Monday, June 28, 2010

EPIGRAM ON EBN NAPHTA-WAH

BY MOHAMMED BEN ZEID ALMOTAKALAM.

Translated into English Verse by J. D. Carlyle, BD



[In order to understand Ben Zeid's Charade. we must remark that, in Arabic, Naphta signifies a combustible not very much unlike our gunpowder, and that Wah is an exclamation of sorrow.]

By the former with ruin and death we are curst;
   In the latter we grieve for the ills of the first;
 And as for the whole where together they meet,
   It's a drunkard, a liar, a thief, and a cheat.
  

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