former times I and another friend kept company\nwith each other like two almond kernels in one skin. Suddenly a\nseparation took place but after a time, when my companion returned, he\ncommenced to blame me for not having sent him a messenger during it. I\nreplied: 'I thought it would be a pity that the eyes of a messenger\nshould be brightened by thy beauty and I deprived thereof.'\n\n Tell my old friend not to give me advice with the tongue\n Because even a sword will not compel me to repent.\n I am jealous that anyone should see thee to satiety.\n Again I say that no one will be satiated.\n\n Story 9\n\n I knew a learned man who had fallen in love with someone but his\nsecret having fallen from the veil of concealment into publicity, he\nendured abundant persecution and displayed boundless patience. I\nsaid once to him by way of consolation: 'I know thou entertainest no\nworldly motive nor inclination for baseness. It is nevertheless\nunbecoming the dignity of a scholar to expose himself to suspicions\nand to bear the persecutions of mannerless persons.' He replied: 'O\nfriend, take off the hand of reproach from my skirt because I have\noften meditated on the opinion which thou entertainest but have\nfound it easier to bear persecution for his sake than not to see\nhim; and philosophers have said that it is easier to accustom the\nheart to strife, than to turn away the eye from seeing the beloved.\n\n Who has his heart with a heart-ravisher\n Has his beard in another's hand.\n A gazelle with a halter on the neck\n Is not able to walk of its own accord.\n If he, without whom one cannot abide,\n Becomes insolent it must be endured.\n I one day told him to beware of his friend\n But I often asked pardon for that day.\n A friend does not abandon a friend.\n I submit my heart to what he wills.\n Whether he kindly calls me to himself\n Or drives me away in anger he knows best.\n\n Story 10\n\n In the exuberance of youth, as it usually happens and as thou\nknowest, I was on the closest terms of intimacy with a sweetheart\nwho had a melodious voice and a form beautiful like the moon just\nrising.\n\n He, the down of whose cheek drinks the water of immortality,\n Whoever looks at his sugar lips eats sweetmeats.\n\n I happened to notice something in his behaviour which was contrary\nto nature and not approved of by me. Accordingly I gathered up my\nskirt from him and, picking up the pieces of the chess-game of\nfriendship, recited:\n\n 'Go and do as thou listest.\n Thou hast not our head; follow thine.'\n\n I heard him saying when he went away:\n\n 'If the bat desires not union with the sun\n The beauty of the sun will not decrease.'\n\n Saying this, he departed and his distress took effect on me:\n\n I lost the time of union and man is ignorant\n Of the value of delightful life before adversity.\n\n Return. Slay me. For to die in thy presence\n Is more sweet than to live after thee.\n\n Thanks be to the bounty of God, he returned some time afterwards but\nhis melodious voice had changed, his Joseph like beauty had faded,\non the apple of his skin dust had settled as upon a quince so that the\nsplendour of his beauty had departed. He wanted me to embrace him. I\ncomplied and said:\n\n 'On the day when thou hadst a beauteous incipient beard\n Thou drovest him, who desired the sight, from thy sight.\n Today thou camest to make peace with him\n But hast exhibited Fathah and Zammah.\n\n His fresh spring is gone and he has become yellow.\n Bring not the kettle because our fire is extinguished.\n How long wilt thou strut about, showing arrogance,\n Imagining felicity which has elapsed?\n Go to him who will purchase thee.\n Coquet with him who asks for thee.\n\n They said: \"Verdure in the garden is pleasing.\"\n He knows it who utters these words.\n Namely, heartfelt affection for that green line\n Fascinates the hearts of lovers more and more.\n Thy garden is a bed of leeks.\n The more thou weedest it the more they grow.\n\n Whether thou pluckest out thy beard or not\n This happiness of youthful days must end.\n Had I the power of life as thou of the beard\n I would not let it end till resurrection-day.\n\n I asked and said: What has befallen the beauty of thy face\n That ants are crawling round the moon?\n He replied, smiling: \"I know not what is the matter\n with my face.\n Perhaps it wears black as mourning for my beauty.\"'\n\n Story 11\n\n I asked one of the people of Baghdad what he thought of beardless\nyouths. He replied: 'There is no good in them for when one of them\nis yet delicate and wanted he is insolent; but when he becomes rough\nand is not wanted he is affable.'\n\n When a beardless youth is beautiful and sweet\n His speech is bitter, his temper hasty.\n When his beard grows and he attains puberty\n He associates with men and seeks affection.\n\n Story 12\n\n One of the ullemma had been asked that, supposing one sits with a\nmoon-faced beauty in a private apartment, the doors being closed,\ncompanions asleep, passion inflamed, and lust raging, as the Arab\nsays, the date is ripe and its guardian not forbidding, whether he\nthought the power of abstinence would cause the man to remain in\nsafety. He replied: 'If he remains in safety from the moon-faced\none, he will not remain safe from evil speakers.'\n\n If a man escapes from his own bad lust\n He will not escape from the bad suspicions of accusers.\n\n It is proper to sit down to one's own work\n But it is impossible to bind the tongues of men.\n\n Story 13\n\n A parrot, having been imprisoned in a cage with a crow, was vexed by\nthe sight and said: 'What a loathsome aspect is this! What an odious\nfigure! What cursed object with rude habits! 0 crow of separation,\nwould that the distance of the east from the west were between us.'\n\n Whoever beholds thee when he rises in the morning\n The morn of a day of safety becomes evening to him.\n An ill-omened one like thyself is fit to keep thee company\n But where in the world is one like thee?\n\n More strange still, the crow was similarly distressed by the\nproximity of the parrot and, having become disgusted, was shouting 'La\nhaul', and lamenting the vicissitudes of time. He rubbed the claws\nof sorrow against each other and said: 'What ill-luck is this? What\nbase destiny and chameleonlike times? It was befitting my dignity to\nstrut about on a garden-wall in the society of another crow.\n\n 'It is sufficient imprisonment for a devote\n To be in the same stable with profligates.\n\n 'What sin have I committed that I have already in this life, as a\npunishment for it, fallen into the bonds of this calamity in company\nwith such a conceited, uncongenial and heedless fool?'\n\n No one will approach the foot of the wall\n Upon which they paint thy portrait.\n If thy place were in paradise\n Others would select. hell.\n\n I have added this parable to let thee know that no matter how much a\nlearned man may hate an ignorant man the latter hates him equally.\n\n A hermit was among profligates\n When one of them, a Balkhi beauty, said:\n 'If thou art tired of us sit not sour\n For thou art thyself bitter in our midst.'\n\n An assembly joined together like roses and tulips!\n Thou art withered wood, growing in its midst,\n Like a contrary wind and unpleasant frost,\n Like snow inert, like ice bound fast.\n\n Story 14\n\n I had a companion with whom I had travelled for years and eaten\nsalt. Boundless intimacy subsisted between us till at last he suffered\nmy mind to be grieved for the sake of some paltry gain and our\nfriendship closed. Despite of an this, however, mutual attachment of\nheart still subsisted between us because I heard him one day\nreciting in an assembly the following two distichs of my composition:\n\n When my sweetheart enters sweetly smiling\n She adds more salt to my bleeding wound.\n How would it be if the tip of her curls fell into my hand\n Like the sleeve of the bountiful into the hands of dervishes?\n\n Some friends bore witness not so much to the gracefulness of these\nverses as to the beauty of my conduct which they approved; and among\nthe rest, the said friend likewise added his share of praise,\nregretting the loss of our former companionship and confessing his\nfault so that his affection became known. Accordingly I sent the\nfollowing distichs and made peace:\n\n Was not there a covenant of friendship between us?\n Thou hast been cruel and not loving.\n I once tied my heart to thee, disregarding the world.\n Not knowing thou wouldst turn back so soon.\n If thou yet desirest conciliation, return\n Because thou wilt be more beloved than before.\n\n Story 15\n\n The beautiful wife of a man died but her mother, a decrepit old hag,\nremained in the house on account of the dowry. The man saw no means of\nescaping from contact with her until a company of friends paid him a\nvisit of condolence and one of them asked him how he bore the loss\nof his beloved. He replied: 'It is not as painful not to see my wife\nas to see the mother of my wife.'\n\n The rose has been destroyed and the thorn remained.\n The treasure has been taken and the serpent left.\n It is better that one's eye be fixed on a spear-head\n Than that it should behold the face of an enemy.\n It is incumbent to sever connection with a thousand friends\n Rather than to behold a single foe.\n\n Story 16\n\n I remember having in the days of my youth passed through a street,\nintending to see a moon-faced beauty. It was in Temuz, whose heat\ndried up the saliva in the mouth and whose simum boiled the marrow\nin my bones. My weak human nature being unable to endure the scorching\nsun, I took refuge in the shadow of a wall, wishing someone might\nrelieve me from the summer heat and quench my fire with some water;\nand lo, all of a sudden, from the darkness of the porch of a house a\nlight shone forth, namely a beauty, the grace of which the tongue of\neloquence is unable to describe. She came out like the rising dawn\nafter an obscure night or the water of immortality gushing from a dark\ncavern, carrying in her hand a bowl of snow-water, into which sugar\nhad been poured and essence of roses mixed. I knew not whether she had\nperfumed it with rose-water or whether a few drops from her rosy\nface had fallen into it. In short, I took the beverage from her\nbeautiful hands, drank it and began to live again.\n\n The thirst of my heart cannot be quenched\n By sipping limpid water even if I drink oceans of it.\n\n Blessed is the man of happy destiny whose eye\n Alights every morning on such a countenance.\n One drunk of wine awakens at midnight,\n One drunk of the cupbearer on the morn of resurrection.\n\n Story 17\n\n In the year when Muhammad Khovarezm Shah concluded peace with the\nking of Khata to suit his own purpose, I entered the cathedral\nmosque of Kashgar and saw an extremely handsome, graceful boy as\ndescribed in the simile:\n\n Thy master has taught thee to coquet and to ravish hearts,\n Instructed thee to oppose, to dally, to blame and to be severe.\n A person of such figure, temper, stature and gait\n I have not seen; perhaps he learnt these tricks from a fairy.\n\n He was holding in his hand the introduction to Zamaksharni's\nArabic syntax and reciting: Zaid struck Amru and was the injurer of\nAmru. I said: 'Boy! Khovarezm and Khata have concluded peace, and\nthe quarrel between Zaid and Amru still subsists!' He smiled and asked\nfor my birthplace. I replied: 'The soil of Shiraz.' He continued:\n'What rememberest thou of the compositions of Sa'di?' I recited:\n\n 'I am tired by a nahvi who makes a furious attack\n Upon me, like Zaid in his opposition to Amru.\n When Zaid submits he does not raise his head\n And how can elevation subsist when submission is the regent?\n\n He considered awhile and then said: 'Most of his poetry current in\nthis country is in the Persian language. If thou wilt recite some,\nit will be more easily understood.' Then I said:\n\n 'When thy nature has enticed thee with syntax\n It blotted out the form of intellect from our heart.\n Alas, the hearts of lovers are captive in thy snare.\n We are occupied with thee but thou with Amru and Zaid.'\n\n The next morning, when I was about to depart, some people told him\nthat I was Sa'di, whereon he came running to me and politely expressed\nhis regret that I had not revealed my identity before so that he might\nhave girded his loins to serve me in token of the gratitude due to the\npresence of a great man.\n\n In spite of thy presence no voice came to say: I am he.\n\n He also said: 'What would it be if thou wert to spend in this\ncountry some days in repose that we might derive advantage by\nserving thee?' I replied: 'I cannot on account of the following\nadventure which occurred to me:\n\n I beheld an illustrious man in a mountain region\n Who had contentedly retired from the world into a cave.\n Why, said I, comest thou not into the city\n For once to relax the bonds of thy heart?\n He replied: 'Fairy-faced maidens are there.\n When clay is plentiful, elephants will stumble.'\n\n This I said. Then we kissed each other's heads and faces and took\nleave of each other.\n\n What profits it to kiss a friend's face\n And at the same time to take leave of him?\n Thou wouldst say that he who parts from friends is an apple.\n One half of his face is red and the other yellow.\n\n If I die not of grief on the day of separation\n Reckon me not faithful in friendship.\n\n Story 18\n\n A man in patched garments' accompanied us in a caravan to the\nHejaz and one of the Arab amirs presented him with a hundred dinars to\nspend upon his family but robbers of the Kufatcha tribe suddenly\nfell upon the caravan and robbed it clean of everything. The merchants\nbegan to wail and to cry, uttering vain shouts and lamentations.\n\n Whether thou implorest or complainest\n The robber will not return the gold again.\n\n The dervish alone had not lost his equanimity and showed no\nchange. I asked: 'Perhaps they have not taken thy money?' He\nreplied: 'Yes, they have but I was not so much accustomed to that\nmoney that separation therefrom could grieve my heart':\n\n The heart must not be tied to any thing or person\n Because to take off the heart is a difficult affair.\n\n I replied: 'What thou hast said resembles my case because, when I\nwas young, my intimacy with a young man and my friendship for him were\nsuch that his beauty was the Qiblah of my eye and the chief joy of\nmy life union with him':\n\n Perhaps an angel in heaven but no mortal\n Can be on earth equal in beauty of form to him.\n I swear by the amity, after which companionship is illicit,\n No human sperm will ever become a man like him.\n\n All of a sudden the foot of his life sank into the mire of\nnon-existence. The smoke of separation arose from his family. I kept\nhim company on his grave for many days and one of my compositions on\nhis loss is as follows:\n\n Would that on the day when the thorn of fate entered thy foot\n The hand of heaven had struck a sword on my head;\n So that this day my eye could not see the world without thee.\n Here I am on thy grave, would that it were over my head.\n\n He who could take neither rest nor sleep\n Before he had first scattered roses and narcissi.\n The turns of heaven have strewn the roses of his face.\n Thorns and brambles are growing on his tomb.\n\n After separation from him I resolved and firmly determined to fold\nup the carpet of pleasure during the rest of my life and to retire\nfrom mixing in society:\n\n Last night I strutted about like a peacock in the garden of union\n But today, through separation from my friend, I twist my head like\n a snake.\n The profit of the sea would be good if there were no fear of waves.\n The company of the rose would be sweet if there were no pain from\n thorns.\n\n Story 19\n\n A king of the Arabs, having been informed of the relations\nsubsisting between Laila and Mejnun, with an account of the latter's\ninsanity, to the effect that he had in spite of his great\naccomplishments and eloquence, chosen to roam about in the desert\nand to let go the reins of self-control from his hands; he ordered him\nto be brought to his presence, and this having been done, he began\nto reprove him and to ask him what defect he had discovered in the\nnobility of the human soul that he adopted the habits of beasts and\nabandoned the society of mankind. Mejnun replied:\n\n 'Many friends have blamed me for loving her.\n Will they not see her one day and understand my excuse?'\n\n Would that those who are reproving me\n Could see thy face, O ravisher of hearts,\n That instead of a lemon in thy presence\n They might heedlessly cut their hands.\n\n That the truth may bear witness to the assertion: This is he for\nwhose sake ye blamed me.\n\n The king expressed a wish to see the beauty of Laila in order to\nascertain the cause of so much distress. Accordingly he ordered her to\nbe searched for. The encampments of various Arab families having\nbeen visited, she was found, conveyed to the king and led into the\ncourtyard of the palace. The king looked at her outward form for\nsome time and she appeared despicable in his sight because the meanest\nhandmaids of his harem excelled her in beauty and attractions. Mejnun,\nwho shrewdly understood the thoughts of the king, said: 'It would have\nbeen necessary to look from the window of Mejnun's eye at the beauty\nof Laila when the mystery of her aspect would have been revealed to\nthee.'\n\n If the record of the glade which entered my ears\n Had been heard by the leaves of the glade they would\n have lamented with me.\n O company of friends, say to him who is unconcerned\n 'Would that thou knewest what is in a pining heart\n\n Who are healthy have no pain from wounds.\n I shall tell my grief to no one but a sympathizer.\n It is useless to speak of bees to one\n Who never in his life felt their sting.\n As long as thy state is not like mine\n My state will be but an idle tale to thee.\n\n Story 20\n\n It is related that the qazi of Hamdan, having conceived affection\ntowards a farrier-boy and the horseshoe of his heart being on fire, he\nsought for some time to meet him, roaming about and seeking for\nopportunities, according to the saying of chroniclers:\n\n That straight tall cypress my eyes beheld\n It robbed me of my heart and threw me down.\n Those wanton eyes have taken my heart with a lasso.\n If thou desirest to preserve thy heart shut thy eyes.\n\n I was informed that the boy, who had heard something of the qazi's\npassion, happening to meet him in a thoroughfare, manifested immense\nwrath, assailed the qazi with disrespectful and insulting words,\nsnatched up a stone and left no injury untried. The qazi said to an\nullemma of repute who happened to be of the same opinion with him:\n\n 'Look at that sweetheart and his getting angry,\n And that bitter knot of his sweet eyebrow.'\n\n The Arab says: 'A slap from a lover is a raisin.\n\n A blow from the hand on the mouth\n Is sweeter than eating bread with one's own hand.\n\n In the same way the boy's impudence might be indicating kindness\nas padshahs utter hard words whilst they secretly wish for peace:\n\n Grapes yet unripe are sour.\n Wait two or three days, they will become sweet.\n\n After saying these words he returned to his court of justice,\nwhere some respectable men connected with him kissed the ground of\nservice and said: 'With thy permission we shall, doing obeisance,\nspeak some words to thee although they may be contrary to politeness\nbecause illustrious men have said:\n\n It is not permissible to argue on every topic.\n To find fault with great men is wrong.\n\n 'But as in consequence of favours conferred by thy lordship in\nformer times upon thy servants it would be a kind of treachery to\nwithhold the opinion they entertain, they inform thee that the\nproper way is not to yield to thy inclinations concerning this boy but\nto fold up the carpet of lascivious desires because thy dignity as\nqazi is high and must not be polluted by a base crime. The companion\nthou hast seen is this, and our words thou hast heard are these:\n\n One who has done many disreputable things\n Cares nothing for the reputation of anyone.\n Many a good name of fifty years\n Was trodden under foot by one bad name.\"\n\n The qazi approved of the unanimous advice of his friends and\nappreciated their good opinion as well as their steadfast fidelity,\nsaying that the view taken by his beloved friends on the arrangement\nof his case was perfectly right and their arguments admitting of no\ncontradiction. Nevertheless:\n\n Although love ceases in consequence of reproval\n I heard that just men sometimes concoct falsehoods.\n\n Blame me as much as thou listest\n Because blackness cannot be washed off from a negro.\n\n Nothing can blot out my remembrance of thee.\n I am a snake with broken head and cannot turn.\n\n These words he said and sent some persons to make inquiries about\nhim, spending boundless money because it is said that whoever has gold\nin his hand possesses strength of arm and he who has no worldly\ngoods has no friends in the whole world:\n\n Whoever has seen gold droops his head,\n Although he may be hard to bend like iron-backed scales.\n\n In short, one night he obtained privacy but during that night the\npolice obtained information that the qazi is spending the whole of\nit with wine in his hand and a sweetheart on his bosom, enjoying\nhimself, not sleeping, and singing:\n\n Has this cock perhaps not crowed at the proper time this night\n And have the lovers not had their fill of embrace, and kiss\n Whilst alas for only a moment the eye of confusion is asleep?\n Remain awake that life may not elapse in vain\n Till thou hearest the morning call from the Friday-mosque\n Or the noise of kettle-drums on Atabek's palace-gate.\n Lips against lips like the cock's eye\n Are not to part at the crowing of a silly cock.\n\n Whilst the qazi was in this state one of his dependants entered\nand said: 'Arise and run as far as thy feet will carry thee because\nthe envious have not only obtained a handle for vexation but have\nspoken the truth. We may, whilst the fire of confusion is yet\nburning low, perchance extinguish it with the water of stratagem but\nwhen it blazes up high it may destroy a world.' The qazi, however,\nreplied:\n\n 'When the lion has his claws on the game\n What boots it if a jackal makes his appearance?\n Keep thy face on the face of the friend and leave\n The foe to chew the back of his own hand in rage.'\n\n The same night information was also brought to the king that in\nhis realm such a wickedness had been perpetrated and he was asked what\nhe thought of it. He replied: 'I know that he is one of the most\nlearned men, and I account him to be the paragon of our age. As it\nis possible that enemies have devised a plot against him, I give no\ncredit to this accusation unless I obtain ocular evidence because\nphilosophers have said:\n\n He who grasps the sword in haste\n Will repenting carry the back of his hand to his teeth and bite it.'\n\n I heard that at dawn the king with some of his courtiers arrived at\nthe pillow of the qazi, saw a lamp standing, the sweetheart sitting,\nthe wine spilled, the goblet broken and the qazi plunged in the\nsleep of drunkenness, unaware of the realm of existence. The king\nawakened him gently and said: 'Get up for the sun has risen.' The\nqazi, who perceived the state of affairs, asked: 'From what\ndirection?' The sultan was astonished and replied: 'From the east as\nusual.' The qazi exclaimed: 'Praise be to Allah! The door of\nrepentance is yet open because according to tradition the gate Of\nrepentance will not be locked against worshippers till the sun rises\nin its setting place.'\n\n These two things impelled me to sin:\n My ill-luck and my imperfect understanding.\n If thou givest me punishment I deserve it\n And if thou forgivest pardon is better than revenge.\n\n The king replied: 'As thou knowest that thou must suffer capital\npunishment, it is of no use to repent. But their faith availed them\nnot after they had beholden our vengeance.\n\n 'What is the use to promise to forego thieving\n When a lasso cannot be thrown up to the palace?\n Say to the tall man: \"Do not pluck the fruit\",\n For he who is short cannot reach the branch.\n\n 'For thee, who hast committed such wickedness, there is no way of\nescape.' After the king had uttered these words, the men appointed for\nthe execution took hold of him, whereon he said: 'I have one word more\nto speak in the service of the sultan.' The king, who heard him,\nasked: 'What is it?' And he recited:\n\n 'Thou who shakest the sleeve of displeasure upon me\n Expect not that I shall withdraw my hand from thy skirt.\n If escape be impossible from this crime which I committed\n I trust to the clemency which thou possessest.'\n\n The king replied: 'Thou hast adduced this wonderful sally and hast\nenounced a strange maxim but it is impossible according to reason\nand contrary to usage that thy accomplishments and eloquence should\nthis day save thee from the punishment which I have decreed; and I\nconsider it proper to throw thee headlong from the castle that\nothers may take an example.' He continued: 'O lord of the world, I\nhave been nourished by the bounty of this dynasty, and this crime\nwas not committed only by me in the world. Throw another man\nheadlong that I may take the example.' The king burst out laughing,\npardoned his crime and said to his dependents who desired the qazi\nto be slain:\n\n 'Everyone of you who are bearers of your own faults\n Ought not to blame others for their defects.'\n\n Story 21\n\n A virtuous and beauteous youth\n Was pledged to a chaste maiden.\n I read that in the great sea\n They fell into a vortex together.\n When a sailor came to take his hand,\n Lest he might die in that condition,\n He said in anguish from the waves:\n 'Leave me. Take the hand of my love.'\n Whilst saying this, he despaired of life.\n In his agony he was heard to exclaim:\n 'Learn not the tale of love from the wretch\n Who forgets his beloved in distress.'\n Thus the lives of the lovers terminated.\n Learn from what has occurred that thou mayest know\n Because Sa'di is of the ways and means of love affairs\n Well aware in the Arabian city of Baghdad.\n Tie thy heart to the heart-charmer thou possessest\n And shut thy eye to all the rest of the world.\n If Mejnun and Laila were to come to life again\n They might indite a tale of love on this occurrence.",
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